Researchers were interested in whether different kinds of music, listened to in different colored rooms, would have an effect on participants’ relaxation levels. Forty participants were randomly assigned to listen to either classical or heavy metal music for 15 minutes while seated at a table in a room with the walls painted blue or red. After the 15 minutes, participants were asked to rate their level of relaxation on the following 1-7 scale.
Not at all relaxed
More anxious than relaxed
Somewhat anxious
Neutral
Somewhat relaxed
More relaxed than anxious
Very relaxed
The researchers predicted that listening to classical music would be more relaxing for participants than listening to heavy metal music and that this effect would be even higher when they listened in a blue room.
Is this study observational or experimental? How do you know?
What is the dependent variable?
How was the dependent variable operationalized?
What type of variable is it? (Nominal, Ordinal, Scale?)
What are the independent variables?
What are the levels of each independent variable?
What type of variable is independent variable? (Nominal, Ordinal, Scale?)
Is this a between-subjects or within-subjects design? How do you know?
There is a statistical decision-making tree in Appendix E in your textbook. Using that decision tree, which statistical test would be most appropriate for these data?