A researcher is carrying out a quasi-experimental study. She has the experimental groups in one lab and a control group in another lab. During the intervention phase of her study, the control school has a small fire that forces participants to leave the lab for one hour. She finds huge differences between the experimental and control groups after the study is completed. While there could be an effect of her intervention, a possible rival hypothesis might be:

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The differential history or selection-history effect refers to an event (in this case, the small fire) that occurs to one group (the control group) but not to the other (the experimental group), which could influence the outcome of the study independently of the experimental manipulation.

A Researcher Is Carrying Out a Quasi-Experimental Study