Question

does this describe an observational study or an experiment? a group of students are told to listen to music while taking a test and their results are compared to a group not listening to music
○ experiment
○ observational study

Explanation:

An experiment involves manipulating an independent variable (here, having students listen to music or not) to observe its effect on a dependent variable (test results). In this case, the researcher is assigning the "listen to music" condition to one group and the "do not listen" condition to another, which is a manipulation. An observational study just observes without intervention, but here there's an intervention (telling a group to listen to music). So this is an experiment.

Answer:

A. Experiment