Jennifer wants to see if the color of the testing room causes test anxiety.She asks 100 participants to come to a modified classroom,and as they walk in,she asks each person to choose either a testing cubicle painted bright red or a testing cubicle painted off white.On the basis of their choices,participants spend 20 minutes in one or the other cubicle solving challenging math problems.Then,they complete a survey asking them questions about how anxious they were during the math test.What's wrong with Jennifer's experiment?
A)She didn't choose an independent variable.
B)She didn't measure a dependent variable.
C)She didn't randomly assign participants to the experimental and control groups.
D)She didn't expose participants to both colors.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The experiment lacks random assignment of participants to the two different cubicles, which means that the groups could differ on some relevant variable that might cause differences in anxiety levels. Without randomization, it is hard to establish causality between the variable manipulated (color of the cubicles) and the dependent variable (test anxiety).

Jennifer Wants to See If the Color of the Testing