| Date | May 2019 | Marks available | 6 | Reference code | 19M.Paper 3.HL.TZ0.2 |
| Level | HL only | Paper | Paper 3 | Time zone | TZ0 |
| Command term | Describe | Question number | 2 | Adapted from | N/A |
Question
The stimulus material below is based on a study on the influence of multitasking on student learning.
Multitasking (doing more than one task at a time) and its consequences on learning has become a growing concern in education because students are increasingly engaged with their laptops or smartphones. In classrooms, students tend to switch between academic and non-academic tasks. Research indicates that this multitasking results in cognitive overload and weaker encoding of primary information into long-term memory.
The aim of the study was to investigate if multitasking on a laptop would impair learning as measured by the number of correct scores on a comprehension test. The participants were forty undergraduate students from a university in North America (N=40). There were even numbers of males and females and the mean age was 18.9 years. A convenience sample of students enrolled in an introductory psychology course received course credit for participating. They were recruited from a psychology research website. It was only explained that the study involved listening to a class lecture and filling out a multiple‑choice quiz.
All participants attended a 45-minute lecture on meteorology in a traditional college classroom. Their primary task was to take notes using their laptops. The 20 participants in the multitasking condition were also asked to complete 12 online tasks during the lecture. The participants were randomly allocated a seat number as they entered the classroom. The researchers told participants that their individual instruction sheet and consent form were placed on their seat. After the lecture, all participants completed a 40-question multiple-choice quiz on the lecture content in order to check their comprehension. Finally, they were debriefed.
The results showed that participants who multitasked during the lecture scored 11 % lower than participants who did not multitask. The result was significant and consistent with previous studies showing that multitasking during learning negatively affects encoding and transfer of information to long‑term memory.
[Source 1: Faria Sana, Melody Wiseheart and Tina Weston (2014). ‘The direct and indirect effects of
laptop multitasking in higher education.’ Pédagogie Collégiale, vol. 27, no. 2, Winter 2014;
http://aqpc.qc.ca/sites/default/files/revue/Weston-Vol_27-2%2520%28A%29%2520.pdf
Source 2: adapted from Computers & Education, Vol. 62, March 2013, Faria Sana, Tina Weston
and Nicholas J. Cepeda, ‘Laptop multitasking hinders classroom learning for both
users and nearby peers’, pp. 24–31, copyright 2012, with permission from Elsevier;
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131512002254?via%3Dihub]
Describe the ethical considerations that were applied in the study and explain if further ethical considerations could be applied.
Markscheme
For describing the ethical considerations that were applied in the study: [1] per relevant point made, up to a maximum of [3].
- The researchers gave the participants a consent form to sign before the start of the study, in line with ethical guidelines in psychological research.
- The lecture was based on an ethically neutral (non-sensitive) topic.
- The participants were debriefed after they had completed the study. Therefore participants were fully informed about the study once the experiment was completed, including how the data would be used.
For explaining further ethical considerations that could be applied: [1] per relevant point made with a maximum of [3].
- Confidentiality and anonymity are important in all research. It may be difficult to ensure because students in this study sit close to one another in the simulated class setting. A way to deal with this could be to test students individually. In the context of this study it may be less important because there is not much personal information involved so it would be difficult to identify students from their data set.
- Participants should be informed that they could contact the researchers if they had any questions about the study, for example if they would like to know how the data would be used.
- Deception is used in the study. It must be clearly justified, for example, in a research ethics application form why (minor) deception is necessary in this particular study.
- Participants should be informed of their rights to withdraw from the research once it has started, as well as consequences of doing so. In this study, that was not done.
- Receiving course credit for participation in research is a common way to recruit participants at many universities. An ethical issue here is whether students feel coerced to participate. Students who do not wish to participate in this research should not be disadvantaged in any way and they should be offered a comparable alternative task to receive the same credits.
- Any other relevant point(s).
Answers do not need to follow the order of applied and further considerations in writing about the ethical considerations in relation to the study. Any order of mentioning the ethical considerations are valid when awarding marks.
Examiners report
This question was overall the one that was best answered although some responses were rather generic. Candidates correctly identified consent and debriefing in the stimulus material and the stronger answers provided an appropriate explanation related to ethics in general and to the study in particular with reference to the stimulus material. Many candidates spotted that light deception was used in the study, and argued why it would be necessary and that participants were informed about the true purpose of the study during debriefing. However, a number of candidates stated that both informed consent and deception were used in the study, suggesting that the concept of informed consent is not fully understood. For further ethical considerations candidates typically referred to anonymity, confidentiality, or avoidance of harm. Some candidates only identified a few relevant ethical considerations and therefore did not earn full marks for this question. A problem for some candidates was that they did not pay attention to the command term and merely listed ethical considerations.
