Question

Some participants reported owning a fidget spinner. Imagine the researchers couldn't afford to buy fidget spinners for their experiment, so they asked participants to bring a fidget spinner when they came to the lab if they had one. If they then assigned all of the participants who owned a fidget spinner to the spinner condition, and everyone who didn't own one to the no spinner condition, which of the following would be most harmed?

A) External validity
B) Internal validity
C) Reliability
D) Construct validity

Answer 1

The aspect of experimental design that would be most harmed in this scenario is external validity, the generalizability of the findings to the larger population.

Step-by-step explanation:

The aspect of experimental design that would be most harmed in this scenario is A) External validity. External validity refers to the generalizability of the findings from the study to the larger population. By relying on participants to bring their own fidget spinners, the researchers may introduce a selection bias and limit the ability to generalize the results to the population as a whole.