Question

Researchers conducted a study to examine the effect of music on exam scores. They predicted that scores would be higher when students listened to soft music compared to no music during the exam. One hundred (50 male, 50 female) students were randomly assigned to either the soft music or no music conditions. Students in the music condition listened to music using headphones during the exam. Students in the no music condition completed the exam as they normally would. As predicted exam scores were significantly higher in the soft music condition compared to the no music condition. The independent variable is: The dependent variable is: Is there anything in the study description that could be a confound? What is it? Does this study have low or high internal validity?Explain.

Answer 1

Answer:

dependent: exam score, independent: presence of music,

confounding can be the fact that students in no music condition completed exam as they normally would

high validity

Explanation:

Dependent variable is the variable whose value depends on independent varaible. As independent variable is changed, the value of dependent variable changes

Students in no music condition completed exam as they normally would can be confounding as no description is given about how they would noramlly complete an exam. Any other factor and not no music condition, in normal exam condition could have affected their scores.

The experiment has high validity as the exam scores of student exposed to music was significantly higher than those not exposed to the music. The results also proved the hypothesis.