Question

A researcher hypothesizes that increasing daily exercise will lead to better sleep quality. To test this, the researcher monitors a group of participants as they increase their physical activity over several weeks. The researcher assigns different amounts of physical activity to different groups, with one group being assigned no physical activity. a) What type of study is this? (1 point) Responses Experiment Experiment Simulation Simulation Survey Survey Observational Study Observational Study Question 2 b) What is a possible confounding variable that could affect these results? (State a possible confounding variable and explain why it is a possible confounding variable.) (2 points)

Answer 1

a) The type of study described is an Experiment. In this study, the researcher is actively manipulating the independent variable (amount of physical activity) and assessing its effect on the dependent variable (sleep quality) among different groups of participants.

b) A possible confounding variable that could affect these results is dietary habits. This is a possible confounding variable because the nutritional intake of the participants could influence their sleep quality independently of their physical activity levels. If some groups consume healthier diets while others do not, any observed difference in sleep quality could be attributed to dietary habits rather than only the variation in physical activity. This could potentially skew the results and make it difficult to determine the true relationship between exercise and sleep quality.