PSY 520 SPSS Assignment 2

Before you begin the assignment:

  • Read Chapter 14 in your Beginning Behavior Research: A Conceptual Primer textbook and Chapter 13 in your Discovering Statistics Using IBM SPSS Statistics
  • Review the video tutorial for an overview of conducting ANOVA analyses in SPSS.
  • Download and open the Test Performance SPSS data set.

An overview of the data set:

This data set represents hypothetical data from a study that examined how background music affected performance on a math test. Specifically, participants were randomly assigned to take a general math test with rock music, classical music, or white noise playing in the background. Further, participants were classified as being either high or low in math experience based on the number of college math courses they had taken.

Here is some more information about the variables in this hypothetical data set:

  • Number: The ID number of the participant
  • Sound: The type of background music participants heard while taking the test; 1 = rock, 2 = classical, and 3 = white noise
  • Experience: Participants who had taken three or more college math courses were classified as being high in math experience, whereas participants who had taken fewer than three were classified as being low. 1 = high and 2 = low
  • Anxiety: Anxiety during the test, with possible scores ranging from 0 to 50. Higher scores indicate higher levels of anxiety
  • Performance: Performance on the general math test, with possible scores ranging from 0 to 100. Higher scores indicate better performance on the test

Questions:

1) Describe in your own words what type of research situations call for a researcher to use an ANOVA analysis.

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2a) Use the Compare Means function (AnalyzeàCompare MeansàMeans) to compare the means of the three Sound conditions on Anxiety and Performance.

Paste output below (Read carefully: The best way to do this is to select “Copy Special” when copying from the SPSS output. Then select image as a format to copy. When pasting in Word, select Paste Special, choose a picture format, and then resize the image so it fits the screen):

3b) Based on these results, on which variable does it most appear there might be significant differences based on the Sound condition?

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4a) Conduct a one-way ANOVA on both Anxiety and Performance using Sound as the independent variable. That is, conduct two separate one-way ANOVAs, one with Anxiety as the dependent variable and one with Performance as the dependent variable.

Paste the output below (Read carefully: The best way to do this is to select “Copy Special” when copying from the SPSS output. Then select image as a format to copy. When pasting in Word, select Paste Special, choose a picture format, and then resize the image so it fits the screen):

5b) Based on these results, were either of your ANOVAs significant? How can you tell? Use a cutoff level of .05 for your decision.

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6a) Remember that in a one-way ANOVA, we are only looking at the impact of one variable on the dependent variable. Factorial ANOVAs, on the other hand, assess the impact of multiple independent variables. Conduct a factorial ANOVA on Performance using both Sound and Experience as independent variables. Be sure to choose the option to view the estimated marginal means for all of your main effects and interactions—this will allow you to more easily interpret the results.

Paste your output for only the Test of Between-Subjects Effects below:

7b) Write the results of the ANOVA. For help, refer to this document.

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