Question

Sophia is conducting an experiment to see if eating gummy bears before a race makes athletes run faster. she plans to give some runners gummy bears, and other runners won’t get any gummy bears. she will then compare their race times. what would a psychologist label as an independent variable in this experiment?

a. the number of runners who participate
b. the race times for the runners
c. the consuming or not consuming of the gummy bears
d. the flavors of the different gummy bears

Answer 1

In Sophia’s experiment to see if eating gummy bears makes athletes run faster, the independent variable is the consumption or not consumption of the gummy bears.

Step-by-step explanation:

In the context of Sophia’s experiment regarding the impact of eating gummy bears before a race on athletes' performance, a psychologist would label the consumption, or lack thereof, of the gummy bears as the independent variable.

This is the variable that Sophia is purposely changing to observe whether it has an effect on the runners' race times, which would be considered the dependent variable.

This experiment aligns with common practices in experimental design, where changes to the independent variable are observed to see if they cause a change in the dependent variable.