PSY 4901 Experimental Psychology 2: Research Topic and Variables

Do pleasant smells help college students sleep better?

The goal of my research is to find out if pleasant smells have any effect on the number of hours college students sleep. Therefore, my research question is; Do pleasant smells help college students sleep better. My predictor variable will be scent, the variable that is being manipulated. The variable will be measured as scented (using scented candles) and unscented (using unscented candles.) My outcome variable will be sleep and measured using the number of hours a student will sleep and the number of times they toss and turn.

My research question will be using a comparative quasi-experimental design to investigate the relationship between the two variables. My research will have around 15 participants, who will be asked to sleep in both scented and unscented rooms (full of unscented candles and a room full of scented candles). There will be counterbalancing to ensure internal validity, which might be affected by a sequence and order effect. Meaning I will use a within the subject design to find the cause-effect of the predictor variable on the outcome variable.

 Pleasant smells bring comfort and relaxation, and people like sleeping in comfortable positions and environments. Previous studies have shown that pleasant smells improve productivity and sometimes induce sleep (The sciences, 2002). For example, a study done by Fujiwar and Ito (2015) showed that mixing 7 Japanese oils acted as a sedative for the participants. According to Lwin et al. (2015), pleasant smells increased recall memory for their participants. Therefore, I expect the mean outcome variable measures to change after manipulating the predictor variable.

References.

Lwin, M. O., Morrin, M., & Krishna, A. (2010, July). Exploring the superadditive effects of scent and pictures on verbal recall: An extension of dual coding theory. ScienceDirect.com | Science, health and medical journals, full text articles and books. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1057740810000331

The sciences. (2002, November 11). Do scents affect people’s moods or work performance? Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-scents-affect-peoples/

Fujiwara, Y., & Ito, M. (2015). Synergistic effect of fragrant herbs in Japanese scent sachets. Planta medica, 81(03), 193-199.