An industrial designer wants to determine if the new design for a piece of office equipment will result in fewer errors. The designer sets up a machine with the old design in one room, and a machine with the new design in a second room. He counts how many errors are made using each of the two machines. In this study, the number of errors that are made would be

A) a control variable.
B) the dependent variable.
C) the independent variable.
D) an extraneous variable.

Question

Jenna Lanciault · Accepted Answer

Final Answer : B, Explanation :  The number of errors made is the outcome or result being measured in this study, so it is the dependent variable. The old and new designs are being compared, but they are not being manipulated by the researcher, so they are not the independent variable. Control and extraneous variables are other factors that could affect the results of the study, but these are not specified in the given scenario.

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