Determine whether the study is an observational study or an ex...

Question

Determine whether the study is an observational study or an experiment. Explain.

A research study compared the memory retention of subjects when a learning activity was followed by a brief period of wakeful rest and when a learning activity was followed by a brief period of distraction. (Source: Springer Nature)

Accepted Answer

Welcome back, everyone. In this problem, a health researcher requires the daily step counts of people who already own fitness trackers and compares the average steps between people who work in offices and those who work outdoors. The researcher does not assign anyone to a specific job or activity. Is this an observational study or an experiment? Provide your reasoning. A says it's an experiment because the researcher assigned the jobs to participants. B says it's an observational study because the researcher only observed existing behaviors. C says it's an experiment because the researcher measured step counts, and the D says it's an observational study because the researcher assigned a step goals. Now, what is the researcher doing in this study? That's key to help us figure out which one of these, these activities it is if it's an observational study or experiment. Now notice in our problem statement, it says that the researcher records the daily step counts of people who are already on fitness trackers. That's an important statement. They already have fitness trackers. And then it also says that he compares the groups, OK, compares the average, the the groups, the average steps between people who work in offices and those who work outdoors based on their existing jobs. They already work in offices and they already work outdoors. So he didn't change anything. He didn't assign any jobs or do any interventions. That's important because if we recall the difference between an observational study and an experiment, an observational study, OK, recall that an observational study. Basically observes and measures variables without manipulating our assignment or assigning treatments to the subjects, OK? So it, it, it, you're observing without an intervention. On the other hand, in an experiment, you still observe, OK, you're still doing some form of observation, but you are intervening. It, it involves actively assigning treatments or interventions to subjects to observe the effects. So in this case, since the researcher did not assign jobs or step goals but only observed existing behaviors, this is an observational study. Therefore, B is the correct answer. Thanks a lot for watching everyone. I hope this video helped.

Key Concepts

Observational Study

Experiment

Control Group

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