Throughout the history of experiments regarding a person’s sleep schedule, there have been a multitude of high level examinations in order to make a validated conclusion about how sleep deprivation, or apnea, has an effect on a person’s attention-span and mood. However, these examinations have never properly been compared to another form of sleep complications which would be periodical night awakenings throughout the course of a person’s normal sleep. Due to this neglect of an experiment comparing the effects of sleep deprivation and periodical awakenings a group of researchers decided to fix the problem and designed an experiment with the purpose of testing this untouched area of sleep study. For the experiment, the factors of sleep apnea
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OCPT stands for online continuous performance test and is an assessment that is taken on internet which measures the sustained attention of each subject. The attention measurement is taken by testing the subjects on how well they can properly respond to a specific geometric figure that is the “target”. The figure is presented along with another similar geometric shape and in different ratios of the two shapes on the computer screen in order to make the subject think about their decision. The POMS instead measures a subject’s mood after each treatment and stands for profile of mood states. There are 65 total items on the POMS and each one is rated with respect to the subject’s current mood; the scale is a six point style of scale from 0 (not at all) to 5 (extremely). After all 65 of the items are recorded the results are then joined and categorized into six different variables. Each of the variables are considered categorical due to the fact that the results put each subject into categories, rather than being counted as a specific number. These variables would include anger-hostility, confusion-bewilderment, depression-dejection, fatigue-inertia, tension-anxiety, and …show more content…
Specifically with the OCPT, the use of alertness promoters and wakefulness enhancers, such as caffeine, were not properly monitored. Since this study was conducted in a home-like setting instead of a laboratory the intake of these substances by participants in the study could not be watched over. Essentially, this indicates that these enhancers could have been a lurking variable due to the fact that it is possible for the subjects to have taken a form of alertness enhancement before they took the OCPT. Because of the OCPT being a test of alertness on a person, these variables could have a profound effect on the results of the test by increasing the alertness of each participant who was involved in that specific variable; this idea was not at all accounted for in the experimental design of the study. In the end, this could cause a massive change in the results of the data and therefore, the use of alertness enhancers has to be considered as a lurking
OCPT stands for online continuous performance test and is an assessment that is taken on internet which measures the sustained attention of each subject. The attention measurement is taken by testing the subjects on how well they can properly respond to a specific geometric figure that is the “target”. The figure is presented along with another similar geometric shape and in different ratios of the two shapes on the computer screen in order to make the subject think about their decision. The POMS instead measures a subject’s mood after each treatment and stands for profile of mood states. There are 65 total items on the POMS and each one is rated with respect to the subject’s current mood; the scale is a six point style of scale from 0 (not at all) to 5 (extremely). After all 65 of the items are recorded the results are then joined and categorized into six different variables. Each of the variables are considered categorical due to the fact that the results put each subject into categories, rather than being counted as a specific number. These variables would include anger-hostility, confusion-bewilderment, depression-dejection, fatigue-inertia, tension-anxiety, and …show more content…
Specifically with the OCPT, the use of alertness promoters and wakefulness enhancers, such as caffeine, were not properly monitored. Since this study was conducted in a home-like setting instead of a laboratory the intake of these substances by participants in the study could not be watched over. Essentially, this indicates that these enhancers could have been a lurking variable due to the fact that it is possible for the subjects to have taken a form of alertness enhancement before they took the OCPT. Because of the OCPT being a test of alertness on a person, these variables could have a profound effect on the results of the test by increasing the alertness of each participant who was involved in that specific variable; this idea was not at all accounted for in the experimental design of the study. In the end, this could cause a massive change in the results of the data and therefore, the use of alertness enhancers has to be considered as a lurking