Check your understanding of the independent variables (IV)and dependent variables (DV) in the following investigations. One of the studies has two IVs and one has two DVs.
Identify the independent and dependent variables.
1. A researcher is interested in how heart rate and blook pressure are affected by viewing a violent film sequence as opposed to a nonviolent film sequence.
2. An organizational psychologist develops a new training program to improve clerks' courtesy to customers in a large chain of retail stores. She conducts an experiment to see whether the training program leads to a reduction in the number of c ustomer complaints.
3. A researcher wants to find out how stimulus complexity and stimulus contrast (light/dark variation) affect infants' attention to stimuli. He manipulates stimulus complexity and stimulus contrast and measures how long infants stare at various stimuli.
4. A social psycholost investigates the impact of group size on subjects' conformity in response to group pressure.