Shapely Glasses Does the shape of a glass play a role in deter...

Question

Shapely Glasses Does the shape of a glass play a role in determining the amount of time it takes to finish the drink? Researchers identified 159 male and female self-professed social drinkers. One week the subjects were given a 12 ounce beer with either a straight glass or a curved glass. A week later the subjects were given a 12 ounce beer in the other glass. The first week, subjects were given a glass and asked to consume the drink at their own pace while watching television. The time to complete the drink was measured. During the second week, the subjects were given the other shaped glass and asked to complete a computer task. Again, the time to complete the drink was measured. The type of glass given in the first week was determined randomly. The researchers found that the time to complete the drink was significantly faster for the curved glass.

e. Explain the role randomization plays in this experiment.

e. Explain the role randomization plays in this experiment.

Accepted Answer

Hi everybody, glad to have you back. Here's the next problem. A study investigates whether the color of a plate affects how much food people eat. 120 participants are randomly assigned to eat a meal from either a red plate or a blue plate in the first session. In the second session they switched to the other color. The order of plate color is randomly assigned for each participant. Explain the role of randomization in this experiment. A randomization prevents participants from knowing which plate color they will get. randomization guarantees that everyone eats the same amount. Randomization helps ensure that any observed differences in food consumption are due to plate color and not other factors. Or randomization makes the experiment faster to conduct. So, we want to remember here the connection between randomization and confounding factors. So when we look at something like this, where we have, you know, a purported cause and effect, color of plate, how much is eaten. You always have to try and eliminate any other factors that might be related to the cause and effect, and create a false association, or rather than cause and effect, since it's a purported cause, we could say exposure and outcome. So, exposure to the plate color and outcome of how much you eat. So any confounding factors that might affect both of those things, like a person who chooses a blue plate might be, you know, being hungry might make you more likely to choose a blue plate and therefore make you likely to eat more. Something like that, where uh the choice of blue plate. Is affected by a person's hunger, as well as the amount they eat. So, the way to control for confounding factors is to randomize. So randomization and choice C helps ensure that any observed differences in food consumption are due to plate color and not other factors. So, Allow for. Confounding factors. So by randomly assigning people to red or blue plate plate, you eliminate any factors that might affect the group, that might cause them to choose blue or red, that also would affect how hungry they are. Or another example of randomization here is what if you decided, um, as people come into the room, we're going to give the first batch red plates and the second batch blue plates. Perhaps the people coming into the room first are the people that are more likely to be hungry, and therefore, by giving them a red plate first, you have this group is more likely to eat more. So things like that, whereas the random assignment of blue or red helps to control for those factors. Looking at our other answer choices, so, choice A randomization prevents participants from knowing which plate color they will get. This is not the goal of randomization. Um, it's probably referring to something called blinding. Where participants don't know, for instance, what treatment they will get like with a placebo. But in this case, it's looking at just the color of the plate, how much affect how much you eat. There's no way to prevent people from knowing whether they have a blue plate or a red plate. Choice B, randomization guarantees that everyone eats the same amount. Well, this is not true, the whole point of this experiment is to see, does the plate color affect how much you eat. So, So this just doesn't make sense. The point of the experiment is to look at differences in the amount of food. What randomization might guarantee is that you have spread out among the groups, people with large and small appetites. You are randomizing to make sure you didn't make sure that you didn't cause one group to have more people with bigger appetites and more people with s or smaller appetites. And then finally, choice D, randomization makes the experiment faster to conduct. Well, this is not the purpose of randomization. In fact, uh, randomization might make it take longer, since you'd have to think through how to assign people randomly to the groups, as opposed to just say, handing red plates to the 1st 100 people. So once again, we have a study, it's investigating whether the color of a plate affects how much food people eat. Says that participants are randomly assigned to eat a meal from either a red or blue plate in the first session, which in the second session. And the order of the plate color is randomly assigned for each participant. So explain the role of randomization in this experiment. And that is Cho C, randomization helps ensure that any observed differences in food consumption are due to plate color and not other factors. See you in the next video.

Key Concepts

Randomization

Controlled Experiment

Crossover Design

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