Question

1. spelling is an important skill in the early years of formal schooling. two popular metho spelling instruction are rainbow writing and retrieval practice. the rainbow writing metho involves copying spelling words in different colors, thus creating a rainbow effect. the retrieval practice method involves taking a sequence of practice quizzes and comparing childrens spellings with the correct spellings. an experiment will be conducted to determine which of these two methods is more effective. children will be randomly assigned to the rainbow writing method or retrieval practice method. because older children are expected to be better spellers than younger children, the researchers will block by age. unfortunately, it will be impossible to implement double - blinding in this study. why?

a) the children will know their own ages.
b) the children will know whether they used rainbow writing or practice retrieval.
c) the individual scoring the final spelling test will know the childrens ages.
d) the individual scoring the final spelling test will know whether the children used rainbow writing or practice retrieval.
e) the researcher will know the childrens ages and treatments.

Explanation:

Double - blinding in an experiment means that neither the participants (in this case, the children) nor the people evaluating the results (the individuals scoring the final spelling test) know which treatment (rainbow writing or retrieval practice) the participants received.

• Option A: Knowing one's age is not related to blinding regarding the treatment method.
• Option B: If children know the method they used, it violates single - blinding (participants not knowing the treatment), but double - blinding also requires the evaluators to not know.
• Option C: Knowing the children's ages is not relevant to the blinding about the treatment.
• Option D: If the individual scoring the test knows which method (rainbow writing or practice retrieval) the children used, then double - blinding (both participants and evaluators not knowing the treatment) is violated.
• Option E: The researcher knowing is not the key factor for double - blinding. Double - blinding is about participants and evaluators.

Answer:

D. The individual scoring the final spelling test will know whether the children used rainbow writing or practice retrieval.