In an experiment designed to determine whether watching violent scenes on television increases the frequency of aggressive behavior in children, one group of participants saw a nonviolent cartoon and another group saw a violent cartoon. In the play period that followed the viewing of the cartoons, researchers observed the two groups of children together and counted instances of aggressive behavior. The DEPENDANT VARIABLE in the experiment is the:
a) amount of aggressive behavior exhibited by the children
b) amount of time that each child spent interacting with other children
c) group in which each child was originally placed
d) violent cartoon
e) nonviolent cartoon