At a local health club, a researcher samples 75 people whose primary exercise is cardiovascular and 75 people whose primary exer
cise is strength training. The researcher’s objective is to assess the affect of type of exercise on cholesterol. Each subject reported to a clinic to have his or her cholesterol measured. The subjects were unaware of the purpose of the study, and the technician measuring the cholesterol was not aware of the subject’s type of exercise. This approach is a)
an observational study.
b) an experiment, but not a double-blind experiment.
c) a double-blind experiment.
d)
fundamentally flawed because only a well-designed experiment with randomized assignment to treatments can be used to determine a cause-and-effect relationship.
Basically, this is an observational study because the researcher does not apply any treatment.
It's not an experiment because there is no experimentation involved. :)
It's not double-blind because in that case the researcher would have to apply something to two kinds of groups. one aware one the other not. not the case.
It's not D because The observations are comparing two kinds of subjects and they are not looking for a cause and effect.
This is an example of an observational study. An observational study refers to a study in which a researcher draws inferences from a population without interfering with it. In this case, the independent variable is not under the control of the researcher. This is an example of an observational study because the researcher is simply measuring the effect of each type of training, as opposed to interfering with the subjects.
