You're conducting a study to determine whether children can learn to use a new type of educational software on a touch-screen tablet computer. You try the software in a group of 10-year olds and a group of 8-year olds, and are surprised to find that the younger children perform better with the new software. You then find out that the younger group had been exposed to touch-screen tablets in the first grade, but the technology wasn't available when the older group had been in first grade. Which of the following effects has had an impact on your research results?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The cohort effect is the impact of being born and raised in a particular time period and environment. In this case, the exposure to touch-screen tablets in the first grade is a characteristic of the younger group's cohort and has led to their superior performance on the educational software. This demonstrates the importance of considering cohort effects in research involving different age groups. The placebo effect refers to a response to a treatment or intervention that is not actually due to the treatment itself. The cross-sectional effect refers to differences in data between groups at a particular point in time, rather than differences due to age. The artifact effect refers to errors or biases in data collection or analysis.

You're Conducting a Study to Determine Whether Children Can Learn