A psychologist is conducting an experiment to test the influence that coloured backgrounds of pages in textbooks have on the amount of information retained by students. She has a short text printed in three versions, each with a different colour of background. After students in three separate groups read their assigned text, she tests the students' retention. In this study, the three colours are the
A) dependent variable.
B) control variable.
C) independent variable.
D) random variable.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The independent variable is the variable that is intentionally manipulated by the researcher to see its effect on the dependent variable. In this case, the coloured background of the pages is deliberately manipulated by the psychologist, and its effect on the amount of information retained by students is observed. Therefore, the coloured backgrounds are the independent variable in this experiment. The control variable refers to the variable that is kept constant throughout the experiment, and the random variable is a variable that cannot be controlled and can affect the outcome of the study but is not intentionally manipulated by the researcher. Therefore, options A, B, and D are incorrect.

A Psychologist Is Conducting an Experiment to Test the Influence