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 dependent 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) None of the above are dependent variables

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The dependent variable in Dr. Kang's study is the number of words remembered, as this is the outcome that is being measured and compared between the two groups. The independent variable is the emotional or neutral word list, as this is the variable that is being manipulated to see its effect on the dependent variable. The length of the distractor task and the number of words on the list are not mentioned as factors being manipulated in this study, so they are not dependent variables.

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