(RM) Topics 52-66

[Topic 66] What is one incorrect way of saying a researcher has failed to reject the null hypothesis?

Accept

[Topic 65] What is another name for margin of error?

Confidence interval

[Topic 65] What value is 100 minus the alpha?

Confidence levels

[Topic 65] Statistics are used to make what about a population?

Inferences

[Topic 53] If observers are more tired and less astute when making posttest observations than when making pretest observations, what threat is operating?

Instrumentation

[Topic 57] What is the name of the effect that refers to the possibility that the control group might become aware of its "inferior" status and respond by trying to outperform the experimental group?

John Henry Effect

[Topic 52] What is the potential drawback to the Solomon randomized four-group design?

Need a large pool of participants (48+)

[Topic 56] If a researcher uses matching to form two groups in the design in Question 1, would the resulting experiment be superior to a true experimenter?

No (just increases internal validity); true experiment will always be superior than quasi designs

[Topic 62] Should the mean be used for highly skewed distributions?

No, the median should be used when there is high skewness

[Topic 56] What is the name of the design below: 0 X 0 ----------- 0 0

Non-equivalent control group design

[Topic 65] The "bell curve" is a nickname for what?

Normal distribution

[Topic 66] Significance tests are designed to determine the probabilities regarding the truth of what hypothesis?

Null hypothesis

[Topic 52] In a diagram for experimental design, symbol O stands for what? X?

O: observation or measurement whether pre or post test X: experimental treatment

[Topic 62] How is the mean calculated?

Sum of all scores and divided by the total number of scores

[Topic 60] When reporting a percentage, is it a good idea to also report the underlying number of cases?

Yes

[Topic 62] Should the median be used for highly skewed distributions?

Yes

[Topic 63] Is it possible for two groups to have the same score, what is the value of the standard deviations?

Yes

[Topic 57] A demand characteristic is a cue that lets participants know what?

a cue that lets the participants know the expected outcome of an experiment (problem if subject attempts to please the experimenter by reporting/acting the way they believe is expected)

[Topic 66] What is the null hypothesis in the study about the sociability of psychologists and engineers?

Unrepresented of the population from sampling

[Topic 53] Under what circumstance will statistical regression operate?

When subjects are selected based on their extreme scores

[Topic 66] The null hypothesis says the true difference equals what numerical value?

0

[Topic 60] If 600 in a population of 1000 are liberals, what is the corresponding percentage of liberals?

60% are Dems

[Topic 60] Do researchers use "univariate" or "bivariate" analyses to examine relationships between two nominal variables?

bivariate analyses

[Topic 56] What is a major advantage of the equivalent time-samples design?

both the control and treatment are identical (same person(s))

[Topic 52] What is the name of the potential problem caused by the pretest in the pretest-posttest randomized control group design?

can sensitize subject (thus experimental results can be a combination of the pretest and the treatment)

[Topic 57] A confound is a source of confusion regarding what?

creates confusion regarding the explanation for a given difference

[Topic 56] In the design shown in Question 1, what indicates that participants were not assigned at random to groups?

dashed line

[Topic 59] Which variable type corresponds to the outcome being measured?

dependent variable

[Topic 58] What branch of stats (inferential or descriptive) helps researchers to summarize data so they can be easily comprehended?

descriptive

[Topic 58] What type of stat is a frequency distribution? Descriptive or inferential?

descriptive

[Topic 57] In what type of experiment do neither the participants or the researcher know which subjects are receiving the active drug or not?

double blind

[Topic 54] Which type of validity deal with the question of whether a researcher can generalize with confidence to a larger population in a natural setting?

external validity

[Topic 64] On the basis of information in Question 6, the scores for which groups are more variable?

group X

[Topic 64] Suppose a researcher reported that for Group X, the median equals 55.1 and the IQR equals 30, while for Group Y, the median equals 62.9 and the IQR equals 25. Which group has the higher average score?

group Y

[Topic 66] Do researchers reject the null hypothesis when the probability of its truth is high or when the probability is low?

low

[Topic 64] Which two stats mentioned in this topic are averages?

median and mean

[Topic 54] Suppose a single random sample of workers in a factory is exposed to five different reward systems in succession, with each system being used for one month. What is the name of the threat that reminds researchers that the research results for the last reward system may not generalize to the population of workers?

multiple-treatment interference

[Topic 56] What is a major disadvantage of the equivalent time-samples design?

multiple-treatment interference

[Topic 60] When consumers of research encounter proportions in research reports, it is a good idea to do what?

multiply 100 to convret to percentages

[Topic 58] If a descriptive statistic involves more than two variables, what is it called?

multivariate

[Topic 61] If a distribution is skewed to the left, does it have a positive or negative skew?

negative skew

[Topic 55] Are pre-experimental designs valuable for identifying cause-and-effect relationships?

no

[Topic 55] Researchers implemented a new program to a school as well as another school that served as the control group. Is the comparison of the average scores for the two groups of students useful for determining the effects of the program?

no

[Topic 59] If a researcher asks participants to name the country in which they were born, the researcher is using which scale of measurement?

nominal

[Topic 61] What is the name of the curve that is symmetrical?

normal curve

[ Topic 55] Is the design used in Question 4 useful for determining cause-and-effect relationships?

not really (confounded by multiple explanations)

[Topic 55] If a researcher gives a pretest on knowledge on child abuse, followed by a post-test, what is the name of the pre-experimental design the researcher used?

one-group pretest-posttest design

[Topic 61] Does a distribution with a tail to the right has a positive or negative skew?

positive skew

[Topic 61] In most populations, income has what type of skew?

positive skew

[Topic 61] If a distribution has some extreme scores on the right but not on the left, it is said to have what type of skew?

positively skewed

[Topic 54] If a pretest causes a change in participants sensitivity to a treatment, what threat is operating?

pretest sensitization

[Topic 64] The interquartile range is the range of what?

range for the middle 50% of the participants

[Topic 59] Which scale of measurement has an absolute zero?

ratio

[Topic 54] Suppose an experimental classroom has research observers present at all times. What is the name of the threat that reminds researchers that the results may not generalize to other classrooms without observers?

reactive effects of experimental arrangements

[Topic 54] What is the name of the threat that warns researchers to be careful in generalizing the results to a population when an experiment is conducted on a nonrandom sample?

selection bias

[Topic 58] By studying samples, do researchers obtain "statistics" or "parameters"?

statistics

[Topic 57] The term placebo effect refers to what tendency?

tendency of individuals to improve (perceive they are getting better because thy think they're getting treated)

[Topic 53] What is the name of the threat that indicates that taking a pretest may affect performance on a posttest?

testing

[Topic 53] How can researchers overcome all the threats to internal validity?

using a true experimental design

[Topic 62] What is the formal definition of the mean?

value around which the deviations sum equals zero

[Topic 61] In Figure 61.1, are the frequencies on the "vertical" or the "horizontal" axis?

vertical axis

[Topic 63] In a normal distribution, what percentage of the participants lies within one standard deviation unit of the mean (i.e., on both sides of the mean)?

68%

[Topic 58] According to Table 58.1 in this topic, how many participants had a score of 19?

9 students had a score of 19

[Topic 63] How many cases are included in 1.96 units of a SD?

95%

[Topic 65] Which is the actual computed value from the data that determines the probability that the value was a result of chance, "p-value" or "alpha"?

p-value

[Topic 58] What is the name of the statistic that describes how many participants per 100 have a certain characteristic?

percentages

[Topic 60] Are "percentages" or "proportions" easier for most individuals to comprehend?

percentages

[Topic 64] Is the range or the interquartile range a more reliable stat?

IQR

[Topic 64] When the median is reported as the measure of central tendency, it is customary to report which measure of variability?

IQR

[Topic 57] In addition to an experimental and a traditional control group, what other groups can be used to control the Hawthorne Effect? (3)

1. experimental group 2. control group that gets attention 3. control group that gets no attention

[Topic 63] If the mean of normal distribution equals 50 and the SD equals 5, what percentage of the participants have scores between 45 and 50?

17%

[Topic 66] How many explanations were presented for the difference between psychologists and engineers in the example in this topic?

3 explanations

[Topic 64] If the median for a group of participants is 25, what is the percentage of participants with a score above 25?

50%

[Topic 55] What is the name of the pre-experimental design used in Question 2?

????

[Topic 59] A researcher asks if voting behavior differs based on ones race. Which of these variables is independent, and which is dependent?

IV: race DV: voting behavior

[Topic 63] If the SD for Group X is 14.55, and the SD for Group Y is 20.99, which group has less variability in its scores?

Group X

[Topic 63] Refer to Question 9. Does Group X or Y have a narrower curve?

Group X is narrower

[Topic 57] What is the formal name of what is characterized as the attention effect in this topic?

Hawthorne Effect

[Topic 64] How is the range for a set of scores calculated?

Highest score minus lowest score

[Topic 53] Suppose an experimental group is being taught letters of the alphabet as a treatment. At about the same time, the students are watching an educational program on TV, from which they learn the name of the letters. What is the name of the threat that his problem illustrates?

History

[Topic 65] What is the "p" in p-value?

Probability

[Topic 53] If infants naturally improve in visual acuity and thus perform better at the end of an experiment than at the beginning, what threat is operating?

Maturation

[Topic 62] What is a synonym for the term averages?

Mean

[Topic 62] Which average is defined as the balance point in a distribution?

Mean

[Topic 63] Which average is usually reported when the standard deviation is reported?

Mean

[Topic 62] Which average is defined as the middle score?

Median

[Topic 64] Should the mean or the median be used with ordinal data?

Median

[Topic 62] Which average is defined as the most frequently occurring score?

Mode

[Topic 62] Which one of the three averages is very seldom used in formal reports of research?

Mode is seldomly used in reports

[Topic 59] What is one easy way to remember the order of the scales of measurement?

NOIR

[Topic 52] What is the name of the true experiential design that has no pretests?

Posttest-only randomized control group design

[Topic 66] Does the term sampling error refer to "random errors" or to "bias"?

Random errors

[Topic 52] How can researchers ensure that there are no biases when they assign participants to groups?

Randomize the participants to the groups

[Topic 52] True experimental designs are easy to spot because they are all characterized by what?

Randomized assignment to treatments

[Topic 64] Which stats are discussed in this topic are measures of variability?

Range and IQR

[Topic 66] What is an alternative way of saying a researcher has rejected the null hypothesis?

Statistically significant

[Topic 63] If all individuals in a group have the same score, what is the value of the standard deviation for the scores?

SD = 0

[Topic 63] The middle 68% of the participants in a normal distribution have scores between what two values if the mean equals 100 and the SD equals 15?

Scores are between 85 and 115 if M = 100

[Topic 53] What is the name of the threat posed by nonrandom assignment of participants to experimental and control groups?

Selection

[Topic 66] The expression p < 0.05 stands for what words?

Significant

[Topic 52] What is the purpose of an experiment?

To see if there is a cause an effect from a treatment

[Topic 66] What do researchers do with the null hypothesis if the probability is greater than 0.05?

accept null hypothesis (but not as the only explanation)

[Topic 65] What is the term for the cutoff value that is commonly used in stats to set the limit for accepting that the results from the statistical test are due to chance?

alpha

[Topic 56] in PSYC, what is an ABAB design?

alternating treatment design (A being one type and B being anther)

[Topic 63] What is meant by the term variability?

amount by which subject differ/vary from each other

[Topic 61] According to Figure 61.1, about how many participants had a score of 16?

approximately 60 students had a score of 16

[Topic 60] What is the base for a proportion?

base of 1

[Topic 60] Percentages for different groups are expressed on a common scale with what base?

base of 100

[Topic 58] Which branch of statistics helps researchers estimate the effects of sampling errors on their results?

inferential

[Topic 58] Are significance tests associated with "descriptive" or "inferential" statistics?

inferential statistics

[Topic 54] Which type of validity deals with whether the treatment is directly responsible for any changes observed in the experimental setting?

internal validity

[Topic 59] Which two scales of measurement have equal distances between the amounts of possible responses?

interval and ratio