Liquids and Their Effects On Our Minds:
An Outline
Usman Athar
CUNY York College
The population of interest is 100 college students. The large sample is used to provide a more accurate conclusion of the study. The subjects sampled are college students who do not have any blood pressure related health issues. This is in place to avoid any health risks during experimentation. All subjects are recruited and selected based on if they are active daily and maintain a balanced, healthy diet and lifestyle. This is important for the accuracy of the study. Half of the subjects, or 50 subjects, will be sampled or used as the experimental group. The other half will be used as the control group. All subjects will have similar optimal-health lifestyles and thus, the selection of which group they go into will be at random. Subjects from ages 18-21 were included. A written questionnaire will survey as a screening criteria for which subject will be eligible for the study. The survey or questionnaire will ask questions like how healthy they are, how much they exercise, if they eat in accordance to the FDA Guidelines of a healthy diet, the level of stress they endure throughout the day, etc. People that have any adverse health issues with blood pressure are excluded, along with unhealthy people. The subjects needed for the study have to be of optimal health. The average age of the subjects is 18-21. Other demographics like gender half to be equal. Half of the experimental subjects have to be male and female and likewise for the control group. Ethnicity does not matter in this study. Education does not matter either. Subjects are motivated to participate by entering them into a raffle in which they can win a prize. Students were not given course credit.
Materials used to weed out the subjects to a particular standard include a written survey. Other materials used after selecting subjects include meals that ensure all nutrients are taken in throughout the day to ensure optimal health during experiment. The stimuli will come in various steps. The first stimuli of the game-based experiment will include the first liquid to be ingested. The liquid would be half a glass of water. Data will be taken at the end of that round. The last round will include the last liquid to be ingested, which will be a half a glass of a caffeinated drink like coffee perhaps. The stimuli are presented via liquid form. The first one is water. The second stimulus is a mixture of caffeine into water with no other ingredients. Responses are measured via data collected after each round of ingestion of the certain liquid. Data is to be collected through the score obtained after playing the game. Any other equipment is simply for the game in which will be used to test the experiment; a board game for instance.
The conditions created were that half the subjects were experimenting the stimuli and the other half was the control group. Comparisons are done after the game scores have been tallied. The subjects in condition one, which is the experimental group, are asked to ingest a certain liquid and play a game. Condition two is for the control group to simply just play the game without ingesting anything. The subjects are given a pamphlet of instructions to read before each round. The instructions include, when to take what liquid and when to start the game. Instructions will also include how to play the game and how to tally the score. Data is to be collected after each round of the game. The game will have give a certain score after playing and that will show if the stimuli given had any impact on their ability to play the game.
