Question

In order to assess whether sense of humor is affected by the amount of sleep, researchers measured students’ reactions to a comedy skit after a regular night’s sleep and after a sleepless night.
In this study, the independent variable is the ___.

a) reactions to the comedy skit.
b) level of sexual stimulation.
c) marital status.
d) sense of humor

Answer 1

Answer:

a) reactions to the comedy skit.

Explanation:

The independent variable is what researchers are observing, it is called independent because researchers do not know how it will react to the conditions it is exposed, in this case, the comedy skit after a regular night’s sleep and after a sleepless night.

Answers b and c have nothing to do with the current experiment.

Answer d could be right but sense of humour will be the final conclusion of the study. First, researchers will observe students´reactions (independent variable) which will lead to a more general conclusion; sense of humor affected by the amount of sleep.