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Interaction Practice
Psyc 1420
Use the charts below to answer the following questions about main effects and interactions. If
two values look moderately different, assume that difference is statistically significant.

Does Chart 1 show:

a) a main effect of treatment? (Yes or No) __Yes_____
b) a main effect of level? (Yes or No) __Yes_____
c) an interaction between treatment and level? (Yes or No) ___Yes____

Does Chart 2 show:

a) a main effect of treatment? (Yes or No) __yes_____
b) a main effect of level? (Yes or No) ___Yes____
c) an interaction between treatment and level? (Yes or No) ___No____

Does Chart 3 show:

a) a main effect of treatment? (Yes or No) __Yes_____
b) a main effect of level? (Yes or No) ___No____
c) an interaction between treatment and level? (Yes or No) ___yes____

Professor Lindemann believes that students in the Monday 6-8 lab sections are too hungry to be
able to concentrate during lab, while the students in the other lab sections are able to eat before
class and are better able to concentrate. In order to test her hypothesis, Professor Lindemann
decides to buy pizza for all of the students. Half of the students get to eat at the start of lab
(Tina's sections get the early pizza) and half the students get the pizza at the end of lab (Dina's
sections). In the middle of the lab sections, all students complete a challenging worksheet about
main effects and interactions. Mean scores on the interactions worksheet are shown in the table
below.

Late Pizza
Early Pizza

Monday 6-8 pm lab

65
80

Other lab times

88
95

Effect of Food on Performance

100
80
Late Pizza

60
Worksheet Score

Early Pizza

40
20
0
Monday 6-8

Other times

Using the data above, complete the bar chart. Here's how:
1. What is the dependent variable?
2. Label the dependent variable on the y axis
3. There are two independent variables. Each of the independent variables has two levels.
a) Name one independent variable and identify its levels.
Lab Time Monday 6-8 and Other Times
b) Name the other independent variable and identify its levels.
Pizza Time Late Pizza and Early Pizza
Now, consider how you will want to graph the results. Your bar graph will look similar to the bar
graphs above in the end. Which IV will you label on the X axis (the "Treatments" in the bar
graphs above) and which IV will you put in the legend (the "Levels" in the bar graphs above)? It
may help to try graphing it both ways and comparing them. The goal is to graph the data in the
way that best visually matches the way you would like to describe your results.
4. Label the levels of one IV on the X-axis
5. Label the other IVs on the LEGEND.
6. Draw the bars. Don't forget to fill in the appropriate bars consistent with the legend.
7. You are almost done. To finish it off, give your graph a title. The title should be brief, but still
descriptive. For example, Scores on Worksheet doesnt tell you enough about the graph. But
The Average Score For Each Group of Students Depending on Whether They Had Pizza Early
or Late and Were In A Monday 6-8pm Lab Time or Another Lab Time is much too long.
8. OK, now let's think about the results. Assume any differences are significant.
a) Identify any main effect(s).

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Main effect of Lab Time and Main effect of Pizza Time
b) Is there an interaction?
Yes
9. Describe the results in words that relate back to Professor Lindemann's hypothesis.
The interaction shows that there is a greater effect of eating pizza before class begins on
performance for students who are hungry (in the 6-8 lab). Giving hungry students food to eat
helps them to perform better.
However, the main effect of pizza suggests that eating at the start of class improves performance
for everyone to some extent. Perhaps this is because the pizza puts everyone in a good mood and
makes them want to work harder.
Also, the main effect for lab time indicates that people in the 6-8 lab tend to perform less well
than students in other labs. Perhaps this is due to an exhaustion effect of being in class for such a
long stretch at once

10. What confounds might there be in this study and how (if at all) would they affect your
interpretation of the results?
There are two important confounds:
1 as previously mentioned, students in the 6-8 lab time have been in class for 2 hours prior to
lab and this may impact their performance. Perhaps exhausted students respond to pizza because
it helps wake them up and hunger is irrelevant here.
2 Different TAs teach the different sections. Tinas sections get the early pizza and Dinas
sections get the late pizza. Pizza delivery is confounded with TA. This makes it impossible to
know whether any effects of the pizza are due to the pizza or actually due to the TA. Perhaps
Tina is a stronger TA and her impact as a TA is stronger during the 6-8 section than at other
times.
11. In this exercise, we did not use the names of your actual TAs. Can you figure out why?
We didnt want to bias your feelings about your TAs or make it more difficult for you to reason
about this problem because of any preconceptions you might have.