At Folger U., Drs. Chase and Sanborn are conducting an experiment on the effects of caffeine on memory. Participants are randomly assigned to a caffeine or a no caffeine group; their recall of items on a word list is later assessed. Which pair below correctly names and identifies the variables in this experiment?
A) word recall - control variable; caffeine - experimental variable
B) word recall - independent variable; caffeine - dependent variable
C) word recall - dependent variable; caffeine - independent variable
D) word recall - experimental variable; caffeine - control variable

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

In this experiment, the independent variable is caffeine, as it is being manipulated by the researchers. The dependent variable is word recall, as it is what is being measured as a result of the manipulation of caffeine. Therefore, choice C correctly identifies the variables.