Help with Indep and Dep variables in Sociology.?

The dependent variable, the variable being studied ( in order to see if it is influenced by the ind. variable), is the reaction time. The independent variable, the variable that is being manipulated by the researchers in order to see how it affects the dependent variable, is reinforcement and successful approximation of prior results( in other words, letting subjects know how they did in prior trial). They wanted to see how reinforcement and accurate feedback affect reaction time. The control group got no feedback; the two other experimental groups got their feedback on different schedules. Although the hypothesis does not seem to be clearly spelled out, I believe their hypothesis was that reinforcement and successive approximation affect reaction time. The hypothesis was not proven. The differences between groups were found to be statistically insignificant. However, rather than draw any conclusions, the researchers suggest testing the hypothesis on a greater number of subjects.