Research Methods 10-14

If both the independent and dependent variables use nominal scale properties, the most appropriate statistical test would be the...

chi-square test.

Ironman goes to several schools where he tests students who are in the second grade, fourth grade, and fifth grade to examine the effect of age on an Avengers Test. In his research, Ironman has used a _____ method.

cross-sectional

You have to take an aptitude test before starting graduate school. In this scenario, the criterion variable will be your

expected performance as a student in graduate school.

You pretest a group of participants to determine their attitudes toward the use of alternative options to plastic straws. You then initiate a program to convince the participants that they should invest in such alternatives. During this time, the price of metal straws rises $0.50 per straw. At the end of the program, you retest and find that the participants are much more positive in their attitudes. What threat to internal validity most likely accounts for this change?

history

The standard deviation is appropriate only for

interval and ratio scale variables.

Statistically, significant results mean that the results are...

likely to be due to true differences between the groups.

To study personality development, you study the same individuals at 9, 12, 18, and 40 years of age. In this case, you are using the _____ method.

longitudinal

Participants are asked to watch two videos that were filmed by a male or female artist. They are told that one of the artists as a student majoring in art and the other is a professor in the art department. The participants rate the videos made by the professor as being of higher quality than the video made by the student. This indicates a(n)

main effect of authorship

In the context of one-group pretest-posttest design and the associated threats to internal validity, any changes that occur systematically over time are called _____ effects.

maturation

The _____ is an appropriate measure of central tendency if a nominal scale is used

mode

Your friend has designed a study to examine sexual arousal among male and female college students to erotic or nonerotic movies. A simple main effect of the type of movie would analyze whether arousal level is different for

movies when the viewer is a male and when the viewer is a female.

A little league coach uses the batting average, on-base percentage, throwing ability, and running speed of his baseball players to predict their success in high school baseball. This scenario best exemplifies the use of _____ as a predictor of the likelihood of success.

multiple correlation

Your professor has developed a scale to measure a person's fear of the dark. After a blackout, he surveys 1000 individuals and finds the mean score to be 6.5 out of a possible 10 (the higher the score, the greater the fear). The professor concludes that fear increases after people experience a blackout. This study is an example of a(n)

one-shot case study

A researcher obtains a .87 correlation between the age of job applicants and their likelihood to be hired. However, she thinks that job skills can be an important influence. In this scenario, she should calculate

partial correlation coefficient.

If exposure to an earlier assessment affects behavior when a participant is assessed a second time, which of the following types of effects might the researcher suspect is the cause?

testing effects

An interaction occurs whenever

the effect of one independent variable changes across levels of a second independent variable.

When analyzing the difference between two means, a researcher obtains the effect size as .85 using Cohen's d. In this case, the researcher can conclude that...

the means are separated by a .85 standard deviation.

Mechanics at a nearby body shop report that half of the automobiles they work on have a resale value below $8,000. Which measure of central tendency is exemplified in this scenario?

the median

What does a Solomon four-group design assess?

the possible impact of taking a pretest

The null hypothesis is rejected whenever...

there is a low probability that the obtained results could be due to random error.

In order to find a curvilinear relationship, you need to use

three or more levels of the independent variable.

Your professor wants to examine the effect of speaker credibility on attitude change in university and community college students. The PV in this design is the

type of student

Compared with the general population, college students tend to have...

unstable peer relationships.

In a 2 × 3 factorial design, there are _____ main effect(s) and _____ interaction effect(s) possible.

2;1

You are interested in variables that may affect an individual's studying habits. You have students study in quiet, loud, or distracting conditions. In addition, you have them study with or without a powerpoint, and with a partner or a group. In this design, there are _____ possible main effects and _____ possible interactions.

3;4

A 2 × 2 × 2 design results in _____ experimental conditions.

8

You design an experiment by manipulating the following variables: type of book (romantic, suspense), age of participants (older, younger), and reading position (sitting, lying down). For a completely independent groups design with 12 participants per group, how many participants would the researcher need?

96

To examine how a reward influences a desired behavior, a researcher first counts the number of times a child makes his bed over a two-week period. For the next two weeks, the child is given a reward every time he makes his bed. Following this period, the child stops being rewarded and, again, the number of times he makes his bed is counted. This procedure would be an example of a(n) _____ design.

ABA

One method used to demonstrate the reversibility of the effect of an independent variable is a(n)

ABA design

Which of the following statements is true of a narrative literature review?

In this review, the conclusions are based on the subjective impressions of the reviewer.

A mother realizes that her 9 yo daughter was especially motivated by marshmallows. The mother begins a reinforcement program whereby the child earns 5 marshmallows every time she brushes her teeth. A month later, the mother institutes a payment schedule of 10 marshmallows every time the child goes to bed on time without complaining. Once these behaviors are firmly established, the mother gives 15 marshmallows for every book the child reads. What kind of single-subject design did the mother employ?

NOT across situations multiple-baseline design

Which of the following examples best represents the use of an interval scale?

NOT ranking the participants of a race based on their performance

Which of the following statements is true about the terms "sex" and "gender"?

There is fluidity in gender identity.

Which of the following statements is true about structural equation models?

They allow researchers to compare two competing models.

Which of the following statements is true about frequency polygons?

They use a line to represent the distribution of frequencies of scores.

You conclude that there is no difference in the response time of drivers who have consumed one glass of wine and those who have consumed three shots of vodka. However, there actually is a difference in the response time of the drivers. In this case, you have made a(n) _____ error.

Type II

Which of the following is true of interactions?

When there is a statistically significant interaction, researchers need to carefully examine the means to understand why the interaction occurred.

In developmental research, a cohort is

a group of people born at about the same time, exposed to the same events in a society.

A professor at a university ranks subjects based on students' preferences identified through a survey. Science is ranked first, mathematics second, and management third. In this scenario, which of the following types of measurement scale has the professor employed?

an ordinal scale

According to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, a literature review provides information that does all of the following EXCEPT...

analyzes data from several reported studies.