A study was created to test the effects of jazz on people’s sleep patterns. The hypothesis of the experiment was that if people listened to jazz music as they fall asleep, they will sleep for longer periods of time. For the experiment, 2 groups of people were created. One group was placed in a quiet room where they went to sleep and they were timed on how long they slept. The other group was placed in a room where jazz music played softly as they began to sleep and played throughout the night. As each group awoke, their sleep times were monitored.

Dependent Variable: ______ Control Group:

Independent Variable: _ Experimental Group:

The dependent variable is the actual variable to be measured during an experiment. The value of the dependent variable is dependent on the independent variable supplied. In this case, the dependent variable is the duration of sleep of the different groups.

The independent variable is supplied by the experimenter and is often manipulated to see the effects it will produce on the dependent variable. In this case, the jazz music and the silence in the rooms respectively represent the independent variable.

The control group receives no treatment variable and represents the group that is often used as the benchmark to measure the effects of treatment variables on experimental subjects. In this case, the control group is the group that was placed in a room without jazz music.

The experimental group is the group that receives the treatment variable and in this case, the group that slept in the room filled with jazz music.