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STEM w/ Science and Technical Writing - Dr. Crowthers

In STEM I, we’re conducting a research project based on our own passions and ideas. This starts with a lot of background on your topic of interest. You then develop an idea for your project, and then develop an approach for collecting data!

Music and Its Effects on One's Ability to Operate a Motor Vehicle

This project focuses on how the tempo of music affects the speed at which a person drives in a car.

Research Proposal

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Analysis

After data was collected and then placed in Excel, an ANOVA test was used to find evidence of a difference in speeds between the three groups. This test yielded a p-value of .119, (α = 0.05) which does not suggest that there is a difference in speeds between the three groups. However, when looking at the graphs, the range of speeds differed with the type of music utilized with the group. In the Low BPM group (Figure 2), speeds ranged from 0 – 55 MPH. In the no music group (Figure 1) speeds ranged from 0-65 MPH, which is greater than that of the Low BPM group. In the High BPM group, speeds ranged from 0-70 MPH, which is greater than the ranges of speed exhibited by both other groups. While results from this study may not suggest that the speed that a driver drives at overall changes with the type of music they listen to, the graphs suggest that the driver may drive at more varied speeds as the tempo of music increases, since the range of speeds in this experiment increased as the tempo of music increased.

Discussion/Conclusion

Limitations in this study included time constraints, scheduling conflicts, limited driver experience, technical issues, etc. There were a decent number of participants that signed up to participate in the study, but due to conflicts in participants’ and the researcher’s schedule, many participants were not able to partake in the study. Many drivers that participated in the study were inexperienced drivers and were allowed to drive in the simulator for about 10 minutes before data was collected to learn how to use the simulator properly. When testing began, an issue arose with certain buttons not working on the steering wheel of the simulator, which made it difficult to start the car in the program used to conduct the simulation. However, it was discovered that the keyboard could first be used to turn on the car in the program, and then control was switched over to the steering wheel for participants to use. Confounding variables that were recognized in this study included the age of participants, using music without lyrics, and driver experience. Participants in this study were all about the same age (16 or 17 years old). Music with lyrics were not used, as lyrics are another layer to a song. Drivers had varying levels of driving experience, so groups were stratified in order that each group had participants with varying levels of driving experience. An ANOVA test was conducted on the data, since the goal of the study was to determine if there was a significant difference between the means of car speeds between test groups. Since there were more than 2 test groups, an ANOVA test was utilized. Studies such as the ones conducted by Brodsky in 2002 and Groene and Barrett in 2012 focus on music as a distractor with various groups of people (Brodsky 2002) (Groene and Barrett, 2012). However, these studies do not focus directly on how the change in the tempo of music affects the speed of a car during a simulation.

Future Work

Since this study was conducted in a simulation, it may be beneficial to also reproduce this study in a car as well, since it allows participants to put in a real-life environment instead of a simulated one. Also, this study aimed to address how music affected driving behaviors, while more research should be done to discover why these behaviors happen, as this can lead to more accurate recommendations that can help lower the amount of potential music-related car crashes. This includes looking at factors such as eeg readings, heart rate, galvanic skin response, etc. This study could also be expanded to multiple age groups, since testing was only done with teens in between the ages of 16 and 17. One other factor that could be looked at in the future in the music that was used. While this study used two different types of music (one for the Low BPM condition, one for the High BPM condition), the same music could be used for both conditions in the future, it simply could have been sped up or slowed down. This would keep the music used in the study consistent throughout. Also, testing should also be done with music with lyrics to see how this affects the behaviors of drivers as well.

Conclusion

This study aimed to discover how music affected the speed of a car while drivers listened to different types of music. This was accomplished by having three groups of drivers drive in a driving simulator with either Low BPM music, no music, or High BPM music. An ANOVA test was conducted on results, and although significant results were not found (*p = .119, α = .05), the graphs showed increasing variability in the data, hinting that more research must be done before reaching a definite conclusion. If future research leads to significant results, this could help to lower the amount of car crashes on the road, leading to safer roads for everyone.

References

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