An educator wishes to study the effects of sleep deprivation on the ability to concentrate. He decides to study the students in a calculus class. After consultation with a statistician, the educator decides to randomly allocate students to either a group that will sleep for 8 hours the night before class or 6 hours. The educator does not know which group a student belongs to when she or he comes to class. The educator, after talking to some students and before the experiment, decides that the number of classes students have on the same day before calculus could potentially confound the study and wishes to make an adjustment. The design that allows for such an adjustment is called:
A)a randomized block design.
B)a placebo controlled completely randomized design.
C)a double-blinded design.
D)a matched block design.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

A randomized block design allows for the grouping of subjects based on a certain characteristic (in this case, the number of classes students have before the calculus class) before they are randomly assigned to treatment groups. This design helps to control for the confounding variable, ensuring that its effects are evenly distributed across treatment groups.

An Educator Wishes to Study the Effects of Sleep Deprivation