Professor Golder is studying hyperactivity in preschool-age children. She is concerned that differences in child rearing, diet, and so forth may affect her results

To minimize these potential preexisting variables, she should be sure to do which of the following?
A) Use random assignment when forming her groups.
B) Include an independent variable.
C) Include a dependent variable.
D) Assign boys to the experimental group and


Answer: A
Rationale: In an experiment, it is the random assignment of participants to different groups that insures that the groups are roughly equal. This is important, because without random assignment, preexisting differences between participants could act as confounding variables and end up affecting the results. While the independent and dependent variables are also an important part of the experimental method, they do not help to control for preexisting variables.

Psychology

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