RESEARCH STUDY 3.4
Dr. Kang, a cognitive psychologist, conducts an experiment examining the effect of emotion on memory. He provides lists of 15 words to two groups of participants at his university. He puts the names of all the participants in a hat. The first 20 names he assigns to Group A and the last 20 he assigns to Group B. Group A is given a list of words that are very emotional in content (e.g., passion, murder). Group B is given a list of words that are neutral in content (e.g., houseplant, desk). He then measures how many words each group is able to remember after being distracted for 5 minutes by watching a video about the history of the university. He finds that Group A remembers 15% more words than Group B.
-Refer to Research Study 3.4 above to answer the following question. Which of the following is the independent variable in Dr.Kang's study?
A) The length of the distractor task
B) The number of words remembered
C) The emotional or neutral word list
D) The number of words on the list
E) All of the above are independent variables

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The independent variable in the study is the emotional or neutral word list provided to each group of participants. This is the variable that is manipulated by the researcher in order to measure its effect on memory. The other options listed are either outcome measures (B) or potential confounding variables (A, D). E is not the correct answer as not all listed options are independent variables.

RESEARCH STUDY 3.4 Dr. Kang, a Cognitive Psychologist, Conducts an Experiment Examining the Experiment