A-LevelPsychologyResearch methods9990/23 · May/June 2018 · Q77 Marks

Xanthe is investigating whether there is a relationship between how funny a person finds a joke and how much activity there is in a particular brain region. She plans to measure brain activity using a brain scan.

(a)Suggest one way that Xanthe could measure how funny a participant thinks each joke is.[2]
(b)Xanthe expects to find that the funnier a person finds a joke, the more brain activity there will be. Explain the type of relationship she is expecting in this study.[3]
(c)State which measure of central tendency Xanthe should use with the data from the brain scans. Justify your choice.[2]

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (May/June 2018). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

[2] (a) by measuring laughter; e.g. by timing how long they laugh for
[2] (a) by asking them to say how funny they thought it was / judge feelings towards jokes; e.g. by rating on a scale (of 1–5, where 5 is the funniest)
[2] (a) by observing how much they smile; e.g. estimating how wide their mouth is
[1] (b) positive
[1] (b) correlation
[1] (b) between funniness and brain activity
[2] (c) mean; because the data is points on a scale / equal value / a scientific measurement / interval data / ratio data / because it takes all the points into account

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