If we assume that Watson and Rayner accepted their study as an experiment, we need to answer the following question: Are there any confounds in the study? If so, give specific examples (please see the explanation ofconfoundbelow). If not, please justify your answer given the explanation ofconfoundbelow.

In an experiment, aconfoundis a variable whose effect on the dependent variable (DV) is so tied to the independent variable (IV) that the researcher cannot separate the effect of the confound from the effect of the IV. Here's an example. Let's say I study the effect of a pregnant rat's exposure to cocaine (IV) on the weight of her newborn pups (DV). I predict that cocaine will stunt the fetus' growth. I have one group of rats that gets cocaine (the experimental group) and another group that doesn't (the control group). Once the pups are born, I find that those in the experimental group are significantly smaller than the ones in the control group. Great! That's what I predicted. But...there's a problem. All the rat mothers in the experimental group weighed significantly less than the mothers in the control group at the beginning of the study. So, we have to ask, did the difference in pup weight occur because of the cocaine or because of the difference in the mothers' weights? We cannot know the answer, as we didn'tcontrolfor the mother's weight at the outset (e.g., by randomly assigning rats to each condition). Our experiment is ruined. We have no idea what caused the difference in the DV between the groups. We have wasted our time. Bummer.