Observational vs Experimental Study

A researcher stood at a school parking lot entrance to see if the color of a car is related to the driver not wearing a seatbelt.

• Observational Study

• Experiment

You want to see if students who have a 4.0 grade point average study more than those who do not.

• experiment

• observational study

A professor finds that people who are obese have higher cholesterol levels than those who are not obese.

• Observational Study

• Experiment

In an ________________, a researcher observes and measures characteristics of interest of part of the population but does not change existing conditions.

• Experiment

• Observational Study

A study is conducted to investigate the relationship between owning pets and happiness. 100 subjects are randomly selected and data on whether or not a pet is owned and a happiness score (1‐10, 10 being extremely happy) are obtained.
Is this an OBSERVATIONAL or EXPERIMENTAL study?

• Observational

• Experimental

Individuals are observed and variables are measured without controlling the individuals or the environment

• population

• observational study

• experiment

• secondary data

Individuals are monitored for measures of variables of interest but not influenced in response.

• Observational Study

• Experiment

• Voluntary Response

• Single-Blind

You want to compare the health of students who walk to school to the health of students who ride the bus

• experiment

• observational study

To test the effects of breakfast on grades I ask my students if they ate breakfast and then compare the breakfast eaters grades to the non-breakfast eaters. This is an example of:

• Observational study

• Experiment

Researchers wanted to know if there is a link between proximity to high-tension wires and the rate of leukemia in children. To conduct the study, researchers compared the rate of leukemia for children who lived within 1/2 mile of high-tension wires to the rate of leukemia for children who did not live within 1/2 mile of high-tension wires.

• Observational Study

• Experiment