Question

Researchers are interested in the relationship between exercise and memory. Half of the participants used in this study are male, and half are female. Half the participants walk on a treadmill for 30 minutes, while the other half watches a 30 minute nature video. All participants then complete the Wechsler Memory Scale.

a) Is the study primarily a correlational study, or an experiment? Why do you give the answer you did?

(b) For each study, what are the conceptual variables and corresponding operational definitions of those variables? For experiments, specify the independent and dependent variables.

(c) Provide a possible hypothesis that the researchers may be trying to test. (4 points each)

Answer 1

Ans a) This is correlational study. The researcher is trying to identify relation bteween execerize and memory. Acc to researcher exercize can lead to improvement in memory.

Ans b) Conceptual varaibles of any research hypothesis, they are abstract ideas. Here Memory is conceptual varaiable. Operational definition is how conceptual variables are turned into measured variable, thereby operational definition can be done by watching or doing exercize leads to improvement in memory. Here dependent variable is memory and independent variable is te concept of exercize.

Ans c) Hypothesis is a statement which tries to establish relationship between two variables. Hence possible hypothesis can be " does exercize leads to improvement in memory"