It's Mother's Day today, and in honor of that, I've found a story about risky teen behavior–specifically, risky driving. In this study, the researchers created a risky driving game.
In the study, researchers designed a driving simulation test that actually encouraged risk-taking behavior, and asked 25 teens to complete the simulation as quickly as possible. At each of the 26 intersections in the simulation, the teens had the option to stop for a yellow light, which would cause a three-second delay, or speed through the light — which was the fastest option — if they didn't crash. If they did crash, it caused a six-second delay in their total time.
The article then mentions the "Mom" variable and describes the results:
The teens went through the course once each on their own, and once under the gaze of mom.
Driving alone, the participants ran through the yellow lights around 55 percent of the time, but when mom was there, that rate dropped to 45 percent.
a) So far, what kind of study is this? An experiment? A correlational design?
b) What is the IV? Is it manipulated as independent groups or within groups? What kind of experimental design is this? (Pretest-posttest? Posttest-only? Repeated measures? Concurrent measures? Factorial?)
c) What is the DV here?
d) Sketch a graph of the study that you've found so far .
Here's more info on the study:
…the researchers also found that having mom in the car changed teens' brain activity. When the teens were alone, running through a yellow light caused an uptick in blood flow to the brain's reward center, fMRI images showed. But when they were with their mothers, the images showed that the reward center lit up when they made the safer choice, to stop at the light.
e) The paragraph above means, first, that the researchers used a second DV. What is it?
f) This paragraph also suggests that there is now a factorial design. One independent variable is still Mom (vs. alone), but the new variable is whether they teens made a safe choice or a risky choice. Is "type of choice" an IV? or a PV?
g) Sketch the results of the outcome they've described. (which DV will you put on the y axis?)