Question

Identify the dependent and independent variables on the following scenario: A researcher is studying the effect of sleep on academic performance, thinking that less sleep will lead to lower grades. She has some people sleep six hours per night, some people sleep three hours per night, and some people sleep as much as they want. She then monitors academic behavior during English and math classes among participants.

Answer 1

And independent variable (IV) is a variable that is not dependant on something else. a dependant variable (DV) depends on something else.

in this situation the IV is the amount of sleep. The DV would be the academic behavior. if it was in a chart it would be like this

        X                                             Y
amount of sleep                 academic behavior 
        6                                              ?
        3                                              ?
as much as they want                     ?

Answer 2

I think that the dependent variable would be the academic performance because she hypothesizes that the performance depends on how many hours of sleep you get. And the amount of sleep would be the independent variable. I am not exactly sure, but I hope you could find this somewhat helpful!