Question

Ellen wants to see if the level of lighting in a room will affect the performance of individuals on an IQ test. One group in her study is placed in a room with very bright lights and a second group is placed in a room with more normal lighting. She finds that the individuals in the bright light group have better scores on the test than do the individuals in the normal light group. The difference between the two groups' scores is statistically significant, which means that the ____.​

Answer 1

Lighting significantly affects performance

Step-by-step explanation:

In this study, Ellen took two groups and applied the same IQ test to both of them. The only variable that changed between the groups was the level of lighting in the room. The first group was placed in a room with very bright lights and the second group was placed in a room with more normal lighting.

Individuals in the first group did better in the IQ test and she found that the difference between the two scores was statistically significant.

We say that a result is "statistically significant" when it is not likely to occur randomly but rather is likely to be attributable to a specific cause.

So we can say that the better performance in the first group tests were not likely to occur randomly but it can be attributable to a specific cause.

Since the only variable that was different between the groups was the lightning, we can conclude that lighting significantly affects performance.