Classical Conditioning in the Classroom

A researcher wants to study the effects of classical conditioning on students' attention in class. The researcher hypothesizes that playing a specific sound before an important announcement will increase students' attentiveness. The experiment involves two classrooms: one where a bell is rung before important announcements and another where no bell is used. The researcher measures students' attentiveness by observing their behavior and administering a quiz on the content of the announcements. At first, there is no different in quiz scores between the two classrooms. After a few weeks, the classroom in which the bell is rung before important announcements demonstrates higher quiz scores than the classroom in which no bell is rung.

Define the control and experimental variables in this experiment.

Explain how the concept of a "conditioned stimulus" applies to this experiment.

Imagine a similar experiment is conducted, but instead of ringing a bell before the announcement, the research rings the bell after the announcement. Do you expect the experimental results to be similar or different? Explain why.