Question

1.    2.  A researcher studied the influence of intensity of room illumination (low, medium, and high) on reading speed among fifth graders. Also, children were classified as "good" or "poor" readers from achievement test scores. Each group of children read 700 word passages under all three levels of illumination (three reading trials). The order of trials for each child was randomly determined.

1. Identify the design (e.g., 2 X 2 factorial).

2. Identify the total number of conditions.

3. Identify the independent variable(s) and levels (this could include PVs).

4. Is this an IV X PV design? If so, identify the participant variable(s).

5. Is this a repeated measures (within subject) design? If so, identify the repeated variable(s). And/Or

6. Identify the dependent variable(s).

Answer 1

Analysis of Variance also known as ANOVA is a statistical method used to find the significant difference between one or more than one variables. ANOVA is of two types; one way ANOVA and two way ANOVA. Analysis of variance is also known as f-test. It is used when one variable is manipulated in more than two ways. In the above example, the experimenter is trying to understand the influence of intensity of room illumination (low, medium, and high) on reading speed among fifth graders. Intensity of room illumination is the independent variable which in this case is manipulated in three ways to see its effect on students (fifth graders).

The experimental design used above is the correlation method. Correlation is a cause and effect method which is used to understand the effect of independent variable on the dependent variable. The researcher in the above study wants to understand the effect of intensity of room illumination (independent variable) on reading speed among fifth graders. The combined group of children classified as 'poor' and 'good' (fifth graders) are the dependent variable.

There are three different conditions; low, medium and high. The above study is a within subject design. It is a within subject design because each group of children read 700 word passages under all three levels of illumination.