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Unit 2 · Research Methodology & Statistics Psychology · Dec 2021/June 2022 · 12 Jul 2022

An investigator designs an experiment to see the effect of illumination level and duration of visual signal on detectability of change in illumination in a dark room on 120 randomly selected college-going male students. She decided to use low and high levels of illumination and three levels of duration of stimulus — 30, 50 and 70 milliseconds — through an electric chronoscopic instrument. The investigator used a separate-group design for the various combinations of treatments. Participants were required to press a 'Yes' button if they detected the signal or a 'No' button if they did not. Each participant was given a total of 50 trials within which 10 signals were randomly presented. Proportions of hits and false alarms were computed for each participant and analysed to answer the research questions.

Identify the variables that were controlled by the experimenter.

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Correct answer: C. Gender and ambient illumination

Explanation

All participants were male (gender held constant) and testing was in a dark room (ambient illumination held constant).

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