Answer to Question #349475 in Psychology for Sal

Question

Philip, who teaches 6-year-olds, believes that educational television programs promote reading ability in young children. He announces his idea to his students and their parents. Some parents respond enthusiastically when he asks for volunteers to participate in a three-month experiment to test his hypothesis. Ten volunteers are assigned to the experimental group and instructed to have their children watch a one-hour educational program each day after school. The parents of 10 other students, who are picked at random from the remaining members of the class, receive the same instructions, except that the program they watch is a one-hour non-educational cartoon. After the three-month period, Philip administers a standardized reading test to both groups. He is delighted to find that the average test score of the students in the experimental group is substantially higher than that of the students in the comparison group.

2. What is Philip’s hypothesis?