SPSS Data Analysis Tasks and Questions

Answered

Task 1: Intervention to Improve Reading Fluency

An educational psychologist wanted to investigate the effectiveness of a new intervention for spelling and word decoding problems in children experiencing reading difficulties in primary school. Twenty-five children from six local primary schools were recommended for inclusion on the programme by the special needs assistant (SNA) in each school. The children attended an after-school reading-writers’ workshop 2 times a week for 10 weeks. Prior to the programme, the children were administered the Gray Oral Reading Test, Fifth Edition (GORT-5: Bryant & Wiederholt, 2011) to assess reading fluency. At the end of the 10-week programme the children were tested again. Rate, Accuracy, Fluency, and Comprehension are reported as raw scores. The Fluency Score which is a combination of the student’s Rate and Accuracy Scores are set out below. Higher scores indicate a higher level of reading fluency.

Enter the associated data into SPSS and answer the below questions

Participant ID	Pre GORT-5 Score	Post GORT-5 Score
1	49	51
2	53	53
3	48	53
4	51	54
5	48	54
6	50	55
7	49	56
8	54	56
9	53	57
10	55	59
11	57	64
12	59	60
13	55	61
14	57	62
15	54	63
16	61	65
17	58	65
18	62	67
19	55	68
20	56	68
21	59	69
22	58	69
23	61	70
24	60	68
25	60	68

a. Formally state the null hypothesis and the research (alternative) hypothesis for this research scenario. (2 marks)

b. State the independent variable (name its levels) and the dependent variable (2 marks)

c. Identify a potential extraneous variable for this study and propose how the researchers may control for it in the research scenario (3 marks)

d. Conduct all the relevant tests of assumptions and report in full. (5 marks)

e. Present an APA table of descriptive statistics and chart to illustrate the data and facilitate interpretation. (5 marks)

f. Conduct the appropriate main analysis and report the results in full. (8 marks)

A psychologist is interested in the effect of a new sedative on reaction times (RT) as she was concerned it may negatively impact driving performance. A total of 40 participants aged between 35 and 75 years were randomised into two groups: Group A (n = 20) received a placebo (a substance or treatment which is designed to have no therapeutic value), group B (n = 20) received the new sedative drug. Participants in both groups were instructed to take their drug and one hour later had to react on a simple visual stimulus test that captures automatic reactions to stimuli. The RT scores are set out in the table below. Higher scores indicate better performance.

Enter the associated data into SPSS and answer the below questions

Participant ID	Drug Condition	RT
1	Placebo	120
2	Placebo	139
3	Placebo	142
4	Placebo	144
5	Placebo	158
6	Placebo	165
7	Placebo	171
8	Placebo	178
9	Placebo	244
10	Placebo	245
11	Placebo	256
12	Placebo	267
13	Placebo	268
14	Placebo	290
15	Placebo	135
16	Placebo	137
17	Placebo	133
18	Placebo	243
19	Placebo	270
20	Placebo	271
21	Sedative	131
22	Sedative	138
23	Sedative	138
24	Sedative	141
25	Sedative	142
26	Sedative	142
27	Sedative	143
28	Sedative	145
29	Sedative	156
30	Sedative	167
31	Sedative	191
32	Sedative	230
33	Sedative	130
34	Sedative	136
35	Sedative	137
36	Sedative	168
37	Sedative	190
38	Sedative	233
39	Sedative	120
40	Sedative	154

a. Formally state the null hypothesis and the research (alternative) hypothesis for this research scenario. (2 marks)

b. State the independent variable (name its levels) and the dependent variable (2 marks)

c. Why does this study design use a placebo? Is there an alternative to the use of a placebo when designing this study? Briefly describe. (3 marks)

d. Conduct all the relevant tests of assumptions and report in full. (5 marks)

e. Present an APA table of descriptive statistics and chart to illustrate the data and facilitate interpretation. (5 marks)

f. Carry out the relevant main analysis and report your findings in full. (8 marks)

Panic disorder (PD) is a common, severe and persistent mental disorder, associated with a high degree of distress and occupational and social disability. A clinical psychologist wanted to assess the effectiveness of an applied relaxation training intervention aimed at preventing panic disorder onset and reducing panic symptoms. The intervention consisted of eight sessions of two hours each over 4 weeks. The participants were recruited through community mental health centres and included 20 people aged 18 and 45 years of age with subthreshold or mild panic disorder as diagnosed by the DSM-V. The participants completed the Panic Disorder Severity Scale-Self Report (PDSS-SR: Houck, 2002) at two time points: Week 1 prior to the intervention; Week 8 after successful completion of the intervention. The PDSS-SR contains seven items that assess the severity of seven dimensions of panic disorder and associated symptoms. It generates a total score ranging from 0 to 28 with a higher score indicating more severe panic symptoms.

Enter the associated data into SPSS and answer the below questions

Class ID	Pre PDSS-SR Score	Post PDSS-SR Score
1	12	12
2	10	10
3	20	19
4	19	18
5	21	21
6	21	20
7	22	18
8	23	21
9	20	20
10	24	22
11	24	24
12	22	21
13	22	21
14	23	23
15	23	22
16	23	20
17	25	20
18	25	21
19	26	20
20	26	22

a. Formally state the null hypothesis and the research (alternative) hypothesis for this research scenario. (2 marks)

b. State the independent variable (name its levels) and the dependent variable (2 marks)

c. Identify a potential ethical issue associated with the research scenario above and suggest how to ensure ethical compliance. (3 marks).

d. Conduct all the relevant tests of assumptions and report in full. (5 marks).

e. Present an APA table of descriptive statistics and chart to illustrate the data and facilitate interpretation. (5 marks)

f. Carry out the relevant main analysis and report your findings in full. (8 marks)

A psychology lecturer wanted to demonstrate to a class of undergraduate students (n = 30) that the use of mental imagery can improve memory and prepared a list of 40 pairs of nouns (e.g. dog/bicycle, grass/door, lamp/piano). Near the end of class, the lecturer stated they were conducting an experiment on memory and randomly divided the class into two groups. Group A moved to a different room. Participants in group A (n = 15) were given the word list for 5 minutes and only instructed to memorise the 40 noun pairs. Participants in group B (n = 15) were given the same list of words, but in addition to the regular instructions, they were instructed to form a mental image for each pair of nouns (e.g. imagine a dog riding a bicycle). Later, each group were given a timed pen and paper memory test and the number of words correctly recalled for each student were recorded. Based on this data, can the lecturer demonstrate that mental imagery affected the memory recall of the participants?

Enter the associated data into SPSS and answer the below questions

Subject Number	Condition	Words Recalled
1	No imagery	18
2	No imagery	15
3	No imagery	20
4	No imagery	19
5	No imagery	19
6	No imagery	22
7	No imagery	18
8	No imagery	20
9	No imagery	17
10	No imagery	18
11	No imagery	16
12	No imagery	16
13	No imagery	17
14	No imagery	19
15	No imagery	21
16	Imagery	18
17	Imagery	19
18	Imagery	20
19	Imagery	15
20	Imagery	17
21	Imagery	14
22	Imagery	18
23	Imagery	20
24	Imagery	17
25	Imagery	18
26	Imagery	16
27	Imagery	21
28	Imagery	19
29	Imagery	19
30	Imagery	16