Make sure your answers are clear, thorough, and that you address each part of the question. Please label each section in your paper (the bolded sections I-V). Your goal is to demonstrate what you have learned this semester.
Jack and James have developed a training program for kindergartners to increase their speed in completing an obstacle course. They have noticed throughout the training program, that when the kindergartners show increased speed, they also drink more water during the day. Despite seeing this relationship, Jack and James don’t know if the increase in speed is causing the increased water intake or if the extra water is causing the increased speed. It should also be noted (even though Jack and James aren’t thinking about it), that the kindergartners have started a new rest time pattern, resting for two hours each school day, the same time that they started training the kindergartners to complete the obstacle course more quickly.
Developing a Causal Hypothesis.
The Third Variable Problem. Discuss what the third variable problem is as you describe the relationship among obstacle course speed, water intake, and sleep schedule. From your explanation of the third variable problem, develop a causal hypothesis to test.
Determining Cause. Before you can test your causal hypothesis, you first need to describe the evidence one needs to be able to conclude the relationship is, indeed, a causal one. Using the context of your hypothesis, describe the three pieces of evidence we need to conclude causation.
Designing an Experiment. Develop a research experiment to test the hypothesis you came up with in Part I. Address each of the following as you describe your study.
Describe the design you will be using and discuss why you chose this particular design over any others [i.e., between subject, within subjects, factorial design, etc]
Identify which variable(s) in your hypothesis is/are your independent variable(s) and which is your dependent variable. Discuss in detail the operational definitions you will use for these variables in your study.
Feel free to be creative here, just don’t use manipulations that may harm the kindergartners, and be sure to clearly explain the purpose of anything that you make up.
Discuss how confounds threaten internal validity and how you will protect against confounds in your design. Be sure to explain the concept of internal validity in your discussion.
Determining and Interpreting Results.
Discuss the difference between descriiptive and inferential statistics, and identify which descriiptive and which inferential statistics you would use to analyze your data.
Identify the null hypothesis for your study and discuss the types of decisions you could make regarding your research hypothesis. Describe how you would determine if your
results are statistically significant, what that means, and the types of errors you could be making. Feel free to be creative when think of who the “population” is.
Generalizing Results. Discuss the threats to external validity, and any other threats to generalizability, that could exist in your study. Be sure to explain the concept of external validity.
Future Research. Assume your research hypothesis is supported by your study. Discuss the importance of replicating the study. Describe the different types of replications that you could do and any changes to your design that would a) enhance your generalizability of the results and b) enhance your confidence that your conclusion is accurate.
