At Folger University,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 and 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, caffeine is the independent variable because it is being manipulated by the researchers to observe its effect. Word recall is the dependent variable because it is the outcome being measured to see how it is affected by the presence or absence of caffeine.