EXER-432 Research Methods Midterm
Validity is determined by finding the correlation between scores on
a test and some independent criterion
Comparing test items with the course objectives (course topics) checks which type of validity?
content
A researcher finds a correlation of .70 between popularity ratings and self-concept scores. What percentage of common association can be inferred between the two variables?
49%
The part of the methods section of the research paper that describes the activities of each treatment group is titled
Procedures
When a researcher decides that an appropriate analysis for a research model is to evaluate how several variables might influence two other variables that in turn influence the outcome variable of interest, the appropriate statistical analysis is
Structural Equation Modeling
Which of these statements is/are true concerning the "significance of the study" section in the introduction of a thesis?
The section should have continuity with the introduction. The section should point out conflicts with previous research. The section should describe gaps in previous knowledge relative to the study. ****All of the above****
In describing participants in the methods section of a research report, which of the following should be included?
a and c (number of participants and pertinent descriptive characteristics of participants)
A researcher conducts a study on the effectiveness of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) by comparing classes that use this method with classes that do not. The researcher expects the CAI classes to show higher gains in achievement. This expectation is
a hypothesis
A null hypothesis is
a statistical hypothesis that assumes that there is no difference among the effects of treatments
This question pertains to the following study: "A researcher wishes to determine the effects of an outdoor adventure summer camp on the self-concept of inner-city boys. Boys are randomly assigned to the summer camp and to a control situation. The experimental treatment is for three months. A secondary purpose is to see if age (ages 6, 9, and 12) affects the relationship of the camp effects and self-concept." The independent variable is
adventure summer camp
The use of intraclass correlation to estimate reliability in motor performance instead of Pearson r has the advantage(s) of
allowing analysis of trial-to-trial change estimating reliability for more than two trials
To determine which of two methods for learning a motor skill is more effective, the correct statistical analysis is
an independent t test
References to journal articles should include
author, date, article title, journal name, volume, inclusive pages, doi
References to books should include
author, date, title, city of publication, publisher's name
Which of the following is a technique for providing information about the reliability of an instrument?
coefficient alpha
When we say that research is empirical, we mean that the researcher
collects data on which to base decisions solves the problems through rationalization controls all extraneous variables
A physical education teacher develops a skill test in volleyball. After administering the test to 50 students, she asks the volleyball coach to rate the students on volleyball skills. She then correlates the students' test scores with the coach's rating. This is an example of what type of validity?
criterion validity
This question pertains to the following study: "A researcher wishes to determine the effects of an outdoor adventure summer camp on the self-concept of inner-city boys. Boys are randomly assigned to the summer camp and to a control situation. The experimental treatment is for three months. A secondary purpose is to see if age (ages 6, 9, and 12) affects the relationship of the camp effects and self-concept." The number of participants, the selection of the self-concept inventory, and the length of the study are all examples of
delimitations
The generalizability of the results pertains to what kind of validity?
external
A correlational technique frequently used in the construction of an instrument (such as an attitude inventory) that statistically groups test items that seem to be measuring a particular dimension or trait is called
factor analysis
Which of the following is not an important purpose for reviewing the literature?
formulating the null hypothesis
In discriminant function analysis, one is able to predict
group membership
The extent to which the results of a study can be attributed to the treatments used in the study is the definition of what kind of validity?
internal
A teacher wishes to determine the reliability of three trials on a performance test. He uses ANOVA to obtain the reliability coefficient. This technique is called
intraclass correlation
A research hypothesis
is directly testable
The property of a distribution of scores that relates to how peaked or flat the curve is called
kurtosis
Recognizing that grade point average may not completely reflect success in school is an example of a
limitation
If two measures have a high positive correlation, and a person has a low score on one measure, her score on the other measure is most likely to be
low
Discriminant analysis differs from simple ANOVA such that discriminant analysis has
one independent variable and two or more dependent variables
Defining volleyball skill as a score on the AAHPERD Volleyball Test is a(n):
operational definition
The term that denotes using ideas, writings, or drawings of others as your own is
plagiarism
In which part of the methods section should you expect to find information about when the participants were tested?
procedures
To calculate L for a correlation of two sets of ranked scores, the degrees of freedom (N - 1) are multiplied by
r square
A researcher predicts that there will be a positive relationship between attitude scores and grade point average. This is an example of a
research hypothesis
The researcher's statement that "the boys in the adventure program will make significantly greater gains in self-concept than the boys in the control group" is an example of a(n)
research hypothesis
This question pertains to the following study: "A researcher wishes to determine the effects of an outdoor adventure summer camp on the self-concept of inner-city boys. Boys are randomly assigned to the summer camp and to a control situation. The experimental treatment is for three months. A secondary purpose is to see if age (ages 6, 9, and 12) affects the relationship of the camp effects and self-concept." The dependent variable is
self-concept
After receiving approval from the university committee on the use of humans as research participants (Institutional Review Board), the researcher
should include a description of this compliance in the methods section of the thesis or dissertation.
The term that describes the position of the hump in the curve of a distribution is
skewness
Which of the following terms least belongs with the others?
standard deviation
At the end of a well-written introduction, the reader should be able to predict the
statement of the problem (purpose of study)
With regard to capitalization only in APA style, which of these references is/are correct?
(Book) Plagenhoef, S. C. Patterns of human motion (Journal) Cassell, J. Ethical patterns in fieldwork. American Educational Research Journal
In an item analysis, 14 of the 20 high-ability students answered an item correctly, whereas only 8 of the 20 low-ability students did. What is the discrimination index for this item?
.30
The maximum value of item discrimination in norm-referenced test items occurs when the item difficulty is
.50
For a predicted score of 30 and a standard error of estimate of 6, the chances are 95 out of 100 that the true score will be between
18 and 42
A researcher wishes to know whether there is a significant difference in the number of knee injuries reported among four sports. How many degrees of freedom are there for this chi-square analysis?
3
The researcher obtained a significant F from the ANOVA. Omega squared was found to be .30. This is interpreted to mean that
30% of the total variance is accounted for by the treatments
What is the median score for the following set of numbers? (3, 11, 8, 13, 5, 3, 6)
6
Which of the following is information that should be found in the section on design and analysis of the data?
An ANOVA was used to compare the three groups.
The primary sources of a literature review are
Research journal articles
A predictive validity technique involving the construction of a two-way grid of percentages of students at different levels of an aptitude test who achieved different grades is called
an expectancy table
When the purpose of the research is to evaluate the effects of an independent variable on a dependent variable while controlling the influence of another characteristic, the best choice of a statistical analysis is
analysis of covariance
Another term for the mean is the
average
The premise that the scores from the Minnesota Attitude Inventory are a valid measure of attitude toward school is an example of a
basic assumption
The single score that best represents all the scores in a distribution is the definition of
central tendency
The accuracy with which a 12-min run estimates maximal oxygen consumption in a group of male high school seniors represents
concurrent validity
A study that has one independent variable with three levels and three dependent variables should be analyzed by
discriminant analysis
A measure of meaningfulness that expresses the difference between the experimental and control group in standard deviation units is the
effect size
A researcher decides to use an alpha of .01 and a power of .80. To determine the needed sample size the researcher must ascertain the expected
effect size
An important principle set forth by the American Psychological Association is the right of informed consent, which states that the researcher is obligated to
explain the major features of the study to the participants before the beginning of the study so that they have the opportunity to decline to take part
A threat to the validity of rating scales is that the rater may tend to let her previous knowledge of the student in another capacity (e.g., another course) influence the rating. This threat is called the
halo effect
When a tester divides the number of students who answered a test item correctly by the number of students who attempted the item, the result is called
index of difficultly
For confidentiality, the researcher should
make certain no unauthorized individuals have access to the research data inform the participants about the people who will have access to the data remove names from data-collection instruments and replace them with a code ****all of the above****
The term coined by Kuhn to denote the scientific approach that is used widely in the natural sciences is
normal science
In multiple regression, one is able to predict
one criterion from two or more predictors
If a thermometer measured the temperature in an oven as 400° five days in a row when the temperature was actually 337°, this measuring instrument would be considered
reliable but not valid
The standard deviation represents the
spread of scores about the mean
Another term that describes the unscientific method of tenacity is
superstition
Four skills tests are tried as predictors of success in a tennis class. Each test correlates with later success as follows: test A, r = .27; test B, r = -.90; test C, r = -.40; test D, r = .65. The test that will most accurately predict success is
test B
In logistic regression, one is able to predict
the probability of an occurrence
When a researcher states that a result is significant, this means that
the result is unlikely to be a chance occurrence
Which of the following statements would appear in the procedures part of the methods section of a research report?
Participants in the experimental group exercised three days per week for 30 minutes per day for 10 weeks.
A report of a research study submitted for a four-chapter thesis and the same study prepared for a journal differ with respect to the length of the
a and b (introduction and review of the literature and description of the methods)
Reliability of a measure may be established by
giving the test to the same people on two different occasions and correlating the two sets of scores correlating scores from alternate forms of the same test
This question pertains to the following study: "A researcher wishes to determine the effects of an outdoor adventure summer camp on the self-concept of inner-city boys. Boys are randomly assigned to the summer camp and to a control situation. The experimental treatment is for three months. A secondary purpose is to see if age (ages 6, 9, and 12) affects the relationship of the camp effects and self-concept." The researcher states that self-concept is represented by scores on the Tennessee Self Concept Scale. This is an example of a(n)
operational definition
After a population of 1,000 high school seniors is divided by sex and size of school attended, the random selection of a sample to represent these proportions of the population is called
stratified random sampling
The t test is used to
test whether two groups differ significantly
According to the American Psychological Association, when a graduate student submits her thesis or dissertation for publication jointly with the major professor, the first author should be
the student
Use of a one-tailed versus a two-tailed test of significance of the difference between two sample means depends on
whether the difference is expected to be in one direction only
In a study designed to assess the comparative effectiveness of two workbooks used in teaching students about laboratory procedures, the independent variable of the study would be
workbooks
This question pertains to the following study: "A researcher wishes to determine the effects of an outdoor adventure summer camp on the self-concept of inner-city boys. Boys are randomly assigned to the summer camp and to a control situation. The experimental treatment is for three months. A secondary purpose is to see if age (ages 6, 9, and 12) affects the relationship of the camp effects and self-concept." The researcher is proceeding on the belief that self-concept can be changed in a summer (three months). This is an example of a(n)
basic assumption
Of the following, which is a nonparametric statistical test?
contingency coefficient
Prediction studies use which of the following as the basic analysis technique?
correlation
A good beginning point in a literature search for the student with a very limited knowledge about a topic is
encyclopedias, textbooks, and literature reviews
A correlation of .00 between two variables indicates
independence (no association) between the variables
When a researcher claims that there is a difference between treatments (i.e., rejects the null hypothesis) when there really is no difference, what type of error is this?
type I error
If the researcher fails to reject the null hypothesis when there really is a difference, this is an example of a
type II error
Three levels of a treatment variable were evaluated for males and females on three dependent variables. A significant F is reported for the interaction of treatment and gender on a linear composite of the three dependent variables. Which statistical analysis was used?
MANOVA
The type of scale that uses items such as "Worthless-Valuable" is called a
semantic differential scale
In the instruments part of the methods section, the author should include a description of the
test characteristics of validity and reliability
A researcher sought to find out which of two exercises was more effective in building endurance. One group used exercise A, and another group used exercise B. At the end of study, the researcher should compare the two groups' scores by
an independent t test
Compared to applied research, basic research
usually offers more control, such as that done in a laboratory questions cannot be easily answered
If ANOVA has found a significant difference among four treatment groups, a follow-up test such as the Scheffé is needed to determine
which of the groups differ significantly from the others
For a group of normally distributed scores with a mean of 30 and a standard deviation of 6, the middle 68% of the scores will be between
24 and 36
A main disadvantage of nonparametric techniques that has frequently been stated (although there is some disagreement with this claim) is that they
are not as powerful (less likely to detect a false null hypothesis) as parametric techniques
A chi-square analysis compares the responses to a question on recreational preferences of males and females at three grade levels. The resulting two-way classification structure is called a
contingency table
To determine whether data are normally distributed, one can test to see whether the curve is shifted to the left or right. This shift is called
skewness
The inductive and deductive processes are important in
the statement of the problem
an operational definition of human intelligence is
those characteristics that are measured by the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children
A two-way (factorial) ANOVA with more than one person per cell will yield F values for which of following contrasts?
three F values, one each for rows, columns, and interaction
Which of the following is not a common error in the review of literature sections of theses?
synthesizing and interpreting the findings of previous research
This question pertains to the following study: "A researcher wishes to determine the effects of an outdoor adventure summer camp on the self-concept of inner-city boys. Boys are randomly assigned to the summer camp and to a control situation. The experimental treatment is for three months. A secondary purpose is to see if age (ages 6, 9, and 12) affects the relationship of the camp effects and self-concept." The categorical variable is
age level
A researcher wishes to survey student opinions on a proposed increase in fees at her university. She decides to select a sample for telephone interviewing by selecting every 20th name in the student directory. What is this type of sampling called?
systematic
The author of a test of anxiety proceeds on the premise, based on the literature, that the performance of people with high anxiety suffers when they are under stress. In an experiment, the author finds that people who scored as highly anxious on the test performed more poorly on a stressful task. The test author maintained that this finding was evidence of what kind of validity?
construct
Data such as sex, city of residence, or political party affiliation are what kind of measure?
nominal
A study involves the comparison of two instructional methods on achievement in math. Two classrooms are used; one method is administered in each classroom. The researcher notices that the pretest scores show differences between the two groups. To control for the influence of the pretest scores on the posttest scores, the researcher should use
ANCOVA
A researcher wishes to determine whether a treatment group made a significant improvement from the pretest (M = 25) to the posttest (M = 30). The correct statistical test to use to compare the two means is the
dependent t test
The determining factor in the order of authorship of a research publication is that the first author is the person who
develops the idea and plans the research
A thesis was submitted with the title "A study comparing the achievement of sixth-grade students in Moscow, Idaho, instructed in health education through closed-circuit television and regular classroom procedure for a period of 16 weeks." This title
is too long
A researcher used a t test to compare treatments and obtained a t of 3.45. One group had 48 participants, and the other group had 40. The table value for significance at the .01 level was 2.64. Which of the following is the correct way to express these results?
t(86) = 3.45, p < .01
Which one of the following statements about dual publication is not true?
Dual publication is permissible if the two journals are in different languages (e.g., published in different countries).
Which hypothesis is stated in the null form?
There is no difference between the vocabulary scores of average- and high-ability students.
The introduction to a research report should
move from a general description of the theoretical problem to the specific area to be studied
If there is a correlation of .80 between a test of scholastic aptitude and performance on an achievement test, one can infer that
no causation can be inferred
In evaluating the methods section of a research report, which is a very important question to keep in mind?
Did the author provide enough information that the study could be repeated?
For scores from a test to have good content validity, the following statement(s) must be true:
The test adequately samples what was covered in the course. The percentage of points for each topic area reflects the amount of emphasis given that topic.
Three levels of a treatment variable were evaluated for males and females on three dependent variables. A significant F is reported for the interaction of treatment and gender on a linear composite of the three dependent variables. Which statistical analysis was used?
discriminant analysis
The only type of research that can manipulate treatments and establish a cause and effect is
experimental research
It is desirable to carry out a pilot study prior to the actual research study because
it permits a thorough check of the planned data collection and analysis procedures
This question pertains to the following study: "A researcher wishes to determine the effects of an outdoor adventure summer camp on the self-concept of inner-city boys. Boys are randomly assigned to the summer camp and to a control situation. The experimental treatment is for three months. A secondary purpose is to see if age (ages 6, 9, and 12) affects the relationship of the camp effects and self-concept." The researcher states that he is aware that responses to questions on a self-concept scale may not always be what the person really believes. This is an example of a(n)
limitation
