Contrast the researcher's original research plan with the colleague's suggestions. Explain how the nature of the study would change from a single-variable non-experimental design to a multi-variable design if she adopts the colleague's suggestions, and identify the single characteristic the original plan intends to describe.
Case context: A psychologist wants to study how people form impressions of others. She plans to show participants photos of strangers' faces and ask them to guess the strangers' personality traits. She wants to determine the overall accuracy rate of these first impressions. Her colleague suggests that she should also manipulate the exposure time of the photos (e.g., 1 second vs. 5 seconds) to see if exposure time affects accuracy, or check if there is a correlation between the participant's age and their accuracy.
Question: Contrast the researcher's original research plan with the colleague's suggestions. Explain how the nature of the study would change from a single-variable non-experimental design to a multi-variable design if she adopts the colleague's suggestions, and identify the single characteristic the original plan intends to describe.
Sample answer: The researcher's original plan is a single-variable non-experimental design because its sole objective is to measure and describe a single, isolated characteristic: the accuracy of first impressions as it naturally occurs. If she adopts the colleague's suggestions to manipulate exposure time or analyze the correlation with participant age, the study would no longer be single-variable. Instead, it would involve manipulating independent variables (exposure time) or exploring statistical relationships between multiple factors (age and accuracy), turning it into an experimental or correlational design.
Key points:
- Identifies the original design as measuring a single, isolated characteristic (accuracy of impressions).
- Classifies the original design as single-variable non-experimental.
- Explains that manipulating exposure time introduces an independent variable manipulation.
- Explains that analyzing age and accuracy explores statistical relationships between multiple factors.
- Concludes that the suggestions change the study from single-variable to multi-variable/experimental/correlational.
Rubric: The response must compare the original plan with the suggestions. It should show comprehension that the original study is single-variable and non-experimental because it only measures one isolated characteristic (accuracy of impressions). It must explain that manipulating variables (exposure time) or looking at relationships (age vs. accuracy) moves the study away from single-variable research into exploring relationships or experimental manipulation.
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