Psychologists at the University of Tennessee carried out a study of the susceptibility of people to hypnosis (Psychological Assessment, Mar. 1995). In a random sample of 130 undergraduate psychology students at the university, each experienced both traditional hypnosis and computer-assisted hypnosis. Approximately half were randomly assigned to undergo the traditional procedure first, followed by the computer-assisted procedure. The other half were randomly assigned to experience computer-assisted hypnosis first, then traditional hypnosis. Following the hypnosis episodes, all students filled out questionnaires designed to measure a student’s susceptibility to hypnosis. The susceptibility scores of the two groups of students were compared.
a. Identify the data collection method.
b. Is the sample data representative of the target population?