Ricardo develops a research study to help answer his research question: Do individuals in the northeast part of the United States have a different dialect than individuals in the southern part of the United States? He randomly assigns participants into groups from Louisiana and Mississippi as well as from Maine and New Hampshire. He is interested in studying their dialects. Half of the participants are randomly assigned to the personal interview condition and the other half is randomly assigned to the pre-recorded message condition. Participants in the pre-recorded message condition read and record a preselected passage three times. Ricardo then codes their dialects based on a coding system and has two other researchers code the dialects as well. Based on this information which of the following would be considered the dependent variable (DV)?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The dependent variable (DV) is the outcome that the researcher is interested in measuring or observing. In this study, Ricardo is interested in studying the dialects of participants from different geographic regions, and he measures these dialects through a coding system. Therefore, the dialect coding is the dependent variable because it is the outcome that changes and is measured based on the independent variable, which in this case is the geographic origin of the participants.

Ricardo Develops a Research Study to Help Answer His Research