Running Head: SOME FACTORS THAT AFFECT ATTENTION 1

The Study About How Types Of Games, Types Of Musics And Intensity Of Light Affect

Attention

Ayşe İdil Burgaz

Çankaya University

201824015
SOME FACTORS THAT AFFECT ATTENTION 2

The Goal of The Study

The goal of the study is examine the effect of types of games, types of musics and intensity

of light to the attention. We want to know in which way these factors affect the attention.

Population And Sampling

The population consisted of 4000 university students from 20 departments and these are from

Çankaya University. The ages of this population are between 18 and 25 years old. We used

two stage cluster random sampling technique. In my first stage, we randomly select 4

department from total departments which is 20 in university with www.randomizer.org. These

departments are Psychology, Civil Engineering, International Relations and English

Language/ Literature. In my second stage, since all departments that I chose include 200

student, we randomly select 18 students from each department with using again

randomizer.org. Finally, our sample consisted of 72 students which are selected from 4

departments. Gender numbers are kept equal. Both verbal and written explanations were

provided to participants. The participants were guaranteed confidentiality. This study was

approved by the departmental ethical committee. The participants' name and personal details

were not included in the data entry. However, personal information was replaced by a code to

ensure anonymity.

Design of The Study

We have 3 independent variables and 1 dependent variable in total. Our first IV is types of

game which include 2 levels; non-strategic game and strategic game. Our second IV is

intensity of light which include 2 levels; dim light and sufficient light light. Our third IV is

type of music which include 3 levels; rock, pop, classic. My DV is attention. We used mixed

desing.
SOME FACTORS THAT AFFECT ATTENTION 3

Procedure of The Study

Anyone who wants to attend from 20 faculties applies to the experiment. After the two-stage

cluster random sampling is applied, half of the subjects are assigned to the dimly light room

and the other half to the room that will receive sufficent light with random assignment. This

part is our between subject design. In addition, subjects are unaware of what condition they

are assigned to during the whole experiment. We use single- blind method in here. One day

before the experiment, the subjects are told that they must eat well while coming to school

where tests are applied and also they are told that they must sleep 8 hours. Sleeping time and

hunger status are controlled in this way . Experiement will take 6 days. We will do the

experiment one day at intervals because we want to see the effect of the games. First day the

day of the experiment, when all participant arrive at school, half of them are taken to the

dimly light room and the other half of them are taken to the sufficient light room. First, all

subject are told to play strategic game with computers which they are given. The all details of

the game such as what they should do while they are playing appears as an informative note

before it starts. The difficulty levels of all strategic games to be played during the experiment

are the same but in every game they should use different strategy so the games are played will

not improve each other . They are all designed for this experiement by the game-maker

experts . All of our subjects stated that they do not play strategic games on a regular basis.

When they start to play games, the music are played at the same time in both rooms. Music

times and game times are kept equal which is 10 minutes. All types of musics are chosen

according to this, also their loudness are kept same. In addition, the light reflected from the

computer has been adjusted according to the light of the room and does not pose any problem

to distract the attention of subjects. When this step is over, to ensure that all subjects are full,

which is affect attention, we will give them same amount of food. Subjects are rested for 15
SOME FACTORS THAT AFFECT ATTENTION 4

minutes at the end of each game Then we apply the same way with non-strategic game which

are also desingned for this experiements and does not require any specific strategy and their

time kept equal with music. These are like truck driving games on the empty road, human

dress-up games and subway surfer game. After the game ,the subjects are asked how they

feel about getting their attention. We use control of participants interpretation in here. The

same pathways are applied with different kinds of musics according to counterbalancing

sequences that we add as an appendix. Room temperature must be constant for each day(24

degrees). There should be no other distractions in the rooms where tests are applied. For

example: banner,poster etc. At the end of the each day , all subjects are tested in one class

after all the orders are applied. The format and difficulty of each test we will give them for

each day is the same. Rotation was applied between tests. Here, game types and music types

are within subject desing.

SOME FACTORS THAT AFFECT ATTENTION 5

APPENDIX 1: RANDOM SAMPLING

For two-stage cluster random sampling;

Randomly selected 4 departments:

Randomly selected 18 subject from each department:

APPENDIX 2 : THREATS TO INTERNAL VALIDITY

SOME FACTORS THAT AFFECT ATTENTION 6

History threat: Any event that can produce the outcome, other than the treatment condition.

When the experiment is to be applied should not coincide with the midterm exams or final

times, otherwise their stress level have effect on the results. The other factor is that if they

apply themselves any other attention tests this will effect their test results.

Attrition: Refers to participants dropping out or leaving a study, which means that the results

are based on a biased sample of only the people who did not choose to leave. Firstly,

volunteers should be included in this test, especially if they are willing to play computer

games many times.

APPENDIX 3 :

İ) RANDOM ASSIGNMENT TO BETWEEN SUBJECT VARIABLE

After the random sampling are done for each department, participants are given number like

this. We do this because we must be sure that each group(dimly light and sufficient light) will

include same amount of student from every chosen departmend and all subjects should be

assigned for once.

Psychology Civil Engineering English Language an International Relations

Literature
P1 P19 P37 P55
P2 P20 P38 P56
P3 P21 P39 P57
P4 P22 P40 P58
P5 P23 P41 P59
P6 P24 P42 P60
P7 P25 P43 P61
P8 P25 P44 P62
P9 P27 P45 P63
P10 P28 P46 P64
P11 P29 P47 P65
P12 P30 P48 P66
P13 P31 P49 P67
P14 P32 P50 P68
P15 P33 P51 P69
P16 P34 P52 P70
P17 P35 P53 P71
SOME FACTORS THAT AFFECT ATTENTION 7

P18 P36 P54 P72

Then we apply random assignment to two 2 conditions:

SOME FACTORS THAT AFFECT ATTENTION 8
SOME FACTORS THAT AFFECT ATTENTION 9

İİ) COUNTERBALANCING:

I applied incomplete counterbalancing(balanced latin square) technique to two within subject.

In this prodecure not all possible sequences are used. Each condition must appear an equal

number of times in each ordinal position and each condition must precede and be followed by

every other condition an equal number of times. We prevent order effect and carryover effect

in this technique. Sequences determined by formula: 1,2,n,3,(n-1),4…. For subsequent rows,

you add one to the previous , returning to one after n.

Since n=6 (n is the number of conditions), sequences must be like that:

126354

231465

342516

453621

564132

615243

We can apply these seqeuences to our experiement as follows:

A= Classic music, B=Rock Music, C= Pop music, D= Non-strategic game, E= Strategic game

1> AD: Classic music + non-strategic game

2> AE: Classic music + strategic game

3> BD: Rock music + non-strategic game

4> BE: Rock music + strategic game

5> CD: Pop music + non-strategic game

6> CE: Pop music + strategic game

SOME FACTORS THAT AFFECT ATTENTION 10

n is the number of subjects in here:

1st sequence n=12 AD, AE, CE, BD, CD, BE

2nd sequence n=12 BD, CD, AD, BE, CE, AE

3rd sequence n=12 BD, BE, AE, CD, AD, CE

4th sequence n=12 BE, CD, BD, CE, AE, AD

5th sequence n=12 CD, CE, BE, AD, BD, AE

6th sequence n=12 CE, AD, CD, AE, BE, BD

Order Effects: A sequencing effect arising from the order in which the conditions are

administered to participants.

Carryover Effects: A sequencing effect that occurs when performance in one condition affects

performance in another condition..

İİİ) HOW ALL OF MY PARTICIPANTS ARE ASSIGNED TO THESE 3IVs ARE

SHOWED IN THIS TABLE:

SOME FACTORS THAT AFFECT ATTENTION 11

Types of Music

Classic Classic Pop Pop Rock Rock

Non- Strategic Non- Strategic Non- Strategic

Strategic Game Strategic Game Strategic Game
Game Game Game

Dim Light P1 P1 P1 P1 P1 P1
P3 P3 P3 P3 P3 P3
P6 P6 P6 P6 P6 P6
P7 P7 P7 P7 P7 P7
P9 P9 P9 P9 P9 P9
P12 P12 P12 P12 P12 P12
P14 P14 P14 P14 P14 P14
P15 P15 P15 P15 P15 P15
P17 P17 P17 P17 P17 P17
P20 P20 P20 P20 P20 P20
P22 P22 P22 P22 P22 P22
P24 P24 P24 P24 P24 P24
P25 P25 P25 P25 P25 P25
P27 P27 P27 P27 P27 P27
P29 P29 P29 P29 P29 P29
P31 P31 P31 P31 P31 P31
P34 P34 P34 P34 P34 P34
P35 P35 P35 P35 P35 P35
P38 P38 P38 P38 P38 P38
P40 P40 P40 P40 P40 P40
P42 P42 P42 P42 P42 P42
P44 P44 P44 P44 P44 P44
P45 P45 P45 P45 P45 P45
P47 P47 P47 P47 P47 P47
P50 P50 P50 P50 P50 P50
P51 P51 P51 P51 P51 P51
P53 P53 P53 P53 P53 P53
P55 P55 P55 P55 P55 P55
P58 P58 P58 P58 P58 P58
P60 P60 P60 P60 P60 P60
P62 P62 P62 P62 P62 P62
P63 P63 P63 P63 P63 P63
P66 P66 P66 P66 P66 P66
P68 P68 P68 P68 P68 P68
P69 P69 P69 P69 P69 P69

Sufficent P2 P2 P2 P2 P2 P2
Light P4 P4 P4 P4 P4 P4
P5 P5 P5 P5 P5 P5
SOME FACTORS THAT AFFECT ATTENTION 12

P8 P8 P8 P8 P8 P8
P10 P10 P10 P10 P10 P10
P11 P11 P11 P11 P11 P11
P13 P13 P13 P13 P13 P13
P16 P16 P16 P16 P16 P16
P18 P18 P18 P18 P18 P18
P19 P19 P19 P19 P19 P19
P21 P21 P21 P21 P21 P21
P23 P23 P23 P23 P23 P23
P26 P26 P26 P26 P26 P26
P28 P28 P28 P28 P28 P28
P30 P30 P30 P30 P30 P30
P32 P32 P32 P32 P32 P32
P33 P33 P33 P33 P33 P33
P36 P36 P36 P36 P36 P36
P37 P37 P37 P37 P37 P37
P39 P39 P39 P39 P39 P39
P41 P41 P41 P41 P41 P41
P43 P43 P43 P43 P43 P43
P46 P46 P46 P46 P46 P46
P48 P48 P48 P48 P48 P48
P49 P49 P49 P49 P49 P49
P52 P52 P52 P52 P52 P52
P54 P54 P54 P54 P54 P54
P56 P56 P56 P56 P56 P56
P57 P57 P57 P57 P57 P57
P59 P59 P59 P59 P59 P59
P61 P61 P61 P61 P61 P61
P64 P64 P64 P64 P64 P64
P65 P65 P65 P65 P65 P65
P67 P67 P67 P67 P67 P67
P70 P70 P70 P70 P70 P70
P72 P72 P72 P72 P72 P72

2x2x3 design=12 cells , 3 main effect and 4 interactions

First IV: Types of musics has three levels; pop music, rock music, classic music (within

subjects design)

Second IV: Types of games has two levels ; strategic game, non-strategic game(within subject

design)
SOME FACTORS THAT AFFECT ATTENTION 13

Third IV: Intensity of light has three leves; sufficient light, dimly light (between subject

designs )

İİİİ) MATERIALS:

Attention tests: We apply different tests for each day and these tests will have the same format

and have the same difficulty. We will provide it as follows:

The main purpose of this test is to measure their attention after exposing subjects to certain

conditions There are 9 rows in one-page form and each row have 37 figures so total figures

are 333. Each day these amount of rows and the amount of figures will be the same.We will

just mixed the figures so only their places are changed . There are one, two, three and four

points in total below or above some letters. The main task of the person is to find the letters

which are given different for each day. The tests are applied as papers and pens will be given

to subjects. The test is 20 minutes.