A researcher examines the impact of service learning on critical-thinking skills. The researcher uses a sample of college students enrolled in a developmental psychology course. The researcher matches the students based on their marital status and then randomly assigns one student from each pair to one of two sections of the class. The first section is the control group-they meet in a discussion section one hour each week. The second section is the service learning group-they volunteer at a local child care center one hour each week. At the completion of the course, all the students take an exam to assess their critical-thinking skills. The critical-thinking scores can range from 1 to 15, with higher scores reflecting higher skill levels. The output from the data analysis is shown below:

a. What type of dependent design is this (matching or repeated measures)? Explain your answer.
b. What's the IV for this study? What are its levels? What's the DV?
c. State your null and alternative hypotheses.
d. How many participants do you have?
e. Describe the results as you would in a Results section.
f. Explain what your findings mean (interpret the findings) as you would in a Discussion section.
g. Do you think the researcher chose a good matching variable, and why or why not? If you were conducting this study, what matching variable would you have chosen?

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T-Test Paired Samples Statistics Mean 8.2500 9.4167 Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean 1.18785 83900 contol 12 4.11483 servicelearn 12 2.90637 Paired Differences 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean Sig. (2 df tailed) Mean Lower Upper Pair 1 1.16667 2.28963 660962.62143 288101.765 105