The Kansas City school district wanted to conduct an experiment comparing three methods to reduce test anxiety. The district asked for 90 volunteers and then randomly assigned them to three experimental groups.

One group of 30 students engaged in ten minutes of relaxation training during home room every morning before classes started for six months. They learned how to relax their bodies if they were feeling stressed.

Another group of 30 students engaged in creative visualization for ten minutes during home room every morning before classes started for six months. They imagined themselves performing well on tests with no anxiety.

The final group of 30 students, the control group, did not engage in any special activity.

At the start of the school year, the school psychologist, Eleanor Rigsby, administered the Westside Test Anxiety Scale. The highest possible score is 50 which indicates very high test anxiety and the lowest possible score is 10 which indicates very low test anxiety.

With her knowledge of statistics, Ms. Rigsby wants to see if there were any differences between the Westside Test Anxiety Scale scores of three groups at the beginning of the year when the study was just getting underway and the students had not yet started relaxation training or creative visualization

1. What are the independent and dependent variables in Ms. Rigby's question?

2. What are the null and alternative hypotheses?