Question

A biological psychologist developed a new technique that he thought would revolutionize the world of horse racing. He named the drug Delat, and it was his contention that this drug would lead horses to run much faster than they do now. He selected two groups of horses and gave one of the groups injections of Delat twice a week for 8 weeks. Because Delat was known to have some negative effects on the horses’ digestive systems, those horses given the Delat had to be placed on a special lo-carb diet. Those horses not given the Delat were maintained on their regular diet. After the 8-week period, all the horses were timed in a 1-mile race and the mean times for the horses given Delat were significantly faster than the mean times for those not given Delat. The psychologist concluded that his drug was effective.

In this study, the IV of interest is confounded with another variable.

Identify the confounding variable and explain clearly how the confounding occurred.

Answer 1

Confounding variable the diet type because diet type (special lo-carb diet and regulat diet) is not used directly as an independent or dependent variable, but it is related to the independent variable.

Confounding is occurred because the Delat drug was known to have some negative effects on horses' digestive system, so a new variable diet type is introduced, which will help in keeping the digetive system normal. So, the confounding is occurred when the new diet is used for those horses who used to take the new drug.