Question

Do blood-building drugs help brain development in babies born prematurely? Researchers randomly assigned 53 babies, born more than a month premature and weighing less than 3 pounds, to one of three groups. Babies either received injections of erythropoietin (EPO) three times a week, darbepoetin once a week for several weeks, or no treatment. Results? Babies who got the medicines scored much better by age 4 on measures of intelligence, language, and memory than the babies who received no treatment.

How was replication was used in this experiment?
A)All of the babies were premature with a birth weight of less than three pounds.
B)Babies were measured on multiple variables – intelligence, language and memory.
C)The babies were randomly assigned to the different treatments.
D)There were 53 infants in the study, presumably about 17 infants in each treatment group.
E)There were three different treatments used in the experiment.

Answer 1

In the experiment on premature babies, replication was achieved through the random assignment of babies to different treatments, which helps to avoid bias and validate the outcomes.

Step-by-step explanation:

Understanding the Replication in the Premature Babies Experiment

The student is asking about how replication was used in an experiment that assessed the effects of blood-building drugs on brain development in babies born prematurely. Replication is a method used to ensure that results are reliable and not due to random chance. In the context of the experiment provided:

• Random assignment of babies to the different treatments ensures that the treatment groups are statistically equivalent.
• The use of multiple dependent variables, such as intelligence, language, and memory, provides a broader assessment of the drugs' effects.
• Having approximately 17 infants in each treatment group (assuming there were 53 infants evenly distributed) increases the confidence in the results by using a sufficient sample size.

The correct answer for how replication was used in this experiment is C) The babies were randomly assigned to the different treatments. This random assignment helps to avoid bias and makes it more likely that the observed effects of the treatments are due to the treatments themselves and not other factors.