Question

A researcher recruited 55 adults and tested their ability to remember a list of words. For each participant, the researcher counted the number of words correctly recalled and recorded their age (in years).

HYPOTHESIS
The research hypothesis is that age is related to memory performance.
This hypothesis is:__________.
a. directional
b. non-directional

Answer 1

b. non-directional

Explanation:

A directional hypothesis can be described as a hypothesis which predicts the direction of impact, either positive or negative, of one variable, especially independent variable, on the other variable which is known as an independent variable. For example, the hypothesis "age reduces memory performance" is a directional hypothesis. The reason is that "reduces" show the direction that age has a negative effect on memory performance.

On the other hand, non-directional hypothesis can be described as a hypothesis that does not predict the direction of impact but only states the relationship between two variables. For example, the research hypothesis is in the question that "age is related to memory performance" is non-directional hypothesis. This because the word "related" in the hypothesis only indicate that there is a relationship between the two variables, not the direction of effect of one variable on the other.