A psychologist who studies attention designed a study to investigate whether tal

Question

A psychologist who studies attention designed a study to investigate whether talking on a cell phone interferes with driving. She randomly assigned 60 subjects to three conditions: (a) talking while holding cell phone, (b) talking while using a car speaker phone, and (c) no cell phone control condition. All subjects participated in 20 minutes of driving in a high-fidelity car simulator.
Driving performance was measured by a composite score that assessed how well the driver maintained the speed limit, stopped for stop signs and red lights, and signalled appropriately when turning or changing lanes. Each subject drove 10 minutes under light driving conditions and 10 minutes and heavy traffic.
The results showed that there was no difference in driving performance between hand-held cell phones and hand-free cell use, but both of these conditions were significantly worse than the control condition of no cell phone. Further analysis showed that the difference between the two cell phone conditions and the control condition was significantly higher when subjects were driving under heavy traffic compared to light traffic. Overall, performance was worse for heavy traffic than light traffic.

1) What was the within-subject independent variable?

A) cell phone use (hands, no hands, control)

B) male vs female

C) number of minutes in the simulator

D) traffic condition (light traffic, heavy traffic)

2) What is the between-subject independent variable?

A) cell phone use (hands, no hands, control)

B) male vs female

C) number of minutes in the simulator

D) traffic condition (light traffic, heavy traffic)

Explanation / Answer

1) What was the within-subject independent variable?

Answer : traffic condition (light traffic, heavy traffic)

2) What is the between-subject independent variable?

Answer : cell phone use (hands, no hands, control)

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