please help I am lost

Ubarfg26
timer Asked: Jul 23rd, 2015

Question Description

Researchers wanted to assess the effect of low alcohol consumption on reation time in seniors. Their belief was that even low levels of alcohol consumption can impair the ability to walk, thereby increasing the likelihood of falling. They identified 13 healthy seniors who were not heavy consumers of alcohol. The experiment took place in late afternoon. Each subject was instructed to have a light lunch (such as a sandwich) and not drink any caffeinated drinks in the 4 hours prior to arriving at the lab. The seniors were asked to walk on a treadmill on which an obstable would appear randomly. The reaction time was measured by determining the time it took the senior to life his or her foot upon the appearance of the obstacle. First, each senior walked the treadmill by consuming a drink consisting water mixed with orange juice with the scent and taste of vodka. The senior was then sked to walk on the treadmill. The senior was then asked to drink two additional drinks (40% vodka mixed with orange juice). The goal was to have the senior reach a blood alcohol concentration of around 0.05%. The senior then walked on the treadmill again. The average response time increased by 19 milliseconds after the alcohol treatment. The researchers concluded that response times are significantly delayed even for low levels of alcohol consumption.

  1. What type of experimental design is this?
  2. What is the response variable in this experiment? Is it quantitative or qualitative?
  3. What is the treatment?
  4. What factors were controlled and set at a fixed level in this experiment?
  5. Can you think of any factors thatmay affect reaction to alcohol that were not controlled?
  6. Why do you think researchers used a drink that had the scent and taste of vodka to serve as the treatment for a baseline measure? 

Source: Judith Hegeman et al. "Even Low Alcohol Concentrations Affect Obstacle Avoidance Reactions in Healthly Senior Individuals," BMS Research Notes 3:243, 2010.


User generated content is uploaded by users for the purposes of learning and should be used following Studypool's honor code & terms of service.

This question has not been answered.

Create a free account to get help with this and any other question!

Related Tags

Brown University





1271 Tutors

California Institute of Technology




2131 Tutors

Carnegie Mellon University




982 Tutors

Columbia University





1256 Tutors

Dartmouth University





2113 Tutors

Emory University





2279 Tutors

Harvard University





599 Tutors

Massachusetts Institute of Technology



2319 Tutors

New York University





1645 Tutors

Notre Dam University





1911 Tutors

Oklahoma University





2122 Tutors

Pennsylvania State University





932 Tutors

Princeton University





1211 Tutors

Stanford University





983 Tutors

University of California





1282 Tutors

Oxford University





123 Tutors

Yale University





2325 Tutors