Question

part 2: are there benefits to limiting screen time? let’s now consider a new media report with this headline: “limiting children’s recreational screen time to less than two hours a day linked to better cognition, study finds.” in this study, data was collected from 4,524 children between the ages of 8 - and 11 - years - old. the children in the study and their parents were asked to complete questionnaires about physical activity, sleep habits, and screen time. the children also completed a cognition test that was meant to measure things such as language ability, attention, memory, and processing speed. the researchers reported, upon analyzing the data, that children who engaged in more recreational screen time (i.e., watching television, interacting with smartphones, playing computer games or surfing the web, etc.) tended to have lower scores on the cognition test than those children who engaged in less recreational screen time. 9. is the study described above an observational study or an experiment? please explain.

Explanation:

In an observational study, researchers observe and measure characteristics of a sample without trying to manipulate or intervene. In this study, the researchers only collected data on children's screen - time, physical activity, sleep habits and administered a cognition test without manipulating the screen - time or any other variables. In an experiment, there would be an intervention (e.g., randomly assigning children to different screen - time limits). Since there was no such intervention, it is an observational study.

Answer:

It is an observational study. The researchers only collected data on existing behaviors (screen - time, physical activity, etc.) and did not manipulate any variables.