Poetry set up
...rson used 117 participants in their study, 40 being men and 77 being women. The subjects were asked to add together 25 different numbers in their head, without the aid of a calculator or anything of the like. The results of the study found that “the presence of an audience did not enhance the scores of men and women (no evidence of “social facilitation”),” (Vitulli and Henderson, 1995). So this study does in fact support the idea that an audience does have an effect on one’s performance. Another study conducted by researchers Donald T. Sawyer and Frederic J. Noel also looked at what effect an audience can have on a person’s performance abilities. The subjects in this study included sixty four people, thirty three boys and thirty one girls. All of the subjects were high school students. The task which they were to perform was tracking a light on a clear board with a hand held “photoelectric stylus in the preferred hand,” (Sawyer and Noel, 2000). Sawyer and Noel’s results were as follows “the hypothesis that early performance scores would be depressed by the presence of an audience was supported,” (Sawyer and Noel, 2000). So it seems that yes, an audience does effect the scores of a individuals performance, whatever that performance may be. One area of interest however, that the previously mentioned studies did not touch on was the question of whether or not gender could have an impact? Are men more likely to be affected by the presence of an audience while completing a simple motor skill, or are women? My experimental hypothesis is that the presence of an audience while performing a simple motor function will have a more significant effect...