Question

You want to know if there is a relationship between the amount of time a student spends studying for an exam and that student'sgrade onthe exam.

Identify theexplanatoryandresponsevariables inthissituation.

Solution

Theexplanatoryvariable is the amount of time the student spends studying for the exam.

Theresponsevariableis the student's grade on the exam.

When you alter the time the student studies (explanatory), this changewill affect change in the student's grade (response). You can imagine that as the amount of time spent studying increases, this positively affectsthe student's grade.

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Question

Researchers are investigatingwhether taking aspirin regularly reduces the risk of heart attacks. Four hundred men participate in the study. The men are divided randomly into two groups: one group takes aspirin pills, and the other group takes placebo pills (a pill with no aspirin in it). The men each take one pill a day, and they do not know which group they are in.At the end of the study, researchers will count the number of men in each group who have had heart attacks.

Identify the explanatory and response variables in this situation.

Select the correct answer below:

Explanatory variable:whether a subject had aheart attack

Response variable:the type of pill the men took each day

Explanatory variable: the type of pill the men took each day

Response variable: whether a subject had aheart attack

Explanatory variable: the 400men participating in the study

Response variable: whether a subject had a heart attack

Explanatory variable: the aspirinpills

Response variable: the placebo pills (containing no aspirin)