Meier 1

Kaylee Meier
Mr. Simon
AP Psychology, 0
25 August 2014
Elios Experiment
Hypothesis:
The hypothesis, or a testable prediction, for this experiment is as follows:
If a worker uses their lunch break to take a brisk walk or even go on a short run, then they will
be more productive during the rest of the work day.
Random Sample:
A random sample, a sample that accurately represents a population because every member has an
equal chance of inclusion, could be taken from an entire office of people of varying ages so
every age would be included, not just young adults who might have more energy to exercise than
a middle-aged adult.
Experimental Condition:
Our experimental condition, or the part of an experiment that exposes the participants to the
treatment (also know as the independent variable) would proceed as follows: half of the people
taken from the random sampling would be told not to exercise during their lunch break, and the
other half would be told to do some form of exercise. This would last for three weeks. Each
person is different physically, so any form of physical activity is acceptable, whether that is
going for a run, power-walking around the neighborhood, or doing sets of pushups and situps in
their office.
Control Condition:
The control condition, or the comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment, would be a
personal interview with the boss of that particular office. Without mentioning the names of the
people in each individual group, we would regularly ask him/her who they feel was the most
productive employee during the rest of the work day. If he/she mentions names of people who
were in the exercise group, then we know we are close to proving our hypothesis.
Random Assignment:
In addition to further proving our hypothesis, we would randomly assign, which is the assigning
of participants to experimental and control conditions purely by chance, therefore decreasing the
possibility of preexisting differences between those assigned to the previously dictated groups,
employees from other offices who will be told to do the same thing that the people in the initial
groupings were told: half exercises, half does not for the duration of three weeks.

Meier 2
Independent Variable:
Our independent variable, or the studied experimental factor that has the potential to be
manipulated, would be the group that exercises during the work day. Assuming that the bosss
statements about which employees are the most productive correlate with that of our experiment,
we would tell the exercising group to refrain from exercising during their lunch break. The
sudden lack of physical activity would be the determination of whether or not our hypothesis is
accurate. Likewise, we could also tell the group of people that does not exercise to begin
exercising and see if anything significantly changes in their productivity rates.
Dependent Variable:
Our dependent variable, or the outcome factor that may change in response to manipulations of
the independent variable, would be the final result between who is the most productive of the
two groups (four groups if we include the other office into the results) -- those who exercise or
those who do not. After we tell the groups to do the exact opposite, and after we experience
opposite results, we will truly know whether or not our hypothesis was accurate.