HDFS 2320 Research Methods Final Exam
In a research study the p value obtained for the inferential statistic is .08. This means that
There is an 8% chance of obtaining these data when the null hypothesis is true
When a variable of interest in a study may explain the results of the study, this is called the __________.
Third variable problem
In an APA style paper, authors' names and affiliations should appear:
Title page
T or F: A quasi-experiment is like an experiment in that groups are compared, but no random assignment is made to the groups.
True
T or F: Order effects occur when participants are tested more than once in a study with early testing affecting later testing.
True
T or F: Quota samples are similar to stratified random samples without the random selection from the subsets of the population.
True
T or F: Repression toward the mean can occur because extreme scores are not likely to be repeated.
True
T or F: Volunteer samples are convenience samples because the probability of recruiting any individual from the population is not known due to lack of random selection from the population or subset of the population.
True
In the simplest type of pre-test‑post-test design, a behavior is measured
Twice
In a factorial design, there is/are at least ______ independent variable(s).
Two
Which of the following represents a quasi-experiment?
Two groups of participants (left-handed individuals & right-handed individuals) are asked to perform a speeded cognitive task to compare performance for the two groups.
Which of the following likely cannot help a researcher conduct a literature review?
Typing your topic into Google
It would be ____________ to randomly assign some participants to smoke in order to conduct an experiment because this would force participants to endure something harmful.
Unethical
Experiments are _________ in cognitive research.
Very common
Which of the following would be appropriate to include in the method section of an APA style paper?
A description of the instructions given to participants in the study
A literature review is
A detailed review of past research in a topic area
Factorial experiments can provide researchers with ______ information about behavior.
A great deal of
At times, correlational studies are the only options because we cannot subject someone to factors that may make participants unhealthy for
Ethical reasons
In terms of the way data are analyzed, a quasi-experiment is most like which other research design?
Experiment
The research design that allows researchers to answer causal questions about manipulated and measured variables is a(n)
Experiment
Only a(n) _________ study has an independent variable.
Experimental
The _____ research design involves manipulating a variable to examine its effects on a measured variable.
Experimental
When a researcher inadvertently affects the subjects' behavior in a study, a source of bias known as _____ can affect the results of a study.
Experimenter bias
The degree to which the behavior observed in the study is realistic, would occur naturally, and can be generalized beyond the boundaries of the study to other individuals and situations is _____________ validity.
External
A study that investigates behavior as it naturally occurs in individuals would have a high degree of
External validity
_________ validity means that on the surface, a study or scale appears to be intuitively valid.
Face
The primary advantages of a ___________ design over simpler experiments is that a researcher can be more efficient in testing the effects of multiple independent variables in one experiment and can also examine the effects of the interactions of those independent variables on the dependent variable.
Factorial
T or F: If I collected response from subjects about their major in college, I would be using a ratio scale.
False
Choosing a research question is the ________ step in the research process.
First
For articles with ___________ or fewer authors, list all authors the first time you cite the article.
Five
A risk-benefit analysis involves
Fully explaining the purpose of the study (including any deception that may have been involved) and providing an opportunity for participants to ask questions about the study
Research proposals should describe the proposed study in
Future verb tense
A non-equivalent pre-test‑post-test design contains a control group that
Has not been randomly assigned
Which of the following is not a source of bias in survey data?
High response rate
These are events that occur during the course of a study to all or individual participants that can result in bias:
History effects
Main effects test the separate effects of an ______ on a _____.
IV; DV
Suppose that on average, you tend to score about 83% on exams in your courses. Scoring a 95% on the first exam in a course and 84% on the second exam in that course is an example of
Regression toward the mean
If I set my alarm to read 8:10 when it is really 8:00 (i.e., it is 10 minutes fast) and the alarm goes off each day when it reads 8:10, it will be ___________ but not ___________.
Reliable; Valid
These are all ways to use empiricism to learn about behavior except
Relying on common sense
Informed consent is an important element of this principle.
Respect for persons
The difference between nominal and ordinal measurement scales is that
Responses on ordinal scales can be rank ordered and responses on nominal scales cannot be rank ordered
An Institutional Review Board (IRB) is ______________.
Responsible for overseeing the ethics of research with human participants
In what section of a published journal article will you find graphs or tables of the summary data?
Results
The difference in scores that occurs when we test a sample drawn out of the population is
Sampling error
A graph showing the relationship between two dependent variables for a group of individuals is called a
Scatterplot
The abstract starts on what page of an article?
Second page of an article
A distribution is a(n)
Set of scores
Which of the following sampling techniques involves choosing individuals from the population at random where each individual has an equal chance of being selected?
Simple random sample
Which of the following sampling techniques is likely to create the smallest amount of sampling error?
Simple random sample
Which of the following illustrates a correct APA style citation?
Smith and Jones (1999) found that...
The Zimbardo (1973) experiment, where a randomly assigned role as a prisoner or guard in a mock prison affected participants' behavior, is most likely this type of study:
Social
When individuals provide survey responses that represent them in the most positive way, even if the responses are untrue, this is called _____.
Social desirability bias
The ________ measure of variability indicates the average difference between the scores of a distribution and the mean of a distribution.
Standard deviation
A good introduction should do all but
State hypotheses, and detail the findings of the study
Which sample type obtains subjects according to demographic proportions that exist in the population?
Stratified random
Students are selected at random from lists of students at a university organized by class level such that the proportion of individuals at each class level in the population of students matches the proportion selected for the sample. What type of sampling is being utilized?
Stratified random samples
Which of the following describes a cluster sample?
Subjects are selected from a local preschool class to represent preschoolers who live in the area
Asking individuals to rate how often each of 20 items related to depression symptoms occurs in their daily lives is an example of which observation technique?
Survey observations
Asking individuals to complete a task under controlled conditions uses the __________ observation technique.
Systematic
The __________ population is the population to which the researcher wishes to generalize the results of the study.
Target
Order effects are a particular form of _______ effects.
Testing
__________ effects occur when participants are tested more than once in a study, with early testing affecting later testing.
Testing
All but which of the following sources of bias may be problematic in pre-test-post-test designs?
Testing effects
Getting better on a task in a study with practice can cause a source of bias called
Testing effects
When scores change with more experience with a task, a source of bias known as _____ can affect the results of a study.
Testing effects
Suppose that a participant completes a task in a research study faster than he or she would have completed the task outside the study (i.e., in their natural surroundings). This would be an example of
The Hawthorne effect
The first APA ethical code was based on
The Nuremberg code
Which of the following is an ethical guideline that must be followed when research with human participants is conducted?
The benefit of the research must outweigh the risks
If we find that an inferential test for an experiment is significant, this means that:
The condition means significantly differed
An interaction effect occurs when
The effect of one independent variable depends on the levels of another independent variable
Which is not considered to be an APA style guideline?
The entire article should be single-spaced
An experiment is defined by all but
The manipulation of a dependent variable
The parsimony canon of the scientific method states that
The simplest explanation of a phenomenon is most likely to be correct
The Zimbardo (1973) prison study resulted in all but which
The study being extended because of adverse effects on the participants
Explanations of behavior that need to be tested are called
Theories
A hypothesis for a study that is based on a theory about the behavior of interest is a
Theory-driven hypothesis
When participants choose not to complete a study, this is called
Attrition/Mortality
Deciding that it must be raining because the weather person said it would rain today is an example of which method of knowing?
Authority
A psychologist investigating the research question "Which neurotransmitters affect depressive behaviors?" is most likely conducting __________ research.
Basic
A psychologist investigating the research question "Which type of therapy most effectively reduces depressive behaviors?" is most likely conducting __________ research.
Basic
______ research investigates fundamental aspects of behavior, whereas _______ research investigates solutions for real-world problems.
Basic; Applied
___________refers to the reduction of risk of harm to the participants as compared with the benefit of the study.
Benefience
"What are the effects of amphetamine on the brain?" is a research question from what area of psychological research?
Biological
A correlational study _____________ provide causal information about the relationship between measures; it describes the relationship between measures.
Cannot
The research design that allows researchers to gain a lot of descriptive information about a single individual or institution is a(n)
Case study
"Does lack of sleep cause depression?" is an example of a ________ research question.
Causal
A research question that asks what causes specific behaviors to occur is a _______ research question.
Causal
Correlational studies are not well-suited for answering _____ research question.
Causal
Important information can be gained from correlational studies about the likelihood of an event based on the relationship with another event, but this relationship may or may not be ____________.
Causal
_____ response scales provide response categories that respondents choose from.
Close-ended
Which of the following sampling techniques involves choosing individuals from the population such that individuals are chosen from a pre-existing group?
Cluster sample
Forcing participants to participate in research without their consent is called
Coercion
Main effects are determined by ________ means for the rows and comparing means for the columns.
Comparing
The researcher's responsibility to protect a participant's identity and right to privacy during and after the research study is known as __________.
Confidentiality
A reporter who is writing an article on an important issue may only interview experts that support her or his views on the issue. This is an example of
Confirmation bias
Seeking only evidence that supports our beliefs and ignoring evidence that contradicts those beliefs is
Confirmation bias
A variable that affects the results of the study, but is not a variable of interest in the study, is called a(n) _____________ variable.
Confounding
An extraneous factor is also called a _____.
Confounding variable
Studies with children generally require
Consent from a parent or guardian
__________ validity indicates that a survey measures the behavior it is designed to measure.
Construct
When we ask people to complete a survey we are using __________ to learn about behavior.
Empiricism
The _____ignores all the scores between the most extreme scores and therefore is a crude measure of variability.
Range
The difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution is the
Range
Time measured in minutes is an example of a(n) _______________ scale.
Ratio
Looking up records of behaviors that have already occurred uses the __________ observation technique.
Archival
In a simple random sample, if a population has 100 individuals, the chance of any one individual being selected for the sample is
1 in 100
A good discussion should begin with _____.
A restatement of the hypotheses
Which of the following APA style sections is in the correct order?
Abstract, introduction, methods and results
Which of the following might be a reason a researcher would use a quasi-experiment?
Age is their variable of interest
A study was conducted to test the development and transfer of motor skills in middle childhood. Children were recruited from advertisements aimed at their parents. Children were taught one of 5 skills with a soccer ball, given a chance to practice, then tested on the skill they were taught, and the 4 that they were not. What is the most likely population for this study?
All children between 6 and 11.
APA style refers to the writing style proposed by the
American Psychological Association
The best way to minimize the effects of maturation is to include a ________ group that does not receive the treatment to allow a comparison of groups that have similar experiences except for the treatment.
Control
A researcher who examines the relationship between individuals' tooth flossing frequency and the incidence of heart disease in these individuals is using the ___________ research design.
Correlational
In ____________ studies, researchers examine two or more measures to determine if those measures are related.
Correlational
Having different participants in a study experience conditions in different orders is called
Counterbalancing
Which of the following information should not be presented in the results section of a research article?
Data description of how participants were recruited
If a researcher makes a hypothesis for a study based on results that were reported in previous studies, they are making a __________ hypothesis.
Data-driven
At the end of a study researchers often discuss the purpose and benefits of a research study with participants. This is known as ___________.
Debriefing
Predicting that a dog should breathe because all mammals breathe and all dogs are mammals is an example of __________ reasoning.
Deductive
Theory-driven hypotheses rely on _______ reasoning, whereas data-driven hypotheses rely on _______ reasoning.
Deductive; Inductive
The manipulation of an independent variable in an experiment allows the researcher to learn about the causal relationship between the independent and ________variables.
Dependent
"Are women who are pregnant depressed?" is an example of a ________ research question.
Descriptive
"How do you feel today?" is an example of a _____ question.
Descriptive
A research question that asks about the presence of behavior, how frequently it is exhibited, or whether there is a relationship between different behaviors is a _____ research question.
Descriptive
________ statistics summarize a distribution, while _______ statistics provide a test of the hypothesis.
Descriptive; Inferential
This subsection is often included by authors for studies with more complex designs (e.g., experiments) to improve the clarity of the method.
Design
An introduction section contains all but which
Design, materials, and procedure
Researchers were interested in how memory for the location of objects is influenced by the similarity of objects and whether this relationship is the same for different age groups. This type of study is most likely
Developmental
Which of the following is a predictive research question?
Do ACT (or SAT) scores indicate future academic performance?
Correlation _______ equal(s) causation.
Does not
When a question on a survey is actually two questions in one this is called a __________ question.
Double-barreled
In a __________, both the participants and the researchers who interact with the participants do not know which participants are assigned to the different groups.
Double-blind design
According to APA style, the entire article should be
Double-spaced
Which of the following would help control for bias in a pre-test‑post-test design?
Including a control group that does not receive the treatment
Testing the combined effects of the ________variables is the unique feature of factorial designs.
Independent
Without including multiple __________ variables in a single experiment, we would not be able to detect the different effects a factor might have on behavior in different situations.
Independent
Without the manipulation of a(n) _________ variable, it is very difficult to rule out other possible factors as causes of a change in the _________ variable.
Independent; Dependent
The APA Code includes guidelines for which of the following __________.
Informed consent and ethics in reporting research
Informed consent involves
Informing participants about what they will experience in a study
A study is conducted to examine the effect of instruction type on test scores. Participants in the study are asked to complete a simple math test with either time limit instructions (i.e., the participants are told they must complete the test within 3 minutes) or no time limit instructions (i.e., the participants are not given a time limit for the test). Participants are randomly assigned to one of the instruction types. The independent variable in this study is
Instruction type
A measure of the degree to which different observers rate behaviors in similar ways is called
Inter-rater reliability
When different observers of behavior record the behavior in a similar way, the measure is said to have good
Inter-rater reliability
When the effect of one independent variable depends on the levels of another independent variable, this is called a(n)
Interaction effect
Convenience samples will likely increase the amount of sampling error in the study, lowering its _________validity by making a test of the hypotheses less accurate.
Internal
Temperature measured in Fahrenheit or Celsius is an example of a(n) _________ measurement scale.
Interval
"I want to know if my phone is on. I decide that it is because my phone is always on." is an example of
Intuition
A theory
Is an explanation of a behavior
Fair selection of participants is covered by the __________ principle.
Justice
Systematic observations are often collected in
Laboratory setting
Main effects compare _______ means and interaction effects compare _________ means.
Level; Condition
If a ________ is created, an interaction can be seen in nonparallel lines.
Line graph
An independent variable is _____.
Manipulated variable
A _______ design is a between-subjects experiment that involves sets of participants matched on a specific characteristic with each member of the set randomly assigned to a different level of the independent variable.
Matched
These natural changes that occur to the participants during the course of a study that can result in bias:
Maturation
The ______is the most commonly reported measure of central tendency.
Mean
The calculated average of the scores in a distribution is the
Mean
The middle score in a distribution, such that half of the scores are above and half are below that value, is the
Median
According to APA guidelines, the participants section is a subsection of the ____________ section.
Method
Which section of an APA style article should provide enough information about the way the study was conducted to allow researchers to replicate the study if they wish?
Method
Which of the following measures indicates the most common score in a distribution?
Mode
Researchers were examining the effect of smaller classes on academic achievement. They took the list of 1000 freshmen entering a University, and randomly chose 200 to participate. They then flipped a coin for each student chosen, and the "heads" (100 students) were enrolled in small sections. The "tails" (the other 100 students) were enrolled in large sections of the same classes. They found that the students in small sections earned higher GPAs than students enrolled in large sections. The researchers claim that students learn more in small sections than large sections. An administrator, who realizes that small sections cost more, makes the following criticisms. Which one is most likely to be valid?
More experienced faculty are more likely to teach smaller sections, and they are better teachers. Therefore, it is not an effect of section size, but instead a difference in faculty.
In Milgram's (1963) study of obedience, results showed that
Most of the participants were willing to "shock" the confederate at the highest level
Observing behaviors as they occur in an individual's natural environment uses the __________ observation technique.
Naturalistic
A ________ relationship indicates that as values on one variable increase, the values on the other variable decrease.
Negative
Suppose that a researcher found that as introversion of participants goes up, number of social activities attended per week decreases. This finding represents _____.
Negative relationship
A strong, positive relationship between scores on a new survey and scores on a previously validated survey on the same topic indicates good:
Nonresponse error
In inferential statistics, we look for evidence against the:
Null hypothesis
A(n) ________ hypothesis predicts no effect, whereas a(n) _________ hypothesis predicts an effect.
Null; Alternative
The scientific method involves gaining new knowledge through
Observation
The empiricism canon of the scientific method states that new knowledge is gained from
Observations
At minimum, how many independent variables must be included in a study in order for it to be classified as an experiment?
One
Many experiments conducted by researchers are factorial designs, meaning they contain more than _______ independent variable.
One
_____ response scales allow respondents to respond to items in any way they wish.
Open-ended
People in a grocery store are asked to sample three types of energy drinks and then indicate which one they liked best and which they liked least (i.e., they rank ordered the drinks). The dependent variable in this study is measured on a __________ scale.
Ordinal
Extreme high or low scores in a distribution are referred to as
Outliers
Which of the following represents an experiment?
Participants are randomly assigned to conditions where a cognitive task is given with speeded or non-speeded instructions to determine if there is an effect of instruction type of task performance
Which of the following is true for APA style reference sections?
Reference should be listed in alphabetical order by first author's last name
A sugar pill given to the control group in a drug study to allow all groups to believe that they are receiving a treatment. This is called
Placebo
The _________ is the group of individuals a researcher wants to learn about in a study, whereas the _______ is the groups of individuals tested in a study.
Population; Sample
Strong _____ correlations between age and incidence of Alzheimer's disease have been found such that by the time one reaches an age of 85, they have a 50% change of getting Alzheimer's disease.
Positive
A relationship between variables characterized by an increase in one variable that occurs with an increase in the other variable is called
Positive relationship
This is a type of research design where behavior is measured both before and after a treatment or condition is implemented.
Pre-test‑post-test design
A research question that asks if one behavior can be predicted from another behavior to allow predictions of future behavior occur is a _______ research question.
Predictive
In a correlational study, the variable that is used to predict the outcome variable is called the _____ variable.
Predictor
The development and validation of surveys is called
Psychometrics
Nonnumerical participant responses are considered
Qualitative data
No groups of subjects are compared in a correlational study as they are in _________ experiments.
Quasi
A researcher would like to study the effects of smoking on respiratory functioning. You have two groups: participants who smoke one pack a day and participants who smoke two. What type of study is this?
Quasi-experiment
A researcher who examines the difference in anxiety level between individuals who smoke and those who do not smoke is using the ___________ research design.
Quasi-experimental
The _____ research design involves comparing groups of non-randomly assigned individuals.
Quasi-experimental
Some researchers who use samples from SONA look at answers to demographic questions, the students to enroll until they reach a certain number of students with different characteristics. For example, a study might allow the first 50 men and first fifty women to enroll. This would be an example of which type of sample?
Quota sample
Quasi-experiments are not experiments because they lack _____.
Random assignment
Researchers were examining the effect of smaller classes on academic achievement. They took the list of 1000 freshmen entering a University, and randomly chose 200 to participate. They then flipped a coin for each student chosen, and the "heads" (100 of them) were enrolled in small sections. The "tails" (the other 100) were enrolled in large sections of the same classes. They found that the students in small sections earned higher GPAs than students enrolled in large sections. Flipping coins to put students into groups is an example of:
Random assignment
The difference between an independent variable and a quasi-independent variable is that the quasi-independent variable lacks
Random assignment
When participants are randomly assigned to levels of the independent variable in an experiment to control for individual differences as an extraneous variable this is called
Random assignment
Researchers were examining the effect of smaller classes on academic achievement. They took the list of 1000 freshmen entering a University, and randomly chose 200 to participate. They then flipped a coin for each student chosen, and the "heads" (100 of them) were enrolled in small sections. The "tails" (the other 100) were enrolled in large sections of the same classes. They found that the students in small sections earned higher GPAs than students enrolled in large sections.
Random selection
_________ can be used to counter group differences.
Randomization
A study was conducted to test the development and transfer of motor skills in middle childhood. Children were recruited from advertisements aimed at their parents. Children were taught one of 5 skills with a soccer ball, given a chance to practice, then tested on the skill they were taught, and the 4 that they were not. Which sampling technique was used for this sample?
Volunteer sample
Which of the following sampling techniques is likely to create the largest amount of sampling error?
Volunteer sample
When one encounters reports of research in the media, all but which question should you be asking yourself?
What is the gender of the researcher(s)?
In this design, each subject serves as their own comparison.
Within-subject design
The primary concern with ________ variables is the order in which the participants receive the different levels of the independent variable.
Within-subject design
Testing effects are more likely to be a source of bias in _____ designs.
Within-subjects
Participants receive all levels of a _____ variable, but only one level of a _____ variable.
Within-subjects; Between-subjects
An experiment conducted with one or a few participants to better understand the behavior of those individuals is called a small _____ design.
n
