1) Students watched a cartoon either alone or with others and then rated how funny they found the cartoon to be.
Investigative Question: Will the amount of friends watching a cartoon affect how funny it is?
Independent Variable: The size of the group watching. (Think how are the groups made?)
Dependent Variable: Number of laughs recorded per person or Rating scale of the cartoon afterwards. (Data)
2) A comprehension test was given to students after they had studied textbook material either in silence or with the
television turned on.
Investigative Question: Does the amount of noise affect how well you study?
Independent Variable: How loud the study environment was. (Separated groups into with TV on or in silence)
Dependent Variable: Score on the comprehension test. (Data)
3) Some elementary school teachers were told that a child’s parents were college graduates, and other teachers
were told that the child’s parents had not finished high school; they then rated the child’s academic potential.
Investigative Question: Does your parent’s academic achievements affect your academic potential?
Independent Variable: Parent’s education level. (Groupings)
Dependent Variable: IQ test, TN data, Core Class GPA, PSAT (Fair Data that every student can take)
4) Workers at a company were assigned to one of two conditions: One group completed a stress management
training program; another group of workers did not participate in the training. The number of sick days taken by
these workers was examined for the two subsequent months.
Investigative Question: Will Stress Management Training (SMT) decrease the number of sick days taken?
Independent Variable: Amount of SMT completed (Some went through the training and some did not)
Dependent Variable: Number of sick days taken.
5) Students at a University were split into two groups and each received a different text for a philosophy course.
Once group received a traditional text book, while the other received an interactive textbook on a tablet
computer. After the course, the final exam marks between the two groups of students was compared.
Investigative Question: Does technology increase test scores?
Hypothesis: If a student uses an I-Book for the text, then there will be now increase in the final exam grade.
Independent Variable: The type of text book
Dependent Variable: Final Exam Scores
Constant Variables: The test format, amount of time to take the test, prep materials given, pre-test routine, how the
lessons are given, testing environment, relative age of students…
