I need help with experimental psychology :((

Question

Mojo Jojo is conducting an experiment to see if removing the hippocampus in rats’ brains affects their memory. He first trains a group of rats to run a maze until they have all memorized their way through the maze. Then the rats are randomly split into two groups. Group A is placed under an operation wherein their brain hippocampi are removed. Group B is left alone. After Group A has been given enough time to recover, Mojo Jojo tests all the rats again with the same maze to see if they still remember their way through it.

a.What is your research question (1 only)? b. IV ? treatment conditions? d. DV?

e. Measurement/operationalization of DV?

f. extraneous variables/error?

g. Methods of control that should be applied to correct the errors

Answer 1

Hello!

a. Your research question is very open-ended and can have a variety of answers! For example, you could ask does the hippocampus affect memory? Will the removal of the hippocampus negatively affect memory? Anything along these lines.

b/c. Your IV is what is being changed by the researcher, which is the hippocampus (meaning there are 2 treatment conditions: rats having a hippocampus and rats not having a hippocampus).

d. The DV is what is being measured by the experimenters, or what is being affected by the manipulation of the IV. Therefore, the DV is memory.

e. To operationalize means to give a formal, quantative measure for a seemingly vague concept. Your DV is "memory" which can be measured in a variety of ways, but for this experiment memory is operationalized (or defined) by performance on the maze.

f. There are many possible extraneous variables. An extraneous variable, or possible outside effects, can cause errors in the experiment and lead researchers to falsely believe the IV (in this case the hippocampus) affects the DV (memory). For example, there could be possible side effects from the surgery which could affect the rats performance (regardless of the removal of the hippocampus) or there could be an effect of time (if the experimenter gave the rats more/less time between training and testing that could affect their performance).

g. I would ensure to test multiple times to ensure the results are due to the manipulation of the IV.