Question

A researcher was interested in the effects of arousal and personality on individuals' GRE test performance. The personality variable he examined was individuals' level of introversion-extraversion. Based on questionnaire responses, each participant was classified as an "extravert" or an "introvert." The researcher manipulated arousal level by giving caffeine to participants prior to administering a practice GRE test. Participants were randomly assigned to a high-caffeine condition, a medium-caffeine condition, or the no-caffeine condition. All participants then completed a version of the quantitative portion of the GRE.
Suppose the researcher observed the following means for each group:
Explain whether the following two statements are True or False based on the evidence in this experiment.
(1) We can predict individuals' quantitative GRE score if we know whether they are introverts or extraverts.
(2) Individuals' level of introversion or extraversion causes different performance on the quantitative GRE test.

Both statements are False. We cannot predict the GRE scores based on introversion-extraversion because scores are influenced by both the personality variable and level of arousal (i.e., an interaction effect). We would need both pieces of information to predict the GRE score. The second statement is false because level of introversion or extraversion is a natural groups variable, and we cannot make causal statements based on natural groups variables. There are many additional ways in which people who are introverted or extraverted may differ that may affect test performance.

Answer

This answer is hidden. It contains 0 characters.