You Are Doing an Experiment to Determine If Caffeine Consumption

question 30

Essay

You are doing an experiment to determine if caffeine consumption affects reaction time.
A.Which is the dependent variable?
B.Which is the independent variable?
C.Briefly describe some ways you might manipulate the independent variable.
D.Name three stimuli you could use, and how you might measure reaction time for each.
E.Write an appropriate hypothesis for this study.
F.You compute the following average values from your experiment.What would be a logical conclusion for these data?
Average caffeine consumer's reaction time: 400 ms
Average noncaffeine consumer's reaction time: 650 ms
G.Sketch a simple graph to convey these results to your classmates.What kind of graph did you choose? Why? Which variable did you plot on the x-axis? Which one did you plot on the y-axis? Why?
H.Do the results of this experiment support the hypothesis you chose?

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Definitions:

Absolute Threshold

The minimum intensity of a stimulus that one can detect at least 50% of the time.

Sensory Memory

A type of storage that holds sensory information for a very short period of time, usually under one second.

Stimulus Set Point

The threshold at which a stimulus is strong enough to elicit a response or reaction.

Just Noticeable Difference

The minimum difference in stimulation that a person can detect 50% of the time, a concept also known as the threshold of sensation.