Dynamometer Grip Strength Experiment Background and Data This report provides an analysis of how grip direction and auditory stimulus impact grip strength, based on an experiment conducted by a team of Cal Poly students. The primary objective was to evaluate the effects of different palm directions (palm up or palm down) and the presence of a stressful auditory stimulus (audio on or audio off) on grip strength. The experiment involved 88 Cal Poly students and professors invited by the student researchers. Each participant was randomly assigned to one of the four possible combinations of grip direction and auditory stimulus. As we see in Table 1, the random assignment ensured an equal distribution to each grip direction, and there were 45 participants …show more content…
The choice of using a two-way ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) for this analysis was due to its ability to compare the means of multiple groups and assess the effects of different categorical factors on a continuous outcome. In this case, ANOVA was ideal for evaluating the impacts of grip direction and auditory stimulus on grip strength, as well as for testing a potential interaction between these factors. Additionally, the model is able to include gender as a variable to account for its known influence on grip strength. Results The analysis showed, in Figure 2, that sex had a significant effect on grip strength (P-value 0.001), with males generally exhibiting higher grip strength than females, as we might expect. In contrast, grip direction did not significantly affect grip strength (P-value = 0.605), indicating there was no substantial difference whether the palm was up or down. Similarly, the presence of a stressful audio stimulus did not significantly impact grip strength (P-value = 0.508). Additionally, the interaction between grip direction and auditory stimulus did not significantly affect grip strength (P-value = 0.833), meaning the effect of grip direction on grip strength does not depend on the level of auditory