Scientific Methods: Steps and Applications

Directions: Read each case study. Then, respond to the questions that follow.

​EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

A study was created to test the effects of jazz on people’s sleep patterns. The experiment hypothesized that if people listened to jazz music as they fell asleep, they would sleep for longer periods. For the experiment, 2 groups of people were created. One group was placed in a quiet room where they went to sleep, and they were timed on how long they slept. The other group was placed in a room where jazz music played softly as they began to sleep and played throughout the night. As each group awoke, their sleep times were monitored.

A study was created to test the effects of fear in children. The hypothesis of the experimenters was that if babies were exposed to fuzzy bunnies and at the same time a loud cymbal was struck close behind them, then that child would be afraid of all fuzzy things. Another group of children would be exposed to bunnies without any loud noises. The study was carried out as planned and as a result, hundreds of young children developed fear of all cute furry bunny rabbits.

​Case Study #2

Shortly after Ms. Fernández rescued a calico cat that was named Ponyo, she realized she wasn’t eating enough.  Ms. Fernández went to the pet store and bought many kinds of food and fed Ponyo different types every day. Each day she noted the type of food and how much Ponyo ate out of her dish. Eventually, Ponyo ate a lot of the Happy-Cat brand food and Ms. Fernández bought that for her from then on. 

​Case Study #3