Example Answer for Question 14 Paper 2: A Level Psychology, June 2017 (AQA)

Section C – Research Methods: Q14 [4 Marks]

The mean scores suggest that listening to music while running the 400 metres improves performance as the mean time taken when listening to music was 117 seconds in comparison to 123 without music (a six-second improvement).

The standard deviation reveals the variation/consistency in the scores. Listening to music has a more varied effect on running performance because the SD was 4.43 higher when running with music in comparison to running without music. Therefore listening to music doesn’t affect all of the participants in the same way.

Please Note: These answers have been produced without the knowledge of the mark scheme and merely reflect my attempt at producing a model answer on the day of the exam.