Use the following paragraph to answer the next three questions

 

Researchers are interested in the effects of exercise on academic success. They recruit 200 college students from a variety of majors: 100 were selected because they were receiving mostly A's in college; the other 100 were selected because they were receiving mostly C's in college. The researchers then assessed exercise behavior during high school and found that the A students were significantly more likely to have exercised extensively in high school than the C students.

 

What type of design did the researchers use?

 

Group of answer choices-

 

Experimental design

 

Case study

 

Prospective quasi-experimental design

 

Retrospective quasi-experimental design

 

 

What type of causal inference can the researcher make regarding the effects of exercise on academic success?

 

Group of answer choices-

 

That exercising causes you to have higher grades

 

That having higher grades causes you to exercise

 

The researcher cannot make either of these causal inferences

 

 

Imagine you have a cousin in college who is getting straight A's. What can you predict about your cousin's exercise behavior when they were in high school? 

 

Group of answer choices-

 

Your cousin was likely to have exercised in high school to a greater extent than students who are getting straight C's in college

 

Your cousin was likely to have exercised in high school to a lesser extent than students who are getting straight C's in college

1. Retrospective quasi-experimental design

2. That exercising causes you to have higher grades

3. Your cousin was likely to have exercised in high school to a greater extent than students who are getting straight C's in college

Step-by-step explanation

1. A quasi-experiment does not rely on random assignment. Instead, subjects are assigned to groups based on non-random criteria. Moreover, the researcher often does not have control over the treatment, but instead studies pre-existing groups that received different treatments after the fact. In the study above, the researcher recruits 200 college students from a variety of majors, in which a non-random method is used to assign subjects to groups: : 100 were selected because they were receiving mostly A's in college; the other 100 were selected because they were receiving mostly C's in college. The study is retrospective as individuals are sampled and information is collected about their past. The study looks backwards and examines the exercise behavior during high school of the college students in relation to the outcome that is established at the start of the study which is academic success. 

2. Causal inference is the process of determining the independent, actual effect of a particular phenomenon. It is conducted via the study where the measure of one variable is suspected to affect the measure of another. The study above looks in the effects of exercise on academic success. Particularly, the researcher suspected and had determined whether the measure of exercise behavior had effects to the measure of academic success. Based on the findings, we can infer that exercising causes one to have higher grades.

3. Based on the research findings above, the researcher found that the A students were significantly more likely to have exercised extensively in high school than the C students. So, if I have a cousin in college who is getting straight A's, it does mean that my cousin was likely to have exercised in high school to a greater extent than students who are getting straight C's in college.