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Investigating The Ability Of A Controlled Variable

Decent Essays

Jhavon Kornegay

I. Purpose of Study
The purpose of this study was to investigate the ability of two, three, and four-year old’s to reply to sentence focused questions, argument focused questions, and predicate focused questions based on both transitive and intransitive events. The authors expected the children to respond with transitivity as well as consistency.

II. Rationale for the Study
The authors pursued this study to experiment with a controlled variable. The authors suggested that presently there were three main research studies conducted to test children 's ability to answer questions, but the experimental methods differed. As a result of these differences, the experiments could not be compared or determined to be reliable. …show more content…

There were eighteen three- year olds, which were composed of ten boys and eight girls. Lastly, there were eighteen four- year olds, which included seven boys and eleven girls.
The participants are asked an argument-focused question, a predicate focused question, and a sentence-focused question while watching a clip. The equivalent video clips included both questions responding to intransitive and transitive events. There were six experimental conditions. Each child received three trials on every one condition. The video clips showed nine transitive and nine intransitive events. The study took place in the children 's preschool classroom. The experimenter asked the child if they wanted to watch video. The child and the experimenter watched the video. After the video ended, the child and the researcher played with toys. Then the experimenter asked the child if they wanted to watch the video clips for a second time, but this time they told the child they were going to ask questions about the clips. Each time a new clip commenced the experimenter asked the child a question. If the child did not respond to the question, the experimenter repeated the question until the child gave a response. The experimenter responded to the child by either saying “wow, that sounds fun”, “I wish I could see that too”, or “what a great film”. This technique repeats for the rest of the participants. Finally, the children 's answers are

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