For this project, write a paper that involves designing, conducting, and analyzing results from your own experiment to test the sensory discrimination of one of your friends.

You are free to choose the two objects, however here are some ideas to get you thinking along the right lines: Coke vs. Pepsi, Regular vs. Decaf coffee, Sweet 'n' Low vs. Equal sweetener, cheap wine vs. expensive wine, butter vs. margarine.

1. The paper should consist of a single document in Microsoft Word format.
2. Determine a protocol for administering the test.

1. What should be done about random variations in the items to be tested?

For example, how do you prevent temperature change in the product, or to make sure each cup of coffee is equally sweet or has the same amount of cream?

Before conducting your experiment, carefully lay out the procedure for administering the test, such as how the coffee will be made, how the wine will be decanted, and so forth. This is related to the important issue of ensuring that each trial is independent (i.e. the previous trials aren’t tainting your taster’s sense of taste.

Carefully consider how you will attempt to overcome this problem.

b) How many trials should be used in the test. Should they be paired or independent(2)?

In what order should the items be presented?

Should the experiment be run in one sitting or spaced out over a number of days?

Done properly, the experiment should be designed such that if the expert has no expert skills, the result will be wholly governed by chance.

The number and ordering of the trials should allow an expert to prove his or her abilities while simultaneously preventing a fraud from succeeding.

You will want to keep the binomial distribution in mind when making these decisions.

c) What conclusion could be drawn from a perfect score or from a test with one or more errors? For the design you are considering, list all possible results of the experiment. For each possible result, decide in advance what conclusion you will make if it occurs. In determining this mapping of outcomes to conclusions, consider the probability that someone with no powers of discrimination could wind up with each outcome. You may want to make adjustments in your design to increase the sensitivity of your experiment. For example, if someone can’t distinguish decaf coffee from regular, then just by guessing, he/she should still be right half of the time and there will be a small chance, which you should calculate, of being right 100% of the time. On the other hand, if the taster possesses some, but not perfect, skill in differentiation, he or she will make some mistakes.

3. Write out an instruction sheet for your experimental process.

4. Record your results CAREFULLY, and note any unusual occurrences in the experimental process. It may be a good idea to keep track of the order in which the samples are served to your subject.

5. Numerically, summarize the results and analyze the data. Do they support or contradict the claim that the subject possesses no sensory discrimination? Use your list of all possible events and subsequent actions to come to a conclusion. Discuss the reasons behind the decision that you have made.

6. What changes would you make to your experimental process if you had the opportunity to do it again? Why didn't you pick these issues up when you did your practice run?

Purpose of the study

The purpose of the study formally explains why the study was important to conduct and write the null and alternative hypotheses of the study.

Method

The Method section explains how the study was conducted to collect data. The section should include the following:

1. Participants of the study. Who are they? Where did you get the participants for the study? Which sampling design was used to select the participants?

2. Experimental design. Which experimental/sampling design was used in the study?

3. Data Collection. Explain the method used to collect data.

4. Data Analysis. For hypothesis testing, explain how you plan to calculate the data.

5. Step-by-step procedure. Explain the explicit steps from beginning to end for conducting the study. If another researcher wants to replicate the study, the directions must contain precise information for conducting the study

Data Analysis

Show the results of your data analysis, including tables and charts as necessary. You should also discuss, in plain English, the results of the data calculation, both in terms of magnitude and significance.

Discussion

Discuss what you learned from the data collected. Did the results support or not support the null hypothesis?

Price: $19.99

Solution: The downloadable solution consists of 9 pages, 1099 words and 1 charts.
Deliverable: Word Document