A weight-management researcher was interested in whether the size of breakfast could deter overall food consumption throughout the rest of the day.He creates two breakfast groups, a 350-calorie breakfast and a 750-calorie breakfast, assigns six participants to each group, and tracks their total calories eaten in one day.Because of the detailed attention needed to accurately interview participants about their eating, he works with the high-calorie group and has his assistant interview the low-calorie group.What is the confounding variable in this study?
A) total calories consumed
B) the low- and high-calorie breakfasts
C) weight loss experienced in the day
D) the researcher conducting the interviews

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The confounding variable in this study is the researcher conducting the interviews. The researcher is only conducting interviews with the high-calorie group, which means that there may be differences in how the data is collected between the two groups. This could potentially affect the results of the study, making it difficult to determine whether breakfast size or the way the data was collected is responsible for any observed differences in total calories consumed.

A Weight-Management Researcher Was Interested in Whether the Size of Breakfast