Researchers set up a study to determine whether large doses of a nutritional supplement would shorten the length of time it takes to recover from a cold. Three thousand volunteers were split into two groups. For two weeks, members of group A took 3,000 mg of the supplement daily. Group B received 3,000 mg of a placebo (sugar pill). At the end of the two-week period, the researchers inserted live cold viruses directly into the noses of all the volunteers. The volunteers in both group A and group B continued to take their daily pills. All the volunteers got colds, and there was no significant difference in the length of time the colds lasted.
To have confidence that the results of the experiment were valid, you'd also want to know
a. whether the volunteers all worked for the same company.
b. whether any volunteers had colds at the start of the experiment.
c. whether the volunteers exercised daily.