______ represents an experiment.
A) Two groups of participants (those who are left-handed and those who are right-handed) are asked to perform a speeded cognitive task to compare performance for the two groups
B) Participants take a handedness questionnaire with score indicating the degree of right- and left-handedness to look for a relationship between handedness score and time to complete a cognitive task
C) Participants are randomly assigned to conditions where a cognitive task is given with speeded or non-speeded instructions to determine if there is an effect of instruction type of task performance
D) Participants take an anxiety inventory to look for a relationship between handedness and anxiety level

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Choice C represents an experiment because participants are randomly assigned to different conditions (speeded or non-speeded instructions) to test the effect of the independent variable (instruction type) on the dependent variable (task performance). The other choices represent correlational studies, where the researchers are looking for relationships or associations between variables, but not manipulating an independent variable to see its effect on a dependent variable.

______ Represents an Experiment