Professor Hebb is studying whether learning is affected by different environments. He raises some rats in cages with many interesting objects to play on and explore. Other rats are raised in isolated, barren cages with none of the interesting objects. Later, Hebb carefully records how many attempts it takes each rat to learn to run a maze with no mistakes. What is the independent variable in this study?
A)how many attempts it takes each rat to learn to run a maze
B)being raised in an interesting or a barren environment
C)cost of the conducting the experiment
D)number of rats in the study

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The independent variable is the variable that the researcher manipulates, which is the type of environment in which the rats are raised (interesting or barren). The dependent variable is the variable that is being measured and will be affected by the independent variable, which is the number of attempts it takes each rat to learn to run the maze with no mistakes. Therefore, the correct choice is B. The cost of conducting the experiment (C) and the number of rats in the study (D) are not the independent variable in this study.

Professor Hebb Is Studying Whether Learning Is Affected by Different