Variables in Psychology

What is the Dependent Variable in the research: Does eating breakfast improve test scores?

• Whether the participant ate breakfast

• What time the participant ate breakfast

• The grade secured in the test

• Number of tests taken

Sara wants to see whether consumption of coffee increased a participant's productivity. What is the IV in her research?

• Whether participant had coffee or not

• Increase in productivity

• Brand of coffee

• The times the participant had coffee throughout the day

Taha had heard his relatives talking about the effects of sugar-free chewing gum on memory. What would be Taha's operationalized DV?

• Psychometric Test to assess learning style

• Quantity of consumption of sugar-free chewing gum pellets

• Asking participants about fondest childhood memories

• Score in Sequence-Recall Test

Which of the following are characteristics of variables in general?

• They are liable to vary/change

• Variables cannot be controlled

• They don't always have to be numerical

• We can only have independent and dependent variables

Research looks at the impact of ___________ on ___________.

• Extraneous Variables on Dependent Variables

• Dependent Variables on Independent Variables

• Independent Variables on Dependent Variables

• Dependent Variables on Extraneous Variables

What is a confounding variable?

• A variable that impacts both IV and DV

• A variable that impacts only the IV

• A variable that impacts only the DV

• A variable that is controlled

In a controlled experiment there is a greater chance of _________ between the IV and DV because the impact of extraneous variables is minimized.

• Relatedness

• Correlation

• Causality

• Statistical significance

Choose all the appropriate traits of a variable:

• Exhaustive

• Significant

• Mutually exclusive

• Descriptive

Dr. X does a study with three groups of ten students each. Each group consumes a different amount of caffeine (high, medium, and low amounts). Dr. X then measures all of the students on how well they do on a concentration test. What is the INDEPENDENT variable in this study?

• The students

• The number of students

• Level of caffeine

• Total number of participants

The dependent variable is __________ and the independent variable is ____________.

• Measured, manipulated

• manipulated, measured

• calculated, categorized

• categorized, calculated