Question for my psychology experiment

Question

Hi I’m doing an experiment for my psychology class. My hypothesis is “Listening to music while working out improves your performance.” I will select a few individuals (different age and sex) to run on a treadmill without music. I’ll have them run on a treadmill the next day (same time) but this time they’ll be listening to music while running. After I’ll test their speed, heart rate, and workout length.

Question: what will be the control group and experimental group? Also what will be the independent and dependent variable? Please I really need help, thank you.

Answer 1

Hi CeeCee!

So based off of the info you gave me and the experiment you are doing, you will need to have different groups to be able to test for different outcomes. Since your hypothesis is,"Listening to music while working out improves your performance..." your control group could be one group that is working out WITHOUT music so you can see the improvement the individuals make versus the ones who are not listening music. Your Experimental group would be the ones listening to the music. Your independent variable, which is what you are manipulating, is whether the group is listening to music or not, and your dependent variable, which is what you are measuring, is if working out WITH music improves an individual's performance.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Samantha :)