What is the question that this experiment is attempting to answer?

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Code 1: What colour elicits the strongest aggressive behaviour by the male stickleback?

Does the male stickleback react more aggressively to a red-coloured model than to a silver-coloured one?

Is there a relationship between colour and aggressive behaviour?

Does the colour of the fish cause the male to be aggressive?

What fish colour does the stickleback find most threatening?

Code 0: Other responses, including all responses that do not refer to the colour of  the stimulus/model/fish.

What colour will elicit aggressive behaviour in the male stickleback. [Note: No comparative aspect.]

Does the colour of the female stickleback determine the aggressiveness of the male? [Note: The first experiment is not concerned with the gender of the fish.]

Which model does the male stickleback react to most aggressively? [Note: Specific reference must be made to the colour of the fish/model.]

Code 9: Missing.

 During breeding time, if the male stickleback sees a female he will try to attract the female with courtship behaviour that looks like a little dance. In a second experiment, this courtship behaviour is investigated.

Again, three wax models on a piece of wire are used. One is red-coloured; two are silver-coloured with one having a flat belly and the other a round belly. The student counts the number of times (in a given amount of time) that the male stickleback reacts to each model by showing courtship behaviour.

The results of this experiment are shown below.

Code 1: All three correct: No, No, Yes, in that order.

Code 0: Other responses.

Code 9: Missing.

 Experiments have shown that male sticklebacks react with aggressive behaviour tomodels with a red belly, and with courtship behaviour to models with a silver belly.

In a third experiment, the following four models were used in turn:

Code 2: All four correct: C, A, C, B, in that order.

Code 1: Three of the four entries correct.

Code 0: Other responses.

Code 9: Missing.

PISA 2006www.pisa.oecd.org