Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi,
My hypotheses is "If a person listens to music they like while doing homework then their concentration and performance will improve because they are stimulated."
I am testing people by giving them a series of multiplication tests. Each time they take a test, they are listening to a different type of music or no music at all. A favorite song and a song from a least favorite genre are included. Once I have all my data, I will look for patterns to see if there is a connection between performance on the math tests and the type of music played during the test.
I think that some people will get better at the tests from taking more (so they will do worse on first one and best on last one). But they might also get worse if they get tired of testing (so do best on the first one and worse on last one). Is there anything I can do when testing them to deal with this? Or to make it more fair?
Thank you for your help.

Hi there!
Cool project!! Sounds like that's going to be an interesting one for you to analyze!

As far as "fairness goes", I see what you mean, but unfortunately, there isn't a sure way that you can help with this. Every project has its "what if's", and the best thing for you to do is to include this in your discussion and conclusion write-up. Every good scientist includes what are called "testing-limitations" or "possible error". Including this doesn't mean you're a bad scientist, but actually means just the contrary. It shows that you thought critically enough about the project that you thought about all the possible ways you could make it better, which is a good thing!
You could try to give them as little tests as possible to reduce possibility of tiredness, (10 questions with music, 10 questions without) but then you'll need to be sure to test a lot more people.

Hope this helps!
let me know if you have more questions.

Stay Nerdy!
lmp1341

Hello Heydano,

I agree with all the suggestions from the previous expert. I do have a couple of questions about how you are administering the tests.

First, Are you testing each person individually or in a group?

Second, are you testing each person at each music type in the same order? For example, is everyone tested at the no music first?

Third, is everyone tested for the same songs, or does that depend on their personal preference?

A couple of suggestions:

If you haven't done the testing yet, I suggest that you be sure to keep track of the order for each test, as well as the music used. Depending on how you administered the tests, it might be possible to "sort out" some information relative to your question about some people getting better vs some people getting tired!

If you haven't started your testing, and IF you have enough people, you might want to subdivide your subjects in to groups and then change the order of the music/no music for each group. In the first group, "no music" would be first, then type 1, then type 2. In the second group, the order could be type 1, no music, type 2, etc. (This will depend on how you picked your songs!)

This sounds complicated - if you still have time and want to try it, let us know and we can help!

Madeline