Question

1. Allen and Pickering (2011) had 124 undergraduates each read a Scientific American article which discussed rising ocean levels and then, later, answer 20 multiple-choice questions regarding the article. One half of the participants read the article on a computer screen; the other half of the participants was given a paper copy of the article to read. In addition, another variable of interest was amount of time allowed to read article—half of the participants in both the computer and hard-copy groups were asked to study the article for a fixed amount of time; the other half were told that they could study the article for as long as they wanted. All participants knew before reading the article that they would be later tested on it. There were an equal number of participants assigned to each of the conditions, using restricted random assignment.
   1. Identify the design of this experiment.
   2. How many conditions are in the experiment?
   3. Identify the independent variable(s) and dependent variable(s).
   4. Is there a participant variable in this experiment? If so, identify it. If not, can you suggest a participant variable that might be included?

Answer 1

Answer to the question)

The information provided in the question is as follows:

• 124 undergraduates each read a Scientific American article
• then they answers multiple choice questions regarding the article
• 62 participants read article on computer screen , and remaining 62 participants read article on paper copy
• Again: 31 participants from each group were provided fixed time to read, whereas rest of the 31 participants in each of the groups were provided sufficient time as per their need to read the article
• All participants knew this reading is being done for some sort of experiment
• .

Part a)

the design of the experiment is Completed Randomized Block design, where the fixed separations or blocks are formed, and participants are randomly assigned to each of the blocks

Part b)

There have been two conditions:

The first condition is based on the mode of reading: computer of hard copy

The second condition is based on time: fixed time and free time

Part c)
There are two independent variables: the mode reading the article ( hard copy vs computer) and the time provided to read the article ( fixed time or all time as per the need)

The dependent variable would be the score obtained in the multiple choice test conducted after reading the article

Part d)

There are no participant variables in this experiment. The best participant variables that can be included must be: gender. The preference of males and females for computer screen and hard copy reading may be different. Hence including gender of the participants may be helpful