Question

Determine whether each situation calls for a survey, an experiment, or an observational study. Explain your reasoning.

1. A research group wants to determine if playing music in a patient waiting room reduces stress levels.
2. A nutrition research group wants to determine whether ninth-grade students who reported having eating breakfast
every school morning had higher standardized test scores than who did not report having eaten breakfast every school
morning.
3. A restaurant plans to ask 100 randomly selected customers to determine which menu item is most popular.

Answer 1

1. Experiment; a sample of patients will be tested which means the members of the sample will be affected by the study (playing music).
2. Observational study; the scores of the participants are observed and compared without them being affected by the study.
3.Survey; the data will be given from opinions by members of the sample population.