Liliana Duran

03/17/2014

Scientific Method
Theory: People who sleep 5 hours at night has concentration problem while driving. Hypothesis: Someone who sleeps 5 or less hours every day will have more problems driving than someone who sleeps 8 or more hours. Operational definitions: Driving: Drive a sedan for 15 miles on a designated area. Sleep: 9 complete hours of sleep at night, from 9:00 pm to 6:00 am, in conditions that guarantee full body and mind rest. Concentration: Attention to traffic signs, other drivers and pedestrians. Measures: Road test to measure concentration and focus skills while driving. Independent variable: Sleep hours. Dependent variable: Driving problems, concentration problems. Control group: The control group will take the road test to measure their driving skills, they will be allowed to sleep for at least 8 hours for 5 days; after the 5th day, they will take the road test again and the results will be compared to the results the results of their first test. Experimental group: The control group will also take the road test, they will only be allowed to sleep 4-5 hours for 5 consecutive days. After the 5th day they will take the road test again to compare the results with their previous scores. Results: I think the results will show that the scores of the road test of those who did not get to sleep more than 5 hours will slightly decrease, and the results of those who were able to rest more for at least 8 hours for 5 days will probably remain the same way. The results prove that the lack of sleep can affect our psychological and physiological functions, no only when it comes to driving but also with everyday activities that require our concentration and energy. Experiments strength: the tests results give us an idea on how much the lack of sleep influences the way we perform certain activities that require a lot of our attention and mental effort like driving; also, the fact that the experimental group took the test once before the experiment shows how their own driving skills were affected, not only in comparison to the control group. Experiments weakness: The tests results of the experimental group can be caused not only for lack of sleep, they can also be the cause of a bad diet, stress, and many other external factors to the individual. Another weakness is that, besides driving, we dont get much information on how the rest of the rest of the activities we perform are altered by the lack of sleep, we get the idea that it could have a similar effect but not exactly how.