Begin your discussion by considering the following scenario:

A researcher examines the relationship between the quality of breakfast and academic performance for a group of elementary school children. For each child the researcher interviews the parents to obtain information about their typical breakfast, and uses school records to obtain information about their grades.

Discuss why this study is not a true experiment.

Discuss different strategies for making it a true experiment. There are several ways it could be done.

Discuss the pros and cons of those strategies in terms of the content discussed on chapters 7, 8, and 9 such as what the independent and dependent variables would be; whether to use a within or between subjects design; if there are individual differences you might be concerned about and strategies for minimizing the effects of individual differences such as matching, holding levels constant, or restricting the sample; how you would obtain your sample and make group assignments; how you would design the experiment so as to minimize the effects of environmental variables/within group variability.

Also consider if ethical or other concerns might limit what you can do.

You can build on or improve each other’s ideas or compare and contrast more than one working idea.

As usual you should make at least three posts. They should demonstrate thinking about and understanding different issues that must be considered in designing an experiment.