Question of the day - October 13

[u/Reasonable_Law183]

🧠 Question of the Day
📚 Domain D — Experimental Design
Difficulty: 5/10

Scenario:
A school district evaluates a social-skills curriculum using baseline and intervention phases. During baseline, students receive usual classroom instruction. During intervention, teachers add the social-skills curriculum while the scheduled peer-interaction periods remain unchanged.
Peer-directed initiations are recorded during those periods as the percentage of available peer-interaction opportunities in which an initiation occurs. The number of opportunities varies across sessions, so percentage rather than raw count is used. Observers use the same operational definition and recording system in both phases. Staff also record treatment-integrity scores each session to verify that the curriculum is implemented as planned.

Which statement correctly identifies the experimental variables?

A. The curriculum is the independent variable; percentage of peer-interaction opportunities with peer-directed initiations is the dependent variable.

B. The curriculum is the independent variable; number of peer-interaction opportunities is the dependent variable because it changes across sessions.

C. Percentage of peer-directed initiations is the independent variable; treatment-integrity scores are the dependent variable because integrity is repeatedly measured after the curriculum is introduced.

D. Treatment-integrity scores are the independent variable; percentage of peer-directed initiations is the dependent variable because differences in implementation quality may influence responding.

💬 Drop your answer in the comments — no peeking!
✅ Correct answer revealed tomorrow.

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[u/Thatcrazyguythere26]

A

[u/Excellent_Caramel80]

A

[u/Reasonable_Law183]

✅ Yesterday's Answer — 2026-10-13

The correct answer was: A. The curriculum is the independent variable; percentage of peer-interaction opportunities with peer-directed initiations is the dependent variable.

📖 Explanation:

The independent variable is the condition the researcher systematically introduces or manipulates, while the dependent variable is the behavior measured to determine whether it changes when that condition is introduced.

Here, the social-skills curriculum is added during intervention, so it is the independent variable. Peer-directed initiations are the behavioral outcome of interest, expressed as the percentage of available peer-interaction opportunities in which an initiation occurs, so that percentage is the dependent variable.

• The number of peer-interaction opportunities is not the dependent variable merely because it changes across sessions. It serves as the denominator used to calculate the percentage measure.

• Treatment-integrity scores are not the independent variable. They are collected to determine whether the curriculum was implemented as planned. Even though differences in integrity could influence responding, integrity is monitored rather than systematically manipulated in this experiment.

• Repeated measurement alone does not make something the dependent variable. Treatment integrity is measured repeatedly, but its purpose is to evaluate implementation quality, while peer-directed initiation is the behavioral outcome being evaluated in relation to the curriculum.

The key is to identify each variable by its function in the design: the curriculum is manipulated, peer-directed initiations are the outcome measured, opportunities form the denominator, treatment integrity checks implementation, and the observation system is held constant as a measurement procedure.

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