Question

A group of researchers is designing an experiment to test whether meditation helps people fall asleep faster. The researchers selected a sample of 150 people, and over the next two months, 75 of them will meditate nightly for 15 minutes before going to bed whereas the remaining 75 will follow their normal bedtime routine. At the end of the two months, the researchers will compare the average length of time it takes each group to fall asleep.Why is it important that the researchers use randomization to assign each of the people to a treatment group?1. Randomization prevents the researchers from specifically assigning all people who regularly fall asleep quickly to meditate nightly for 15 minutes before going to bed.2.Randomization prevents the people from selecting their own treatment group.3.Randomization ensures that there will be an equal number of people in each treatment group.4.Randomization eliminates lurking variables from the experiment.5.Randomization ensures each treatment group will be similar in everything except whether or not they meditate before bed.

Answer 1

Option 4 is the correct answer.

Step-by-step explanation:

Randomization eliminates lurking variables from the experiment.

Randomization is adopted due to the fact that it removes lurking variables. By lurking variables we mean the extraneous variables which are unknown but can effect the other variables that are of interest.

Randomization is necessary in experiments to ensure that the generated result may not be biased or misleading.

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