Subjects in the weapon condition were only slightly, but not significantly, less
ID: 131218 • Letter: S
Question
Subjects in the weapon condition were only slightly, but not significantly, less accurate than controls on the 20-item questionnaire. Weapon present subjects were correct on 45.8% of the items, while control (weapon absent) subjects were correct on 50.3% of the items, t(34) = 1.37, p > .05, one tailed.
1. What kind of study design is this (experimental or correlational)?
2. If experimental, what is the independent variable?
3. If experimental, what is the dependent variable?
4. What kind of statistical test did the author run, and how do you know the used this test?
5. What do you think the null and alternative hypotheses are in this study?
Explanation / Answer
This is an experimental study design. In this experimental, study the independent variable is; Weapon presence as this is the variable that we can change. In this experimental, study the dependent variable is; the correctness of the subject; as this is the variable that we will record i.e. observe. A t-test for statistical significance was conducted in this experiment to find the significance level of the finding i.e. p-value; which is given as .05.