Imagine you have been asked to create an experimental design to test the hypothesis that talking on a cell phone impairs driving skills Explain why a control condition would be important to include in testing this hypothesis How should subjects be assigned to conditions How can the researchers design the experiment so that the only difference between both conditions is the use of a cell phone In this experiment having a controlled environment would be extremely important because a variation of any kind either in the participants or the conditions that they were exposed to could lead to results being varied by a significant margin Any differences in driving experience age and motor vehicle skills could greatly interfere with the variable that is desired to be studied by the researchers Subjects for the experiment should come from a random sample of the target population so that the results can be generalized to a wider variety of people The subjects should also be randomly assigned to either the control or experimental groups to give them an equal chance of being in either group and also eliminate any bias or differences in driving experience or skills that may be present in the group Before starting the experiment the researchers should already have an operant definition and a standard of measuring the skills of the driver that is going to be used by each of the researchers in the experiment so that there is no room for bias or opinions In order to greater control the experiment the researchers could make sure that the subjects fall within the same age group The researchers might also check to ensure that the participants have all been driving for the same amount of time They could also assign the experimental group to talk on the phone while driving and remove any kind of telecommunication devices from the control group Lastly in order to measure the skills of the driver and the effects of talking on a cell phone while driving the researchers should make sure that both groups are driving the exact same course and the course should be in an indoor facility so that the researchers aren t putting other citizens or bystanders at risk of any harm or danger
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