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Notes and assignment from module NS4102
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Meg Castle, Joirdan Bullock, Lauren Thorp and Jess DavisTitle
The impacts of time limits on stress.
Abstract
This experiment aims to study whether putting a time limit on a task causes the participant to
experience more stress or whether the impact is inconclusive. The experiment will include 30
university students, who will be asked to complete the game (Buzz Wire) either under
condition 1 (time limit) or condition 2 (no time limit). All participants in both groups will have
their heart rate measured before the game whilst resting and then again after playing the
game. We can then measure the increase in heartrate before and after the experiment, to
see if there was a significant effect on stress in the condition 1 group. During the experiment
observations will be made on whether participants sweat or shake due to stress.
Literature Review
This study could produce results that will be useful in real life, for example in discussion
about whether putting students under a time limit when doing exams is going to benefit them
or not.
The experiment is looking for signs of stress when under a time limit, it is important that the
research is valid and reliable to ensure that the results are accurate and generalizable.
William T Gunning’s study researched time limits on student exam performance and found
that “the time limited students used a shotgun approach”, so they didn’t go into as much
depth as students without a time limit. So this can be generalised to the study on time limits
and stress whilst using the Buzz Wire to students being under time limits in exams, as
Gunning found “91% taking the untimed exam were able to correctly diagnose the exam
case compared to only 31% of time limited students”. During the buzz wire game, the
experiment expected to find that the participants with the time limit tended to rush to
complete the game and activated the buzzer more frequently – therefore experiencing more
stress which would lead to increased heartrate. This is because when a stimulus is
perceived as a stressor, there’s a brief, initial shock phase (this is when the buzzer goes off).
Resistance to the stressor is lowered but this is quickly followed by the counter shock phase.
During this process the adrenal medulla secretes increased levels of adrenaline and non-
adrenaline.
The problem which we are concerned with is how stress levels caused by time constraints
can negatively affect those they are imposed upon, students in particular. Another group of
psychologists were also concerned with this and conducted ‘The Montreal Imaging Stress
Task’. They did an experiment which looked at the effects of acute stress perception in the
human brain on cerebral blood flow. During the experimental condition they set a time limit at
10 percent lower than their baseline, to induce more stress. The results of the ‘The Montreal
Imaging Stress Task’ can then be used to back up the results of the Buzz Wire experiment
and similar studies which measure time limits and stress.
Methodology
Design: The aim of the experiment was to study the effects of time limits on a particular task
and then to measure the levels of stress felt by the participant. The I.V. was giving
participants a time limit in which to complete the task (condition one) or no time limit
, (condition two). By using these conditions, it will be evident what amounts of stress
participants felt (if any) when in both conditions of the experiment. The D.V. was heart-rate.
It was expected that condition 2 would experience a greater elevation in heart-rate than
those participants without a time limit.
Procedure
Firstly, participants were recruited; they were selected at random, by standing in the library
or refectory and asking students if they had the time to complete the experiment. Before
participating, they were asked to read the informed consent form, and sign it to give consent.
The heart rates of participants were measured and recorded first whilst resting to gain a
resting heart rate reading. Participants were told they were either in the time conditioned (2
minutes to complete task) or untimed (unlimited time) group, they were asked to begin the
task. Participants in condition 2 were timed two minutes using a stop watch. When the task
was completed, heart rates were measured and recorded again. Each participant was then
debriefed to ensure they were not harmed by the experiment.
Participants
A sample of 30 participants was used, a larger sample could have been used but due
deadlines within the study, there was restricted time to complete the study. However, a
sample of 30 participants should be large enough to ensure a representative sample of the
target population, whilst still allowing sufficient time to carry out the experiment effectively.
The target population is university students, as the experiment looks at the effect of time
constraints on stress levels of students, and the university being used has students that vary
in age, from typical aged students to mature students.
Materials
The materials used were a buzz wire for participants to use to complete the task. A timer, for
the experimental condition, to time the 2 minutes and to also be used to count 1 minute
when measuring participants heart rate. Participants were asked to sign a consent form
before participating in the study and a debriefing from after completion. Also, a pen and
paper was used to record results into a readymade table and make any additional notes.
Results
The type of test that was used was a non-parametric test of difference with two independent
groups, which were condition one (the timed group) and condition two (the untimed group),
therefore the decision was made to use a Mann-Whitney U test. The results showed that
condition one had a mean of 10.4 with a standard deviation of 7.05 compared to condition
two which only had a mean of 5.3 with a standard deviation of 1.95. This is demonstrated in
the box plot diagram which shows that in the timed condition there was twice the increase in
the mean. In the untimed condition it was found that there was not much variance in the
results. The box plot for the untimed condition demonstrates this in the lack whiskers
compared to the timed condition which showed a considerable amount of variance. The
experiment was one-tailed and the P-value was found to be 0.003, N1 and N2 were both 15
and the U-value was 52.5, therefore it can be concluded that the results were significant and
the experimental hypothesis can be accepted, because the P value is 0.003 which is less
than 0.05 (for a result to be significant, the P value should be less than this figure).
Ethical issues
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