Psych300 Final

A researcher wishes to examine the effects of a reinforcement program on a child's behavior, as it occurs in three different environments. A __ design should be used to evaluation the program

multiple baseline

In observational research, __ means having preconceived ideas about what will be observed and having those ideas color one's observations

observer bias

In studies evaluating the influence of a drug, those in the experimental group are often compared with those in a(n) __ control group

placebo

Demand characteristics refer to

pressures placed on participants by experimenters who want a study to come out a certain way

In ___ sampling, each member of the population has some definable probability of being selected for the sample

probability

The sequence ABCDDCBA is indicative of __ counterbalancing

reverse

A single factor experiment that uses a subject variable is referred to as an __ design

ex post facto

When the behavior of a participant in the experimental group affects what happens to a participant in the control group, the study is using a __ control group

yoked

A well-known example of a study that produced a nonlinear effect was the memory study by Ebbinghaus that produced his forgetting curve. Which of the following is true about his study?

the independent variable was the amount of time between studying and recalling

What is meant by the problem of "reactivity", and how can it be overcome?

Reactivity refers to the issue of participant behavior being influenced by the knowledge they are being observed. This can be overcome by using unobtrusive measures, using archival data, and spending enough time with the participants that they get used to your presence.

What does it mean to say that a sample is representative?

A sample is representative then it reflects the attributes of the target population as a whole.

What is the proper t test for a nonequivalent groups design?

ANOVA test

For which of these empirical questions would a control group most clearly be needed?

If institutionalized elderly are given responsibility for meal planning, will it improve their psychological health?

Which of the following is true about case study research?

1. experimenter bias can affect what the researcher records about the case c. the data from the subjects of case studies can be limited by memory failures d. it might be the only way to study some rare individual all true

In a taste test comparing popcorn brands A, B, C, and D, the experimenter decides to use a Latin square for counterbalancing. Assuming that ten participants will be tested in each of the sequences used, how many people will be needed to complete the study?

40

Willy runs a small company with 10 employees. He decides to pick a simple random sample of 3 employees to go on a business trip. He numbers them 0-9 and uses the random digit table printed below to select the sample. Which employees are in the sample?

6, 7, 1

What does a confidence interval represent?

A confidence interval represents a range of value that is expected to encompass the population value with a certain degree of confidence.

Describe the essential features of a withdrawal design, and distinguish between these designs: A-B-A, A-B-A-B, A-B-C-B

A withdrawal design in a type of study that introduces a subject to a treatment and then withdraws the treatment. An A-B-A study starts with the subject baseline, then introduces treatment, then withdraws the treatment. In an A-B-A-B study, the subject start at their baseline, treatment is introduced,treatment is withdrawn, and then the treatment is applied again. An a A-B-C-B study starts with the subject's baseline, then the treatment is introduced, then there is a period of non contingent reinforcement, then the treatment is applied again.

In terms of its ability to rule out alternative explanations for a behavior change, the __ design is the weakest of the single-subject designs

A-B

Describe an advantage and a disadvantage of including DK alternatives

An advantage of including DK alternatives is that it doesn't force participants to choose an answer if they don't know. A disadvantage is that some respondents might over use the DK option.

Describe an example of a study that illustrates experimenter bias. How might such bias be controlled?

An example that illustrates experimenter bias is the case of Clever Hans, who used experimenter's slight facial or body expressions to guess which answers were correct. This bias can be controlled by instructing experimenters to not smile, frown, and limit reactions in general. This can also be controlled by using technology to interact with the participant without them being able to see the experimenter.

In which of the following instances is social desirability bias most likely to pose a problem to the validity of research data?

Asking adult participants about what they would do in certain situations if there were no legal consequences

Distinguish between external validity in general and ecological validity in particular.

Ecological validity looks at how findings will align in real-life specifically. While external validity looks at how much the test can be generalized.

True or False: a confidence interval represents the most likely location of the true population mean

False

The term __ effect has traditionally been used to describe what happens when participants do not behave normally, simply because they know they are part of an experiment

Hawthorne

How does random selection differ from random assignment, and what is the purpose of the latter?

Random selection refers to the process of randomly choosing participants for a study, while random assignment refers to randomly assigning conditions within the study. The purpose of random assignment is so that both groups are as equivalent to each other as possible.

There are two different groups in a study, and participants are randomly assigned to one group or the other. What's the design?

Single factor, two-level independent groups design

Ellen signs up for a study in which she completes the Stroop test. Then she is asked to do the task again, but this time the words are turned upside down. What's the design?

Single factor, two-level repeated measures design

What is the difference between a z-test and a 1-sample t-test?

The difference between a z-test and a 1-sample t-test is that the z-test is used when the standard deviation is known, and the other when it is not.

In a chi-square test, how do expected frequencies relate to the null hypothesis?

The expected frequencies relate to the null hypothesis because the expected frequencies are what the null hypothesis will be.

Some studies last long enough for a significant number of people to drop out; this problem is called

attrition

Describe two varieties of e-surveys. What are the advantages and disadvantages of e-surveying?

Two types of e-surveys are ones sent through email and ones that are posted on websites. The advantages of e-surveys are that they can be collected swiftly and don't cost as much. The disadvantages are that samples are usually biased, self-selected, and more than one answer could be submitted by the same person.

The first step in any applied behavior analysis of to establish a __ level of responding

baseline

Small N designs have been criticized for

being unable to test for interactions

For any experiment investigating the effect of X on Y,

X is the independent variable Y is the dependent variable

In a between-subjects design, the differences between conditions could be due to all of the following except

a carry-over effect

Social validity is said to occur when

a procedure shown to be effective is recognized as such by the community and widely used

Which of the following studies would be most likely to use a wait-list control group?

a study evaluating the effectiveness of a new therapy for depression

What does it mean to say that a study fails the "individual-subject validity" test?

it means that the overall conclusion is not reflected in the behavior of individual participants

In a within-subjects design, the differences between experimental conditions could be due to all of the following except

individual differences

If a study is free from confounding factors, it is said to have __ validity

internal

Describe at least one reason for small N designs

One reason for small N designs could be because the limited amount of people with a certain condition that the researcher is trying to study.

Which of the following is true about Woodworth's so-called "Columbia bible?"

it made a clear distinction between experimental and correlational research

All single-subject designs include

a time during which a baseline level of behavior is measured

For each study below, indicate whether you think the independent variable should be a between- or a within-subjects variable and explain your decision.

a) A between-subjects variable should be used because different groups of people are needed to include diverse cultural backgrounds. b) A within-subject variable should be used because one subject can undergo both conditions without it affecting their judgement.

Creating equivalent groups is a design problem for

between-subjects designs

In order to insure that equal numbers of participants are randomly assigned to each condition of a study, Answer is sometimes used

block randomization

Over a series of trials, participants experiencing one order of conditions might have an advantage over participants experiencing another order. These effects are called

carry-over effects

A __ refers to a detailed description and analysis of a single individual, such as Little Hans

case study

The __ design is based on the operant procedure called shaping

changing criterion

Small N research designs

characterized most of the early research in psychology

In a cross-sectional comparison of intelligence in people aged 20, 40, and 60, differences might be due to aging but they might also be due to the different rearing conditions experienced by participants. This latter interpretation illustrates a(n) _______ effect

cohort

How should a multilevel, independent groups design be analyzed if there are three groups (A, B, C) in the study?

complete a one-way ANOVA

Uncontrolled extraneous variables are referred to as

confounds

Studies of aggression have sometimes been criticized for developing questionable operational definitions of aggression (e.g., horn honking). This is primarily a criticism of _________ validity.

construct

The use of control groups has been criticized on ethical grounds because

control group participants could be missing an effective therapy

Studies with two levels of a repeated-measures independent variable would be statistically analyzed by using a t test for

dependent groups

Experimenter bias can be reduced by using a(n) __ procedure in which neither the experimenter nor the subject knows which condition is being tested.

double blind

In a cross-cultural study of helping behavior, researchers ask local residents for directions to the train station. The study takes place in London, Paris, Berlin, and Rome. What's the design?

ex post facto design

One of the defining features of any experiment is the careful attempt to control __ variables

extraneous

In a study of the effects of motivation on maze-running speed, 50 rats are tested in a 20-foot alley maze (i.e., no turns, just a straight run from one end to the other). Some rats perform the task after going 5 hours without food, others after going 10 hours without food, and others after going 15 hours without food. Rats are placed in the different conditions in such a way as to insure that the average weights of the rats in all conditions are equal. What's the design?

matched group

If a study lasts for an appreciable period of time, participants might learn new things or grow wiser in some way, thereby producing a threat to internal validity known as

maturation

In a __ observation study, the goal is to study the behaviors of people or animals as they act in their everyday environments

naturalistic

If a study has just one independent variable, adding more than two levels provides the opportunity to discover __ effects

non-linear

Return rate of written surveys is often a problem. __ is when those who return surveys differ in some important way from those who dont return them.

nonresponse bias

After averaging 20 points per game for her college basketball team over the first 15 games, Amanda scores 37 points one night. Because of _______, she will almost certainly score _______ points in the next game.

regression to the mean; fewer

Sometimes performance differences could be attributed to an independent variable or to some basic difference in the composition of the two groups involved. When this occurs, there is said to be a threat due to

selection

Which of the following is true about subject (participant) pools?

students must be given a reasonable alternative to research participation

Age, gender, and socioeconomic class are all examples of __ variables.

subject

With ___________ participants complete different tasks, whereas with ___________ participants are told how to do certain tasks.

task variables; instructional variables

Multiple baseline designs are preferred over withdrawal designs when

the behavior being altered is self-destructive

As a technique for creating equivalent groups, when is matching preferred over random assignment?

when some extraneous variable is known to correlate with the dependent variable

Longitudinal design is to cross-sectional design as ______ is to _______.

within-subjects; between-subjects