Psychologists Have Found That People Are Generally Reluctant to Transmit

Psychologists have found that people are generally reluctant to transmit bad news to their peers. This phenomenon has been named the ʺMUM effect.ʺ To investigate the cause of the MUM effect,
Undergraduates at a university participated in an experiment. Each subject was asked to
Administer an IQ test to another student and then provide the test taker with his or her percentile
Score. (Unknown to the subject, the test taker was a bogus student who was working with the
Researchers.) The experimenters manipulated two factors, subject visibility and success of test
Taker, each at two levels. Subject visibility was either visible or not visible to the test taker. Success
Of test taker was either top 20% or bottom 20%. Ten subjects were randomly assigned to each of the
2 x 2 = 4 experimental conditions. Then the time (in seconds) between the end of the test and the
Delivery of the percentile score from the subject to the test taker was measured. (This variable is
Called the latency to feedback.) What type of experimental design was employed in this study?

A) completely randomized design with four treatments
B) randomized block design with four treatments and 10 blocks
C) 2 x 2 factorial design with 10 replications
D) 4 x 20 factorial design with no replications