Chapter 2 Myers' AP Psychology Notes

Hindsight bias MCQ

"Monday morning quarterbacks" rarely act surprised about the outcome of weekend football games. This tendency to believe they knew how the game would turn out is best explained by which psychological principle?

The writer pulls the names of five students from a hat that contains all students' names. She interviews the five selected students MCQ

A journalism student is writing an article about her school's new cell-phone policy, and she'd like to interview a random sample of students. Which of the following is the best example of a random sample?

Amos Tversky

A key figure in the discovery of systematic human cognitive bias

This is the minimum result typically considered statistically significant. MCQ

A researcher calculates statistical significance for her 5 percent chance that results are due to chance. Which of the following is an accurate interpretation of this finding?

Naturalistic Observation MCQ

A researcher looking for gender differences in 3-year-olds observes a preschool class and records how many minutes children of each gender play with dolls. She then compares the two sets of numbers. What type of descriptive research is she conducting?

The presence or absence of cookies. MCQ

A researcher wants to conduct an experiment to determine if eating a cookie before class each day improve student grades. He uses two psychology classes for the experiment, providing daily cookies to one and nothing to the other. At the end of the semester, the researcher compares the final grades of students in the two classes. What is the independent variable for this experiment?

Humility MCQ

A scientist's willingness to admit that she is wrong is an example of...

Hypothesis MCQ

A testable prediction that drives research is known as a(n)

Hindsight Bias MCQ

After the student council election, a friend tells you he has known for weeks who would be elected president. What does this seem to illustrate?

Case Study MCQ

An individual with an exceptional memory identified. She is capable of recalling major events, the weather, and what she did on any given day. What research method is being used if a psychologist conducts an in-depth investigation of this individual including questionnaires, brain scans, and memory test?

The Scientific Attitude

Curious Skeptical Humble

summarize data; determine if data can be generalized to other populations. MCQ

Descriptive statistics ____________ , while inferential statistics ___________.

68 percent MCQ

In a normal distribution, what percentage of the scores in the distribution falls within one standard deviation on either side of the mean?

There are more similarities than differences between the genders MCQ

Researcher studying gender have found that

Naturalistic Observation MCQ

Researchers are interested in finding out if winning Congressional candidates display more positive facial expressions than losing candidates. The researchers attend political debates and record how frequently each candidate displays positive facial expressions. Which research method are the researchers using?

Income and sleep levels are positively correlated. MCQ

Researching have discovered the individuals with lower income levels report having fewer hours of total sleep. Therefore,

Reduce potential cofounding variables MCQ

The purpose of random assignment is to

We can conclude that a student who watches a lot of TV is likely to have lower grades. MCQ

There is a negative correlation between TV watching and grades. What can we conclude from this research finding?

Kenneth and Mamie Clark

Used dolls to study children's attitude towards race. Their findings were used in the Brown vs. Board trial.

Scatterplot MCQ

What are the following is used only in correlation studies?

Overconfidence MCQ

What do we call the tendency to exaggerate the correctness or accuracy of our believes and predictions prior to the testing?

Median MCQ

When a distribution of scores is skewed, which of the following is most representative measure of central tendency?

Standard Deviation MCQ

Which descriptive statistic would a researcher use to describe how close a student's SAT score is to a school's average SAT score?

Naturalistic Observation MCQ

Which method should a psychology researcher use if she is interested in testing whether a specific reward in a classroom situation causes students to behave better?

-.85 MCQ

Which of the following correlation coefficients represents the strongest relationship between two variables?

Our intuitions about human thinking and behavior are not always accurate. MCQ

Which of the following demonstrates the need for psychological science?

Range MCQ

Which of the following is a measure of variation?

As study time decreases, students achieve lower grades MCQ

Which of the following is a positive correlation?

They may be misleading because they don't fairly represent other cases. MCQ

Which of the following is a potential problem with case studies?

People who spend more time exercising tend to weigh less MCQ

Which of the following is an example of negative correlation?

Choosing a representative sample MCQ

Which of the following is most important when conducting survey research?

Participants should always be informed of the hypothesis of the study before they agree to participate MCQ

Which of the following is not an ethical principle regarding research on humans?

Researchers watch and record how elementary school children interact on the playground. MCQ

Which of the following represents naturalistic observation?

Mean MCQ

Which statistical measure of central tendency is most affected by extreme scores?

Marcy cannot recognize a definition on flashcard. After turning the card over and viewing the term, she tells herself she knew what the answer was all along. MCQ

Which the following is an example of hindsight bias?

Are students more likely to be politically liberal or conservative? MCQ

Which the following questions is best investigated by means of a survey?

It is unaffected by previous answers. It is as likely to be "c" as any other answer. MCQ

While taking a standardized test with randomly scrambled answers, noticed that your last four answers have been "c" . Which of the following is true concerning the probability of the next answer being "c"?

And operational definition allows others to replicate the procedure. MCQ

Why is an operational definition necessary when reporting research findings?

If the participants are randomly assigned, the researcher can assume that the people in each of the groups are pretty similar. MCQ

Why is random assignment of participants to groups an important aspect of a properly designed experiment?

Double-blind procedure

a control procedure in which neither the experimenter nor the research subjects are aware of which condition is in effect. It is used to prevent experimenters' and subjects' expectations from influencing the results of an experiment.

Scatterplot

a depiction of the relationship between two variables by means of a graphed cluster of dots

Case study

a descriptive research strategy in which one person is studied in great depth

cofounding variable

a factor other than the independent variable that might produce an effect in an experiment

sampling bias

a flawed sampling process that produces an unrepresentative sample

Range

a measure of variation computed as the difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution.

skewed distribution

a representation of scores that lack symmetry of scores that lack symmetry around their average value.

Experiment

a research strategy in which a researcher directly manipulates one or more factors (independent variables) in order to observe their effect on some behavior or mental process (the dependent variables; experiments therefore make it possible to establish cause-and-effect relationships.

Random sample

a sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion.

Correlation coefficient

a statistical index of the relationship between two variables (from -1.0 to +1.0)

Correlation

a statistical measure that indicates the extent to which two factors vary together and thus how well one factor can be predicted from the other. Correlations can be positive or negative.

Statistical significance

a statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance.

normal curve (bell curve)

a symmetrical, bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many types of data.

Survey

a technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of people, usually by questioning a representative, random sample of them.

Hypothesis

a testable prediction

Population

all the cases in a group, from which samples may be drawn for a study.

Daniel Kahneman

an Israeli psychologist and Nobel laureate, who is notable for his work on the psychology of judgment and decision-making, behavioral economics and hedonistic psychology.

Theory

an explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes and predicts observations.

Placebo

an inert substance or condition that is administered as a test of whether an experimental subjects who mistakenly thinks a treatment

histogram

bar graph depicting a frequency distribution.

Placebo effect

experimental results caused by expectations alone; any effect on behavior caused by the administration of an inert substance or condition, which is assumed to be an active agent.

experimental group

group exposed to the treatment

James Randi

magician exemplifies skepticism. He has tested and debunked a variety of psychic phenomena

inferential statistics

numerical data that allow one to generalize-- to infer from sample data the probability of something being true of a population

descriptive statistics

numerical data used to measure and describe characteristics or groups.

naturalist observation

observing someone or a group of people in a natural environment outside of a laboratory

informed consent

participants know just enough to decided to participate of not.

Operational definitions

precise statements of the procedures (operations) used to define independent and dependent variables.

Replication

repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different participants in different situations, to see whether the basic finding extends to other participants and circumstances

Mean

the arithmetic average of a distribution, obtained by adding the scores and then dividing by the number of scores.

Standard deviation

the average amount by which the scores in a distribution deviate around the mean. Because it is based on every score in the distribution

Culture

the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a large group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.

validity

the extent to which a test or experiment measures or predicts what it is supposed to.

Independent variable

the factor being manipulated and tested by the investigator

Dependent variable

the factor being measured by the investigator.

Illusory correlation

the false perception of a relationship between two events when none exists.

control group

the group not exposed the the treatment. used as a comparison.

Medians

the middle score in a distribution; half the scores are above it and half are below it.

Mode

the most frequently occurring score in a distribution; it is the simplest measure of central tendency to determine.

Random assignment

the procedure of assigning subjects to the experimental and control conditions by chance in order to minimize preexisting differences between the groups.

hindsight bias

the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it. (Also known as the I-knew-it-all along phenomenon.)

Critical thinking

thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions. Rather, it examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions.

debriefing

told what the experiment what about