The “Mozart Effect” by Lisa D. Hager

Part II—Outlines of an Experiment

Encouraged by Fred’s psychology professor, Fred and Bill decide to conduct an experiment to test the effectiveness of the classical music CDs. Outline an experiment that they could conduct. Be sure to address the following:

1. What is the research question that Fred and Bill want answered?
2. What would the scientific hypothesis be?
3. What independent variable(s) could be tested?
4. How could the effect of the independent variable(s) be measured? In other words, what should the dependent variable(s) be?
5. What other variables should be controlled and how should this be done? Describe control procedures that Fred and Bill may want to use including (but not limited to):
   
   • holding some variables constant
   • eliminating the effect of some variables
   • choosing a random sample
   • randomly assigning participants to groups (levels of the independent variable)

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