Dr. Ramos is interested in studying how indoor temperature can influence people's sleep quality during the summer. A sample of 100 households is selected in which the residents keep their houses at 76 degrees during the summer. The residents wear a monitoring device that measures their sleep cycles for several nights to get baseline readings. Then, 50 of the homes are randomly assigned to the warm temperature condition in which the residents agree to keep their houses at 82 degrees Fahrenheit. In the other 50 houses, the residents agree to keep their houses at 70 degrees. For several nights, Dr. Ramos collects the sleep data for the people living in the houses to see how the residents' sleep patterns have changed. In this study, the independent variable is the ____.
A) temperature of the houses
B) quality of sleep
C) number of warm houses
D) number of cool houses

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The independent variable in this study is the temperature of the houses. The study is looking at how different temperatures (76, 70, and 82 degrees Fahrenheit) influence people's sleep quality, making the temperature the independent variable. B is incorrect because sleep quality is the dependent variable that will be assessed and analyzed based on the independent variable. C and D are incorrect because the number of warm or cool houses is not the independent variable but rather the result of the study design, where 50 of the 100 households were assigned to warm or cool temperature conditions.

Dr Ramos Is Interested in Studying How Indoor Temperature Can