Psych 12 Inquizitive chp 10
What criterion for causation is clearly established by manipulating the independent variable?
tempora precedence
Which of the following questions are applicable to interrogating internal validity?
Applicable Did the study counterbalance the order of conditions? Did the study ensure there were no variables that systematically varied with the independent variable? Did the study use random assignment? Not Applicable Did the study have zero in the 95% CI? Did the study use random sampling?
Eric designs a study to examine the drink preferences of first-year university students. He is planning to have all the first-year students who participate in his study drink a cup of coffee and rate their enjoyment of it, and then drink a cup of tea and rate their enjoyment of it. Which of the following descriptions are applicable to Eric's experiment?
Applicable Eric should use counterbalancing. Eric should be concerned with order effects. Not Applicable Eric's study is a concurrent-measures design. Eric should be concerned with selection effects.
Gokhan wants to examine whether coffee increases productivity. He creates two conditions in his study—2 cups of coffee per day and 2 cups of water per day—and asks his participants to sign up for the condition they prefer. In the morning, participants drink either 2 cups of coffee or 2 cups of water. At the end of the day, participants rate their level of productivity on a scale of 1 ("not productive at all") to 10 ("extremely productive"). Which of the following descriptions are applicable to Gokhan's experiment?
Applicable independent-groups design posttest-only design selection effect Not Applicable pretest/posttest design within-groups design random assignment
Bruno is testing a new diet plan to see if it is effective in reducing the frequency of eating cancer-causing foods. Bruno creates two groups of people—one that will receive his new diet plan and one that will receive a traditional diet plan. Bruno knows that culture influences food choices and wants to ensure that each group has an equal representation of different ethnicities. He puts the names of all of the participants from one ethnicity into a hat and draws out names, placing half of them in one group and half in the other. He does the same for each of the ethnic groups represented in his participant pool. Bruno then gives the two groups their different diet plans and measures participants' eating habits 3 months later. Which of the following descriptions are applicable to Bruno's experiment?
Applicable matched-groups design posttest-only design independent-groups design random assignment Not Applicable pretest/posttest design within-groups design
Mariah is testing whether or not loud music causes people to drive more recklessly. Mariah flips a coin to place each participant in one of two groups. All participants complete a driving simulator course that measures their speed and number of mistakes. Mariah then has one group listen to a song at a very loud volume and the other group listen to the song at a lower volume. After listening to the song, participants once again complete the driving simulator course. Which of the following descriptions are applicable to Mariah's experiment?
Applicable random assignment independent-groups design pretest/posttest design Not Applicable matched-groups design within-groups design posttest-only design
Kina is testing the effectiveness of her new intervention on self-esteem in first-year college students at her university. She obtains a list of all first-year students at her university and uses a computer randomizer to select 100 of them. Before conducting her study, Kina runs a pilot study to test her intervention with a small sample. Then, Kina gathers her sample of 100 first-year students and asks them to sign up for either her 2-week intervention or a first-year mixer event. At the end of the 2 weeks, Kina finds the following results: d = 0.12, 95% CI [−.13, .37]. Which of the following validities are established in Kina's study?
Established construct validity external validity Not Established statistical validity internal validity
Abhinav wants to investigate whether music genre affects concentration levels. He wants his participants to listen to two genres of music, classical music and pop music, while looking at a list of phone numbers. He recruits participants from his general psychology course and randomly assigns them to one of two sequences. Half of the participants first listen to classical music while looking at the list of numbers, then take a recall quiz, then listen to pop music while looking at the list of numbers, and then take the recall quiz again. The other half of participants complete the tasks in the opposite order, with pop music coming first and classical music following. In addition to the recall quizzes, participants also respond to a question asking them whether the music affected their concentration. Abhinav finds the following results: d = −0.24, 95% CI [−.43, −.05]. Which of the following validities are established in Abhinav's study?
Established construct validity internal validity statistical validity Not Established external validity
Label each example with the type of variability it best represents. Labels can be used more than once.
Imani and her three research assistants are doing a study on sociability in college students, with participants either in one-on-one or in small groups. She later finds out that one of her research assistants is much chattier than the others in both the one-on-one and small group conditions. unsystematic variability Shilpa wants to examine whether time of day affects grocery shoppers' moods. She finds that people who shop for groceries earlier in the day are happier than people who shop later in the evening. After Shilpa collects her data, the manager tells her that the store usually has more items in stock in the morning. systematic variability Travis is comparing the effects of music type on productivity. His research assistants tell him they really enjoy the upbeat music condition. systematic variability Marcos is testing how video game performance affects aggression. He randomly assigns participants to play either an easy video game or a difficult video game. Some of his participants have never played video games before unsystematic variability
Identify the research scenarios as examples of either manipulated or measured variables.
Manipulated Variable(s) One group of participants is given seats in the front of the classroom, while another group is given seats in the back. Participants are given a cup of green tea and then a cup of water. Measured Variable(s) Participants report how comfortable they are in certain situations. Participants answer a 10-item questionnaire on their feelings of closeness with their classmates.
Mueller and Oppenheimer (2014) conducted a study examining whether taking notes by hand could lead to deeper processing of material than taking notes with a laptop. They flipped a coin to assign one half of the students participating in their study to watch a video lecture while taking notes with paper and pencil, and the other half of the students to watch the same video lecture while taking notes with a laptop. Thirty minutes after the lecture, all students look the same test on the material covered in the lecture, and a research assistant with no knowledge of the two groups graded the tests. The results showed that students who took notes by hand scored higher on conceptual questions (e.g., compare-and-contrast questions) than students who took notes with a laptop. Match each causal criterion to the corresponding component of the study.
Participants took notes (either by hand or using a laptop) before taking the test. temporal precedence Participants were randomly assigned to take notes by hand or to take notes using a laptop. internal validity The students who took notes by hand scored higher than the students who took notes with a laptop. covariance
Which of the following problems are potential disadvantages of within-groups designs?
Potential Disadvantage(s) demand characteristics order effects Not Potential Disadvantage(s) nonequivalent groups requirement of more participants
Label each study with the correct study design
Rukmini is running a study to examine the effect of music genre on mood. She randomly assigns participants to three conditions: rock, jazz, and country. She has the participants rate their mood, then listen to their assigned music for 20 minutes, and then fill out the mood questionnaire again.pretest/posttest design Terrance wants to find out whether sweet or salty snacks make people more satisfied. He first gives everyone a salty snack and has them rate their level of satisfaction. Then, he gives everyone a sweet snack and has them rate their level of satisfaction again. repeated-measures design Jafari wants to control for intelligence in his study. He sorts the list of participants according to their IQ scores and then forms groups, making sure the groups are balanced in terms of IQ scores. Finally, he randomly assigns each group to one of the conditions of his study. matched-groups design Kiana designs a study to examine the juice preferences of preschool children. She has the children drink a small cup of apple juice and then a small cup of orange juice. She then asks the children which of the two was their favorite. concurrent-measures design
Identify the true and false statements about effect sizes.
True Statement(s) Effect sizes are relevant to evaluating the causal criterion of covariance. The greater the difference between two conditions, the larger the effect size. False Statement(s) Both d and r use the original units of measurement. The correlation coefficient r is always preferred over d for reporting results.
Identify the true and false statements about experiments.
True Statement(s) Every experiment requires a comparison group. If the manipulation of the independent variable causes a change in the dependent variable, covariance is established. False Statement(s) Every experiment requires a control group. Measuring the dependent variable establishes temporal precedence.
Identify the true and false statements about interrogating causal claims with the four validities.
True Statement(s) Many experiments sacrifice external validity to achieve internal validity. Collecting data through additional studies is another way to improve construct validity. False Statement(s) Two studies that report the same amount of change between two similar conditions should have the same effect size. If an experiment contains a confound, a causal claim can still be made. Replicating an experiment using a larger sample improves external validity.
Identify the true and false statements about independent-groups designs
True Statement(s) Posttest-only designs are useful if participants' behavior needs to be spontaneous. Pretest/posttest designs can help prevent selection effects. False Statement(s) Pretest/posttest designs are always superior to posttest-only designs, as they give a baseline for the dependent variable. Posttest-only designs help track how participants change over the course of the experiment.
Identify the true and false statements about the following result: d = 0.32, 95% CI [.13, .51].
True Statement(s) The confidence interval would be less precise if there were greater variability in the data. This is a statistically significant result. False Statement(s) The confidence interval would be wider if the study used a larger sample. The absence of zero in the confidence interval indicates that the study establishes internal validity.
Mueller and Oppenheimer (2014) conducted a study examining whether taking notes by hand could lead to deeper processing of material than taking notes with a laptop. They flipped a coin to assign one half of the students participating in their study to watch a video lecture while taking notes with paper and pencil, and the other half of the students to watch the same video lecture while taking notes with a laptop. Thirty minutes after the lecture, all students look the same test on the material covered in the lecture, and a research assistant with no knowledge of the two groups graded the tests. The results showed that students who took notes by hand scored higher on conceptual questions (e.g., compare-and-contrast questions) than students who took notes with a laptop. Identify the true and false statements about Mueller and Oppenheimer's (2014) study.
True Statement(s) The design of the study involved a comparison group. The researchers were trying to test a causal claim. False Statement(s) The study did not include any control variables. The study involved random sampling.
Participants in an experiment are given the same list of words to study for 3 minutes and then, after a delay, are asked to recall as many words as possible from the list. The length of the delay is manipulated to be 2 minutes, 5 minutes, or 10 minutes. Identify the true and false statements about the experiment.
True Statement(s) The list of words is a control variable in this experiment. If all participants in the 2-minute condition were tested in the morning, all participants in the 5-minute condition were tested in the afternoon, and all participants in the 10-minute condition were tested in the evening, there would be a design confound. False Statement(s) The length of delay between exposure to the words and the recall task is a control variable in this study. If the three conditions were run simultaneously in three different randomly chosen rooms, there would be a design confound.
Identify the true and false statements about within-groups designs
True Statement(s) Within-groups designs make it easier to be certain of differences between conditions than independent-groups designs. A within-groups design usually requires fewer participants than an independent-groups design. Participants in a within-groups design serve as their own control. False Statement(s) Within-groups designs are always superior to independent-groups designs.
Match each validity to the appropriate technique for addressing concerns with it.
manipulation check construct validity random sampling external validity larger sample statistical validity random assignment internal validity
What is the main difference between independent-groups and within-groups designs?
the number of levels of the independent variable partiipants experience
Leonard and colleagues (2017) conducted a study looking at whether babies would give more effort to a task after viewing an adult give a lot of effort to the task. More than 100 babies ranging from 13 to 18 months were recruited for the study. Researchers flipped a coin to see which babies would be in the "effort" condition (with an adult modeling hard work to pull out a toy from a box) and which babies would be in the "no-effort" condition (with an adult simply pulling out a toy from a box without working hard). The results showed that the babies in the effort condition persisted longer on a novel task than the babies in the no-effort condition. Suppose you come across an online news article about Leonard and colleagues' (2017) study with the headline "Watching hardworking adults can motivate babies." What type of claim is the headline making?
causal
Match each term to the correct description.
conducting multiple studies on the same question to get more precise estimates replication an extra dependent variable that can be used to help researchers evaluate how well an experimental manipulation worked manipulation check presenting the levels of the independent variable to participants in different sequences counterbalancing study completed separately from the main study to confirm the effectiveness of a manipulation pilot study
Darius wants to find out whether the color of clothing people wear affects how others view them. He separates participants into three groups and has them all wear the same black pants. The first group wears red T-shirts, the second group wears blue T-shirts, and the third group wears gray T-shirts. Darius then brings each participant into a room for 60 seconds, and two independent coders rate how appealing they are on a scale of 1 to 10. Match each aspect of Darius's experiment to the variable it best represents.
control variable time spent in the rating room pants color independent variable T-shirt color dependent variable appeal rating
When an independent variable is manipulated, the experiment uses several different groups. A ___ group is a group that is not changed or manipulated in any way. Any group in which something is changed or altered is known as a ___ group. A group in which participants are given an inert treatment is known as a ___ group. All of these groups can help reduce alternative explanations for experimental results, or ____>
control, treatment, placebo, confounds
Doris is interested in whether there is a difference in attitudes toward victims of bullying depending on environment (in person versus online). She creates two fictional scenarios in which someone is bullied either in a classroom or on a social networking site. She uses the same bullying action and victim gender for each scenario. Doris then measures how much people blame the bullying victim and how willing they are to step in and help them. Match each aspect of Doris's experiment to the variable it best represents.
dependent variable helping intentions victum blaming control variable bullying actions victim gender independent variable environment
Damon is examining whether people are more likely to remember information if they read it or if they listen to a recording of it. He finds a short passage and records his own voice reading it out loud. Half of his participants read the short passage for 3 minutes, and the other half listen to the voice recording, which is also 3 minutes long. After being exposed to the passage, participants take a memory quiz about the content of the passage. Match each aspect of Damon's experiment to the term it best represents.
dependent variable quiz score condition listening to the passage reading the passage control variable content of the passage length of time independent variable method of absorbing information
When researchers inadvertently create a flaw that is a threat to the internal validity of their experiment, it is known as a(n) ___ . If these flaws coincide with the experimental manipulation and call into question whether it is the manipulation or the flaws that affect the dependent variable, this is known as ___. If the flawed part of the experiment is randomly distributed in the groups and doesn't have a pattern, this is known as ____ and does not necessarily pose a threat to internal validity.
design confound, systematic variability, unsystematic variability
When researchers manipulate a variable in a study, they are carrying out a(n) ___. The manipulated variable is often called the ___variable. A manipulated variable always has more than one level, or ___. Researchers measure the ___ variable to determine the effect of the manipulated variable on it. Researchers often keep certain other factors constant on purpose. This kind of variable is called a(n) ___ variable.
experiment, independent, condition, dependent, control
Yoshi is testing how being exposed to pictures of different types of foods affects sleepiness. He shows each participant five pictures of dessert, five pictures of entrees, and five pictures of salads, and then he measures sleepiness after each group of five pictures. To eliminate order effects, Yoshi creates all possible sequences for presenting the three types of food and all five pictures in each type. He then randomly assigns each participant to a sequence. What technique is Yoshi using to prevent order effects?
full counterbalancing
In psychology lab, Tetiana is conducting an experiment on depth perception using a box with two vertical rods and a ruler. The participant moves the rods until they appear to be aligned at the same distance, and then the experimenter measures how far out of alignment they are. Participants complete the task first with only their left eye open, then with only their right eye open, and then with both eyes open. Identify the components of Tetiana's study. Not all items will have a match.
independent variable eye(s) used study design repeated measures dependent variable rods' distance out of alignment
Professor Song wants to find out whether frequent quizzes in her classes lead to better grades. She gives two quizzes per week to one section of her research methods course, and she doesn't give any quizzes to her other section. At the end of the semester, she examines the final exam scores and overall course grades of the students in both sections. Match each aspect of Professor Song's experiment to the term it best represents.
independent variable frequency of quizzes condition no quizzes two quizzes perweek control variable type of course dependent variable overall course grade final exam score
In a within-groups design, each participant experiences all levels of the ___. There are two types of this design. The first is the ___ design, in which researchers expose participants to various levels of the independent variable and measure the dependent variable after each exposure. The second is the ___ design, in which participants interact with the various levels of the independent variable simultaneously.
independent variable, repreted-measures, concurrent-measures
Experiments that compare different participants who are placed in different conditions are known as ___ designs. There are two basic forms of this design. The first is the ___ design, in which participants are tested on the dependent variable only once after the manipulation. The second is the ____ design, in which participants are tested on the dependent variable before and after the manipulation.
independent-groups, posttest-only, pretest/posttest
Sonia wants to examine the impact of phone calls versus texting on friendship quality. She carefully designs her study to establish all three causal criteria. She randomly assigns participants to either only call their best friend for 2 days or only text their best friend for 2 days. Using random assignment ensures that the participants in the phone call and texting conditions are not systematically different, which establishes ___. After the 2 days, she confirms that all participants followed the study instructions and asks participants to respond to five questions about the quality of their relationship with their best friend. Because the manipulation of type of communication (phone call versus text) comes first in time before the measurement of friendship quality, Sonia establishes ____. Sonia finds that participants who call their friend report better friendship quality than participants who text with their friend, a finding that establishes ___.
internal validity, temporal precedence, covariance
To establish a causal claim, researchers often prioritize ___ validity over ___ validity. While researchers hope to ___ their findings to other people and settings, in experiments, they focus more on ensuring the independent variable does not accidentally ____ with another variable.
internal, external, generalize, systematically vary
Norbert wonders about the relationship between room temperature and feelings of belonging. He wonders whether reducing room temperature by 1° would have an effect on feelings of belonging. To establish that the levels of the independent variable are sufficiently different, he chooses to conduct a(n) ___ by asking participants at the end of the study to report their perceived temperature in the room. Participants all report that the room is "comfortable." Norbert wonders if 1° is simply not a large enough change to be noticed. He runs a(n) ____ by recruiting a new group of participants and measuring how many degrees the room temperature needs to be changed before it is noticeably less comfortable. These two techniques help to establish the ___ validity of the independent variable in Norbert's study.
manipulation check, pilot study, contruct
In a within-groups design, exposing participants to one level of the independent variable can change how they respond to the other levels of the independent variable. This problem is generally referred to as a(n) ___ Press Space to openpractice effectdesign confoundorder effectdemand characteristiccarryover effectcounterbalancingselection effect, of which there are various types. One specific type is known as a(n) ___ . This occurs when exposure to one level of the independent variable contaminates how other levels of the independent variable are perceived. Another type is a(n) ___ , which occurs when participants change their responses because of repetition of the dependent variable rather than because of the independent variable itself. It is also possible that repeated exposure to the independent variable may cause participants to guess the hypothesis of the experiment, also known as a(n) ____.
order effect, carryover effect, practice effect, demand charcateristic
The endowment effect is the tendency for people to value something they own more than its true market value. Theo wants to test this effect, so he recruits some participants and divides them up into sellers (people selling their own used coffee mugs) and buyers (people buying the mugs). He asks the sellers to indicate the minimum price they would accept for their mugs, and he asks the buyers to indicate the maximum price they would pay for the mugs. The independent variable in Theo's experiment is ___ and the dependent variable is ____. Based on his design, Theo should control for selection effects by using ___.
participant role, mug value, random assignment
Leigh is interested in looking at how caloric intake affects performance. She conducts a study in which participants drink a cup of water before completing a task and then eat a small meal before completing the task again 5 hours later. Leigh is using a ____ design. Based on her study design, she should be concerned about ___. She can address this issue by using ___ in her experiment.
repeated-measures, practice effects, counterbalancing
Participants in an experiment are given the same list of words to study for 3 minutes and then, after a delay, are asked to recall as many words as possible from the list. The length of the delay is manipulated to be 2 minutes, 5 minutes, or 10 minutes. Because different groups need different amounts of time, researchers assign the first 25 participants who arrive to the 10-minute group, the next 25 to the 5-minute group, and the final 25 to the 2-minute group. What kind of confound does this create?
selection effect
When a researcher inadvertently creates a condition with a fundamentally different type of participant than another condition, this can create a ___. Researchers can combat this issue by using ____ to arbitrarily assign participants to each level. In some cases, especially with smaller sample sizes, researchers will deliberately assign participants to groups so that each group has a similar makeup for a particular attribute they are concerned about. This is known as creating ___.
selection effect, random assignment, match groups
Leonard and colleagues (2017) conducted a study looking at whether babies would give more effort to a task after viewing an adult give a lot of effort to the task. More than 100 babies ranging from 13 to 18 months were recruited for the study. Researchers flipped a coin to see which babies would be in the "effort" condition (with an adult modeling hard work to pull out a toy from a box) and which babies would be in the "no-effort" condition (with an adult simply pulling out a toy from a box without working hard). The results showed that the babies in the effort condition persisted longer on a novel task than the babies in the no-effort condition. What element of the study signals that it was an experiment?
the babies were randomly assigned to the effort and no-effort conditions
Dr. Keller wants to test the effect of a new antianxiety medication. He recruits a group of anxious patients and randomly assigns them to two groups. The first group will receive his new medication and the second group will receive a sugar pill. The first group is called a ___. The second group is called a ___. Dr. Keller makes sure that length of treatment is a ____ by treating both groups for the same length of time.
treatment group, placebo, control variable