Research methods

cell

A condition in an experiment; in a simple experiment, a cell can represent the level of one independent variable; in a factorial design, a cell represents one of the possible combinations of two independent variables.

weight of the evidence

A conclusion drawn from reviewing scientific literature and considering the proportion of studies that is consistent with a theory.

placebo group

A control group in an experiment that is exposed to an inert treatment, such as a sugar pill. Also called placebo control group.

Cronbach's alpha

A correlation-based statistic that measures a scale's internal reliability. Also called coefficient alpha.

demand characteristic

A cue that leads participants to guess a study's hypotheses or goals; a threat to internal validity. Also called experimental demand.

strength

A description of an association indicating how closely the data points in a scatterplot cluster along a line of best fit drawn through them

observational measure

A method of measuring a variable by recording observable behaviors or physical traces of behaviors. Also called behavioral measure.

self-report measure

A method of measuring a variable in which people answer questions about themselves in a questionnaire or interview.

survey

A method of posing questions to people on the telephone, in personal interviews, on written questionnaires, or via the Internet. Also called poll.

poll

A method of posing questions to people on the telephone, in personal interviews, on written questionnaires, or via the Internet. Also called survey.

double-blind study

A study in which neither the participants nor the researchers who evaluate them know who is in the treatment group and who is in the comparison group.

experiment

A study in which one variable is manipulated and the other is measured. (page 75)

single-N design

A study in which researchers gather information from only one animal or one person. (page 407)

snowball sampling

A variation on purposive sampling, a biased sampling technique in which participants are asked to recommend acquaintances for the study.

meta-analysis

A way of mathematically averaging the effect sizes of all the studies that have tested the same variables to see what conclusion that whole body of evidence supports.

Which of the following is considered one of the best, most comprehensive ways to find psychological research articles?

PsycINFO

response set

A shortcut respondents may use to answer items in a long survey, rather than responding to the content of each item. Also called nondifferentiation.

correlation coefficient r

A single number, ranging from -1.0 to 1.0, that indicates the strength and direction of an association between two variables.

reversal design

A small-N design in which a researcher observes a problem behavior both before and during treatment, and then discontinues the treatment for a while to see if the problem behavior returns.

stable-baseline design

A small-N design in which a researcher observes behavior for an extended baseline period before beginning a treatment or other intervention, and continues observing behavior after the intervention.

multiple-baseline design

A small-N design in which researchers stagger their introduction of an intervention across a variety of contexts, times, or situations.

hypothesis

A statement of the specific result the researcher expects to observe from a particular study, if the theory is accurate. Also called prediction.

theory

A statement or set of statements that describes general principles about how variables relate to one another.

margin of error of the estimate

A statistic, based in part on sample size, indicating the probable true value of a percentage estimate in the population

multiple regression

A statistical technique that computes the relationship between a predictor variable and a criterion variable, controlling for other predictor variables. Also called multivariate regression.

t test

A statistical test used to evaluate the size and significance of the difference between two means. (page 209)

pilot study

A study completed before (or sometimes after) the study of primary interest, usually to test the effectiveness or characteristics of the manipulations.

masked design

A study design in which the observers are unaware of the experimental conditions to which participants have been assigned. Also called blind design.

multivariate design

A study designed to test an association involving more than two measured variables. (page 238)

small-N design

A study in which researchers gather information from just a few cases. (page 407)

longitudinal design

A study in which the same variables are measured in the same people at different points in time. (page 239)

factorial design

A study in which there are two or more independent variables, or factors. (page 355)

forced-choice question

A survey question format in which respondents give their opinion by picking the best of two or more options.

open-ended question

A survey question format that allows respondents to answer any way they like. (page 154)

Likert scale

A survey question format using a rating scale containing multiple response options anchored by the specific terms strongly agree, agree, neither agree nor disagree, disagree, and strongly disagree. A scale that does not follow this format exactly is called a Likert-type scale

semantic differential format

A survey question format using a response scale whose numbers are anchored with contrasting adjectives.

Carolyn sometimes taps on the basketball before shooting a free throw. She has noticed the times when she taps and makes the free throw more than she notices the times she makes the free throw without tapping the ball. Carolyn is experiencing which of the following?

the present/present bias

Pavlina believes that people in red cars are much more likely to speed than people in cars of other colors. She is probably the victim of what tendency?

the present/present bias

Which popular media headline does NOT suggest that a multiple regression has been used?

"Dog ownership decreases stress."

Which of the following is an association claim?

"Owning a dog is related to higher life satisfaction."

Which popular media headline might suggest that a multiple regression has been used?

"Vacations are important for happiness, even when length of vacation is controlled for."

Which of the following phrases would NOT indicate that a researcher is making a causal claim?

"is at higher risk of"

quantitative variable

A variable whose values can be recorded as meaningful numbers. (page 123)

frequency claim

A claim that describes a particular rate or degree of a single variable.

Susan designed a study in which she had a group of younger adults (18 to 24 years old) and older adults (50 to 65 years old). She had both groups recite a poem by memory once in front of an audience of 50 people and once in a room by themselves. She counterbalanced the order of these tasks between participants. She had the participants rate their level of anxiety right before they recited the poem each time. Which of the following is the factorial notation for this design?

2x2

institutional review board (IRB)

A committee responsible for ensuring that research using human participants is conducted ethically. (page 99)

physiological measure

A method of measuring a variable by recording biological data.

mediator

A variable that helps explain the relationship between two other variables. Also called mediating variable.

Type I error

A "false positive" result in the statistical inference process, in which researchers conclude that there is an effect in a population, when there really is none.

Type II error

A "miss" in the statistical inference process, in which researchers conclude that their study has not detected an effect in a population, when there really is one.

observer bias

A bias that occurs when observer expectations influence the interpretation of participant behaviors or the outcome of the study.

falsifiability

A feature of a scientific theory, in which it is possible to collect data that will indicate that the theory is wrong.

null effect

A finding that an independent variable did not make a difference in the dependent variable; there is no significant covariance between the two. Also called null result

stratified random sampling

A form of probability sampling; a random sampling technique in which the researcher identifies particular demographic categories, or strata, and then randomly selects individuals within each category.

oversampling

A form of probability sampling; a variation of stratified random sampling in which the researcher intentionally overrepresents one or more groups.

journal

A monthly or quarterly periodical containing peer-reviewed articles on a specific academic discipline or subdiscipline, written for a scholarly audience. (

regression to the mean

A phenomenon in which an extreme finding is likely to be closer to its own typical, or mean, level the next time it is measured, because the same combination of chance factors that made the finding extreme are not present the second time.

cluster sampling

A probability sampling technique in which clusters of participants within the population of interest are selected at random, followed by data collection from all individuals in each cluster

systematic sampling

A probability sampling technique in which the researcher uses a randomly chosen number N, and counts off every Nth member of a population to achieve a sample.

multistage sampling

A probability sampling technique involving at least two stages: a random sample of clusters followed by a random sample of people within the selected clusters.

evidence- based treatment

A psychotherapy technique whose effectiveness has been supported by empirical research.

ratio scale

A quantitative measurement scale in which the numerals have equal intervals and the value of zero truly means "none" of the variable being measured.

interval scale

A quantitative measurement scale that has no "true zero," and in which the numerals represent equal intervals (distances) between levels (e.g., temperature in degrees).

ordinal scale

A quantitative measurement scale whose levels represent a ranked order, and in which distances between levels are not equal (e.g., order of finishers in a race).

interrupted time- series design

A quasi-experiment in which participants are measured repeatedly on a dependent variable before, during, and after the "interruption" caused by some event.

statistical significance

A researcher's assessment of whether a result from a sample (such as an association or a difference between groups) could have come from a population in which there is no association or no difference. When the sample's result is extreme, it would rarely be found in such a population and is said to be statistically significant.

conceptual definition

A researcher's definition of a variable at the theoretical level. Also called construct

interaction effect

A result from a factorial design, in which the difference in the levels of one independent variable changes, depending on the level of the other independent variable; a difference in differences. Also called interaction.

unbiased sample

A sample in which all members of the population of interest are equally likely to be included (usually through some random method), and therefore the results can generalize to the population of interest. Also called representative sample.

biased sample

A sample in which some members of the population of interest are systematically left out, and therefore the results cannot generalize to the population of interest. Also called unrepresentative sample. See also unbiased sample.

empirical journal article

A scholarly article that reports for the first time the results of a research study.

quasi-experiment

A study similar to an experiment except that the researchers do not have full experimental control (e.g., they may not be able to randomly assign participants to the independent variable conditions)

correlational study

A study that includes two or more variables, in which all of the variables are measured; can support an association claim.

double-blind placebo control study

A study that uses a treatment group and a placebo group and in which neither the researchers nor the participants know who is in which group.

confederate

An actor who is directed by the researcher to play a specific role in a research study.

mean

An arithmethic average; a measure of central tendency computed from the sum of all the scores in a set of data, divided by the total number of scores.

review journal article

An article summarizing all the studies that have been published in one research area

variable

An attribute that varies, having at least two levels, or values.

independent- groups design

An experimental design in which different groups of participants are exposed to different levels of the independent variable, such that each participant experiences only one level of the independent variable. Also called between-subjects design or between-groups design.

ceiling effect

An experimental design problem in which independent variable groups score almost the same on a dependent variable, such that all scores fall at the high end of their possible distribution.

floor effect

An experimental design problem in which independent variable groups score almost the same on a dependent variable, such that all scores fall at the low end of their possible distribution.

matched groups

An experimental design technique in which participants who are similar on some measured variable are grouped into sets; the members of each matched set are then randomly assigned to different experimental conditions. Also called matching.

All of the following are true of betas and correlation coefficients EXCEPT:

Betas describe the relationship between two variables exactly as correlations coefficients do.

Which of the following questions assesses internal validity when evaluating causal claims?

Does the study establish temporal precedence?

You read a news article titled, "New Drug Reduces OCD Symptoms in Mice" about a recent scientific study. To evaluate whether the title's claim is supported, you should do which of the following?

Check whether the authors established covariance, temporal precedence, and internal validity.

convenience sampling

Choosing a sample based on those who are easiest to access and readily available; a biased sampling technique.

What does it mean to say that research is probabilistic?

Conclusions are meant to explain a certain proportion of possible cases.

What is one way to avoid being misled by journalism reports on scientific research?

Consult the source of the article (i.e., the original scientific findings).

Nesta is making a scatterplot of the digit spans (how many numbers you can remember and repeat back) for his psychology class, with the memory for digits the students hear on one axis and the memory for digits the students read on the other. The association is strong, but he notices one student has a visual digit memory that is twice as long as anyone else. Which statistical validity question is he raising?

Could outliers be affecting the relationship?

Correlation 4 is an example of which of the following types of correlations?

Cross-lag correlation

Which of the following is a necessary component of a longitudinal design?

Measuring the same variables at two points in time

probabilistic

Describing the empirical method, stating that science is intended to explain a certain proportion (but not necessarily all) of the possible cases.

Which of the following studies is an example of a longitudinal design?

Dr. Benson's study in which she measured people's spatial manipulation ability in August and measured their ability again in May after they had taken two semesters of art classes

Based on this study, Dr. Kang can make which of the following claims?

Emotion enhances memory.

socially desirable responding

Giving answers on a survey (or other self-report measure) that make one look better than one really is. Also called faking good.

faking good

Giving answers on a survey (or other self-report measure) that make one look better than one really is. Also called socially desirable responding.

faking bad

Giving answers on a survey (or other self-report measure) that make one look worse than one really is.

Stefan wants to make a causal claim in his dissertation. Which of the following is necessary?

He must conduct an experiment.

There is a strong positive association between years of education and income. The mean income for American adults in 2005 was $32,000 and the average number of years of education was 12. If Mr. Lopez has 16 years of education, which would you predict about his income?

His income is probably higher than $32,000.

restriction of range

In a bivariate correlation, the absence of a full range of possible scores on one of the variables, so the relationship from the sample underestimates the true correlation.

third- variable problem

In a correlational study, the existence of a plausible alternative explanation for the association between two variables.

The following item appears on a survey: "On a five-point scale, where 1 is strongly disagree, 2 is disagree, 3 is neither agree nor disagree, 4 is agree, and 5 is strongly agree, rate the following statement: "I look forward to coming to class." Which type of question format is being used?

Likert scale

Which of the following is NOT a predictor variable in Dr. Finkel's study?

Marital satisfaction

Which of the following is a criterion variable in Dr. Finkel's study?

Marital satisfaction

journalism

News and commentary published or broadcast in the popular media and produced for a general audience.

Dr. Rhodes is interested in how differing levels of light affect how people perceive color. He finds participants for this research study by making an announcement in several psychology classes at his university. Should Dr. Rhodes be concerned about using this sampling method for his research study?

No, because external validity isn't the top priority for the type of claim he is making.

Dr. Lawrence is the director of Counseling Services at her university. She is planning to conduct a survey of 100 students at the university to see how aware they are of the counseling services that are offered at the university. She wants the proportion of men and women in her sample to reflect the proportion in the university as a whole (55% women and 45% men). Dr. Lawrence plans to stand in the Student Union and ask people to participate until she has given the survey to 55 women and 45 men. Is Dr. Lawrence collecting a representative sample?

No, because the participants are selected nonrandomly.

Professor Law wants to construct a survey to assess involvement with computer games. Which question is a double-barreled question?

On a scale of 0 (not at all) to 5 (very much), rate how much you like and play your favorite game.

fence sitting

Playing it safe by answering in the middle of the scale for every question in a survey or interview. (page 161)

plagiarism

Representing the ideas or words of others as one's own; a form of research misconduct. (page 105)

Which of the following is NOT a reason why basing one's conclusions on research is superior to basing one's conclusions on personal experience?

Research definitively proves theories.

What makes certain constructs harder to operationalize?

Some constructs are difficult to observe.

Professor Fofana wonders if there is an association between students' grades and extra credit points earned in his classes. He makes a scatterplot, with the number of extra credit points earned on the x-axis and the numerical grade in his course without extra credit on the y-axis. He finds r = .28. What does this correlation tell him about which students take advantage of the extra credit option?

Students with higher grades are more likely than students with lower grades to do extra credit work.

Which of the following is a reasonable causal claim?

Texting while driving reduces impulse control.

validity

The appropriateness of a conclusion or decision

claim

The argument a journalist, researcher, or scientist is trying to make

Which of the following indicates that an article's claims are based on research?

The article describes how a scientific study measured a variable.

test-retest reliability

The consistency in results every time a measure is used. (page 125)

measurement error

The degree to which the recorded measure for a participant on some variable differs from the true value of the variable for that participant. Measurement errors may be random, such that scores that are too high and too low cancel each other out; or they may be systematic, such that most scores are biased too high or too low

interrater reliability

The degree to which two or more coders or observers give consistent ratings of a set of targets. (page 125)

simple random sampling

The most basic form of probability sampling, in which the sample is chosen completely at random from the population of interest

The campus safety committee has asked Professor Ibrahim to study bicycling on his campus. He trains two observers and has them observe the number of cyclists and their safety at various points around campus. When the observations began, the observers noticed that bicyclists slowed down when they neared the observers. In which way could this reactivity be avoided?

The observers could make unobtrusive observations.

informed consent

The right of research participants to learn about a research project, know its risks and benefits, and decide whether to participate. (page 95)

operational definition

The specific way in which a concept of interest is measured or manipulated as a variable in a study.

Which of the following is true about open-ended questions?

They can be time-consuming for researchers because the responses need to be coded.

Which of the following is a reason why multiple regression designs are inferior to experimental designs?

They can only control for third variables that are measured.

According to research by Nisbett and Wilson (1977), which of the following is true of people when they are asked why they made a certain choice?

They will tell you why they think they made that choice, but they may not accurately identify the true reason for their choice.

debrief

To inform participants afterward about a study's true nature, details, and hypotheses. (page 93)

correlate

To occur or vary together (covary) systematically, as in the case of two variables.

operationalize

To turn a conceptual definition of a variable into a specific measured variable or manipulated variable in order to conduct a research study.

situation noise

Unrelated events or distractions in the external environment that create unsystematic variability within groups in an experiment.

noise

Unsystematic variability among the members of a group in an experiment, which might be caused by situation noise, individual differences, or measurement error. Also called error variance, unsystematic variance.

Individual differences can contribute to too much within-group variability. Which of the following is a possible solution to individual differences?

Use a within-groups design rather than an independent-groups design.

Professor Law wants to construct a survey to assess involvement with computer games. Which of the following would be an example of an open-ended question?

What computer games have you played?

Professor Law wants to construct a survey to assess involvement with computer games. Which is a forced-choice question?

Which is truer of you? 1) I have little interest in computer games or 2) I would miss computer games if I couldn't play anymore.

Which kind of sample is best for external validity?

a sample in which each member of the population has an equal chance of being selected

Which of the following is an example of basic research?

a study investigating whether children learn more quickly with a new instructional method (bc This study doesn't have any direct application to inform real-world practice)

Which of the following could be considered a source of empirical evidence?

a thermometer

Which of the following is NOT an example of information researchers must be careful to protect to ensure research participants' confidentiality?

answers to a completely anonymous questionnaire

RESEARCH STUDY 3.2: Dr. Ramon makes the following claim: "Watching television leads people to spend less time communicating with their spouses, study says." Dr. LaSalle makes the claim: "Research shows that making more money correlates with spending less time talking with your spouse."Which type of claim is Dr. LaSalle making?

association

In a study of a new drug for asthma, a researcher finds that the group receiving the drug is doing much better than the control group, whose members are receiving a placebo. Which principle of the Belmont Report requires the researcher to also give the control group the opportunity to receive the new drug?

beneficence

Which is the name for a variable the experimenter holds constant on purpose?

control

Dr. Rhodes is interested in how differing levels of light affect how people perceive color. He finds participants for this research study by making an announcement in several psychology classes at his university. Which kind of sampling method is Dr. Rhodes using?

convenience sampling

In a multiple regression design, _________ variable is to dependent variable as _________variable is to independent variable.

criterion; predictor

Which of the following is an example of a categorical variable?

declared major in college

Lucia is interested in studying discrimination in hiring. She designs an experiment in which the participant takes the role of an employer looking at job candidates for a specific position. Each participant is given two very similar résumés (one of a candidate with a female name and one of a candidate with a male name) and is then asked to rate the suitability of each candidate for a job. Lucia finds no difference in participants' ratings of male and female candidates. Which threat to internal validity should she be concerned about?

demand characteristics

Which of the following is a potential disadvantage of within-groups designs?

demand charactersitsc

Professor Silva is a clinical psychologist who teaches a course in abnormal psychology at the university. He maintains a clinical practice and several of his current students are his clients. Which of the APA's Five General Principles does this violate?

fidelity and responsibility

A city in California has asked Professor Rodriguez to conduct an experiment on earthquake preparedness. Professor Rodriguez will assess the preparedness of a random sample of residents in the city and the city will mail out their annual brochure on earthquake safety. Then, 2 weeks later, he will again assess the preparedness of those residents. Right after the brochures are mailed, a large earthquake is reported in Japan. Which threat to internal validity does this pose?

history

directionality problem

in a correlational study, the occurrence of both variables being measured around the same time, making it unclear which variable in the association came first. See also temporal precedence.

If everything else is equal, which of the following methods can help increase power in a study?

increasing sample size

What is it called when the effect of one independent variable depends on the level of another independent variable?

interaction

Professor Kwan studies violence and designs a study of the effects of video game violence on children. She recruits low-income, Hispanic children from schools near the university to participate. Each child is assigned to play either a violent or nonviolent video game 2 hours each evening for a month. The children's teachers are asked to assess changes in behavior. Which of the Belmont Report principles is violated by the choice of participants?

justice

Which of the following is a quantitative technique used in some review articles that combines the results of many studies and gives a number that summarizes the magnitude of a relationship?

meta-analysis

Which of the following groups is NOT recognized in the Belmont Report as entitled to special protection?

military veterans

Susan designed a study in which she had a group of younger adults (18 to 24 years old) and older adults (50 to 65 years old). She had both groups recite a poem by memory once in front of an audience of 50 people and once in a room by themselves. She counterbalanced the order of these tasks between participants. She had the participants rate their level of anxiety right before they recited the poem each time. Which type of study design is this?

mixed factorial design

Interactions allow researchers to examine which of the following variables?

moderating

Jenny recently learned of plans to cut down an old, beautiful tree on her campus to make way for a new bike path. Jenny is opposed to cutting down the tree, so she decides to survey some students at her university to see if others also oppose cutting down the tree. She plans to share the results of her survey with the school administration to argue to keep the tree. One question on Jenny's survey asks, "Do you oppose not cutting down this tree?" A problem with this question is that it is which type of question?

negatively worded

Which is the term for a quasi-experimental design with at least one treatment group and one comparison group, but in which the participants have not been randomly assigned to the groups?

nonequivalent control group design

In a study of aggression in children, a researcher has his undergraduate research assistants watch a group of children on the playground, and record the number of instances of physical or verbal attacks. Which category of measured variable is this researcher using?

observational measures

The campus safety committee has asked Professor Ibrahim to study bicycling on his campus. He trains two observers and has them observe the number of cyclists and their safety at various points around campus. Both observers are very interested in the topic because they have been struck by bicycles. Which threat to construct validity should concern Professor Ibrahim even if the interrater reliability is high?

observer bias

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, then eat small meal before completing the task again. Based on her study design, which of the following should she be concerned about?

practice effects

Cara is running a study to examine the effect of music on mood. She randomly assigns participants to three conditions: rock, jazz, and country. She has the participants rate their mood with a short questionnaire, then listen to their assigned music for 20 minutes, and then fill out the mood questionnaire again. Which kind of design is she using?

pretest posttest

Dr. Jennings is doing a study on the experience of being a racial minority on a college campus. He goes to the Asian Student Association, Black Student Union, and Hispanic Student Group on his campus to recruit participants for his study. Dr. Jennings only includes Asians, African Americans, and Hispanic participants in his study. Which type of sampling is Dr. Jennings using?

purposive sampling

Dr. Lawrence is the director of Counseling Services at her university. She is planning to conduct a survey of 100 students at the university to see how aware they are of the counseling services offered at the university. She wants the proportion of men and women in her sample to reflect the proportion in the university as a whole (55% women and 45% men). Dr. Lawrence plans to stand in the Student Union and ask people to participate until she has given the survey to 55 women and 45 men. Which type of sampling method is Dr. Lawrence going to use?

quota sampling

Which of the following is most important for enhancing external validity?

random sampling

After implementation of a new city law, a restaurant chain began displaying the nutrition labels for their menu items. The restaurant owner recorded sales of the 15 highest-calorie menu items on three occasions: once the month before the change in menu display, once the week of the change in menu display, and once the month after the change in menu display. The owner observed that the sale of the high-calorie menu items dropped, while overall sales remained steady. Which is the dependent variable in this study?

sales for high-calorie menu items

A political research center obtains a list of phone numbers for all registered voters in Texas and uses a random number generator to select 1,000 of the phone numbers to call. They ask each voter which candidate for governor they plan to vote for in the upcoming election. Which sampling method is being used?

srs

To look at the relationship between reaction time and level of expertise in tennis, experts and nonexperts in tennis were compared. Which of the following would be the most appropriate, easiest way to evaluate the relationship between these variables?

t test and a bar graph

Dr. Johnson wants to investigate whether the physiological measure, heart rate variability, varies over time or whether it is a trait that stays stable within the same person over time. He records participants' heart rate variability once at the beginning of the semester and once at the end of the semester. He finds a high positive correlation (r = .65) between the first and second time points. Which type of reliability is he examining?

test-retest

Which of the following is NOT an example of faulty thinking that might occur when relying on intuition?

testing your hunches through systematic, empirical observations

RESEARCH STUDY 3.1: Anderson is reading his morning paper and sees the following headline: "Men Should Avoid Rock Music When Playing Board Games." (This headline is based on a study conducted by Fancourt, Burton, & Williamon, 2016.) In the study, men and women played the game "Operation" when listening to different types of music. Male participants performed worse when listening to AC/DC than when listening to Mozart, but female participants' performance did not differ based on music.Which of the following is a variable in this study?

the sex of the participant

In a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design, what are all the possible effects to test?

three main effects, three two-way interactions, and a three-way interaction

In a business class experiment on the endowment effect, Theo is comparing the value of a coffee mug to someone who owns it and is selling it to someone who is buying it. The endowment effect describes the tendency of sellers to value something they own more than buyers do. Participants are randomly assigned to be buyers or sellers of a mug with their first name on it. Buyers select the maximum price they would pay for the mug. Sellers select the minimum price they would accept for the mug. Which is the dependent variable in this experiment?

value selected for the mug

sample

The group of people, animals, or cases used in a study; a subset of the population of interest. (page 180)

availability heuristic

A bias in intuition, in which people incorrectly estimate the frequency of something, relying predominantly on instances that easily come to mind rather than using all possible evidence in evaluating a conclusion.

present/present bias

A bias in intuition, in which people incorrectly estimate the relationship between an event and its outcome, focusing on times the event and outcome are present, while failing to consider evidence that is absent and harder to notice.

quota sampling

A biased sampling technique in which a researcher identifies subsets of the population of interest, sets a target number for each category in the sample, and nonrandomly selects individuals within each category until the quotas are filled

purposive sampling

A biased sampling technique in which only certain kinds of people are included in a sample. (page 191)

spurious association

A bivariate association that is attributable only to systematic mean differences on subgroups within the sample; the original association is not present within the subgroups.

nonprobability sampling

A category name for nonrandom sampling techniques, such as convenience, purposive, and quota sampling, that result in a biased sample.

probability sampling

A category name for random sampling techniques, such as simple random sampling, stratified random sampling, and cluster sampling, in which a sample is drawn from a population of interest so each member has an equal and known chance of being included in the sample. Also called random sampling.

reactivity

A change in behavior of study participants (such as acting less spontaneously) because they are aware they are being watched.

observer effect

A change in behavior of study participants in the direction of observer expectations. Also called expectancy effect.

association claim

A claim about two variables, in which the value (level) of one variable is said to vary systematically with the value of another variable.

causal claim

A claim arguing that a specific change in one variable is responsible for influencing the value of another variable.

data falsification

A form of research misconduct in which a researcher influences a study's results, perhaps by deleting observations from a data set or by influencing participants to act in the hypothesized way.

data fabrication

A form of research misconduct in which a researcher invents data that fit the hypothesis. (page 103)

self-selection

A form of sampling bias that occurs when a sample contains only people who volunteer to participate.

Latin square

A formal system of partial counterbalancing to ensure that every condition in a within-groups design appears in each position at least once.

confound

A general term for a potential alternative explanation for a research finding; a threat to internal validity.

scatterplot

A graphical representation of an association, in which each dot represents one participant in the study measured on two variables

comparison group

A group in an experiment whose levels on the independent variable differ from those of the treatment group in some intended and meaningful way. Also called comparison condition

zero association

A lack of systematic association between two variables

population

A larger group from which a sample is drawn; the group to which a study's conclusions are intended to be applied. Also called population of interest.

known- groups paradigm

A method for establishing criterion validity, in which a researcher tests two or more groups who are known to differ on the variable of interest, to ensure that they score differently on a measure of that variable

full counterbalancing

A method of counterbalancing in which all possible condition orders are represented.

partial counterbalancing

A method of counterbalancing in which some, but not all, of the possible condition orders are represented.

nonequivalent control group interrupted time- series design

A quasi-experiment with two or more groups in which participants have not been randomly assigned to groups; participants are measured repeatedly on a dependent variable before, during, and after the "interruption" caused by some event, and the presence or timing of the interrupting event differs among the groups.

negatively worded question

A question in a survey or poll that contains negatively phrased statements, making its wording complicated or confusing and potentially weakening its construct validity.

confidential study

A research study in which identifying information is collected, but protected from disclosure to people other than the researchers.

anonymous study

A research study in which identifying information is not collected, thereby completely protecting the identity of participants

census

A set of observations that contains all members of the population of interest. (page 180)

outlier

A score that stands out as either much higher or much lower than most of the other scores in a sample.

data

A set of observations representing the values of some variable, collected from one or more research studies.

design confound

A threat to internal validity in an experiment in which a second variable happens to vary systematically along with the independent variable and therefore is an alternative explanation for the results.

selection- attrition threat

A threat to internal validity in which participants are likely to drop out of either the treatment group or the comparison group, not both

regression threat

A threat to internal validity related to regression to the mean, a phenomenon in which any extreme finding is likely to be closer to its own typical, or mean, level the next time it is measured (with or without the experimental treatment or intervention).

selection effect

A threat to internal validity that occurs in an independent-groups design when the kinds of participants at one level of the independent variable are systematically different from those at the other level.

instrumentation threat

A threat to internal validity that occurs when a measuring instrument changes over time. (page 321)

maturation threat

A threat to internal validity that occurs when an observed change in an experimental group could have emerged more or less spontaneously over time.

history threat

A threat to internal validity that occurs when it is unclear whether a change in the treatment group is caused by the treatment itself or by an external or historical factor that affects most members of the group.

practice effect

A type of order effect in which participants' performance improves over time because they become practiced at the dependent measure (not because of the manipulation or treatment). Also called fatigue effect

carryover effect

A type of order effect, in which some form of contamination carries over from one condition to the next.

double- barreled question

A type of question in a survey or poll that is problematic because it asks two questions in one, thereby weakening its construct validity.

leading question

A type of question in a survey or poll that is problematic because its wording encourages one response more than others, thereby weakening its construct validity

measured variable

A variable in a study whose levels (values) are observed and recorded.

manipulated variable

A variable in an experiment that a researcher controls, such as by assigning participants to its different levels

predictor variable

A variable in multiple-regression analysis that is used to explain variance in the criterion variable. Also called independent variable.

construct

A variable of interest, stated at an abstract level, usually defined as part of a formal statement of a psychological theory.

conceptual variable

A variable of interest, stated at an abstract, or conversational, level. Also called construct.

participant variable

A variable such as age, gender, or ethnicity whose levels are selected (i.e., measured), not manipulated.

moderator

A variable that, depending on its level, changes the relationship between two other variables.

categorical variable

A variable whose levels are categories (e.g., male and female). Also called nominal variable

curvilinear association

An association between two variables which is not a straight line; instead, as one variable increases, the level of the other variable increases and then decreases (or vice versa).

positive association

An association in which high levels of one variable go with high levels of the other variable, and low levels of one variable go with low levels of the other variable

negative association

An association in which high levels of one variable go with low levels of the other variable, and vice versa. Also called inverse association, negative correlation.

bivariate correlation

An association that involves exactly two variables. Also called bivariate association. (page 204)

constant

An attribute that could potentially vary but that has only one level in the study in question. (page 58)

criterion validity

An empirical form of measurement validity that establishes the extent to which a measure is associated with a behavioral outcome with which it should be associated. (

convergent validity

An empirical test of the extent to which a self-report measure correlates with other measures of a theoretically similar construct.

discriminant validity

An empirical test of the extent to which a self-report measure does not correlate strongly with measures of theoretically dissimilar constructs. Also called divergent validity.

principle of justice

An ethical principle from the Belmont Report calling for a fair balance between the kinds of people who participate in research and the kinds of people who benefit from it.

principle of respect for persons

An ethical principle from the Belmont Report stating that research participants should be treated as autonomous agents and that certain groups deserve special protection.

principle of beneficence

An ethical principle from the Belmont Report stating that researchers must take precautions to protect participants from harm and to promote their well-being.

one-group, pretest/posttest design

An experiment in which a researcher recruits one group of participants; measures them on a pretest; exposes them to a treatment, intervention, or change; and then measures them on a posttest.

concurrent- measures design

An experiment using a within-groups design in which participants are exposed to all the levels of an independent variable at roughly the same time, and a single attitudinal or behavioral preference is the dependent variable.

repeated- measures design

An experiment using a within-groups design in which participants respond to a dependent variable more than once, after exposure to each level of the independent variable.

pretest/posttest design

An experiment using an independent-groups design in which participants are tested on the key dependent variable twice: once before and once after exposure to the independent variable.

posttest-only design

An experiment using an independentgroups design in which participants are tested on the dependent variable only once. Also called equivalent groups, posttest-only design

wait-list design

An experimental design for studying a therapeutic treatment, in which researchers randomly assign some participants to receive the therapy under investigation immediately, and others to receive it after a time delay.

nonequivalent control group design

An independent-groups quasi-experiment that has at least one treatment group and one comparison group, but participants have not been randomly assigned to the two groups.

nonequivalent control group pretest/posttest design

An independent-groups quasi-experiment that has at least one treatment group and one comparison group, in which participants have not been randomly assigned to the two groups, and in which at least one pretest and one posttest are administered.

construct validity

An indication of how well a variable was measured or manipulated in a study.

external validity

An indication of how well the results of a study generalize to, or represent, individuals or contexts besides those in the study itself.

unobtrusive observation

An observation in a study made indirectly, through physical traces of behavior, or made by someone who is hidden or is posing as a bystander.

Which of the following is the difference between claims based on personal experience (anecdotal claims) and frequency claims?

Anecdotal claims are not based on scientific studies but frequency claims are.

acquiescence

Answering "yes" or "strongly agree" to every item in a survey or interview. Also called yea-saying. (page 160)

In considering the three criteria for causation, which of the following questions will Dr. Farah's study NOT be able to address?

Are there third variables that could explain the relationship?

Correlation 5 is an example of which of the following types of correlations?

Autocorrelation

temporal precedence

One of three criteria for establishing a causal claim, stating that the proposed causal variable comes first in time, before the proposed outcome variable.

control for

Holding a potential third variable at a constant level (statistically or experimentally) while investigating the association between two other variables

RESEARCH STUDY 3.2: Dr. Ramon makes the following claim: "Watching television leads people to spend less time communicating with their spouses, study says." Dr. LaSalle makes the claim: "Research shows that making more money correlates with spending less time talking with your spouse."Which of the following statements is true of Dr. Ramon's and Dr. LaSalle's claims?

Dr. Ramon's claim goes further than Dr. LaSalle's claim.

Michelle found a positive association between hours of sleeping and well-being. She looked to see whether this association was the same for teenagers (ages 16-19) and young adults (ages 20-24). Which of the following would most likely suggest this association between hours of sleep and well-being is a spurious association?

Hours of sleep and well-being are positively associated because, overall, teenagers report sleeping more and having greater well-being than young adults.

Mischel (1972) studied delay of gratification in preschoolers: Children were offered a special reward if they could wait or a less attractive treat if they chose not to wait. A follow-up study was done years later, looking at the same children as adolescents. The researchers found an association between the waiting times of the preschoolers and parents' reports of the same children's behaviors as adolescents. Which of the following is a question one could ask to assess the construct validity of this association?

How well was delay of gratification measured?

marginal means

In a factorial design, the arithmetic means for each level of an independent variable, averaging over the levels of another independent variable.

main effect

In a factorial design, the overall effect of one independent variable on the dependent variable, averaging over the levels of the other independent variable

cross-lag correlation

In a longitudinal design, a correlation between an earlier measure of one variable and a later measure of another variable.

cross- sectional correlation

In a longitudinal design, a correlation between two variables that are measured at the same time. (page 239)

autocorrelation

In a longitudinal design, the correlation of one variable with itself, measured at two different times. (page

internal reliability

In a measure that contains several items, the consistency in a pattern of answers, no matter how a question is phrased. Also called internal consistency

attrition threat

In a pretest/posttest, repeated-measures, or quasi-experimental study, a threat to internal validity that occurs when a systematic type of participant drops out of the study before it ends.

testing threat

In a repeated-measures experiment or quasiexperiment, a kind of order effect in which scores change over time just because participants have taken the test more than once; includes practice effects.

counterbalancing

In a repeated-measures experiment, presenting the levels of the independent variable to participants in different sequences to control for order effects.

order effect

In a within-groups design, a threat to internal validity in which exposure to one condition changes participant responses to a later condition. See also carryover effect, practice effect, testing threat.

systematic variability

In an experiment, a description of when the levels of a variable coincide in some predictable way with experimental group membership, creating a potential confound.

unsystematic variability

In an experiment, a description of when the levels of a variable fluctuate independently of experimental group membership, contributing to variability within groups.

independent variable

In an experiment, a variable that is manipulated. In a multiple-regression analysis, a predictor variable used to explain variance in the criterion variable.

manipulation check

In an experiment, an extra dependent variable researchers can include to determine how well a manipulation worked.

dependent variable

In an experiment, the variable that is measured. In a multiple-regression analysis, the single outcome, or criterion variable, the researchers are most interested in understanding or predicting. Also called outcome variable

RESEARCH STUDY 9.1: Dr. Farah is an educational psychologist who is interested in studying the potential causal relationship between doing homework and academic achievement. In January, Dr. Farah has her students report their fall GPA (a measure of academic achievement) and estimate how many hours they spent doing homework during a typical week in the fall semester. In May, Dr. Farah measures the same variables again (the estimated number of hours spent doing homework during a typical week in the spring semester and their spring GPA). She finds the following correlations. What type of study design is Dr. Farah using?

Longitudinal design

level

One of the possible variations, or values, of a variable. Also called condition. (page 58)

internal validity

One of three criteria for establishing a causal claim; a study's ability to rule out alternative explanations for a causal relationship between two variables. Also called third-variable criterion.

translational research

Research that uses knowledge derived from basic research to develop and test solutions to real-world problems

basic research

Research whose goal is to enhance the general body of knowledge, without regard for direct application to practical problems

applied research

Research whose goal is to find a solution to a particular real-world problem.

Which of the following is true of the research process?

Researchers rarely stop at one study; they usually follow up on findings with additional studies.

Which of the following is true about self-reports?

Self-reports are valuable sources of information when researchers are interested in a person's internal experiences.

Emma is planning an experiment to examine whether reading to children increases their vocabulary size. She plans to measure the vocabulary size of a group of 18-month-old children, read to them three times a week for 3 months, then measure their vocabulary size again. Emma could change the design of the study to remove a major threat to internal validity by doing which of the following?

She could add a comparison group.

Dr. Robinson designs an intervention meant to reduce college students' risky sexual decisions. She hypothesizes that shaming college students about their risky sexual decisions will improve their decision-making. She recruits participants and randomly assigns them to two conditions: the intervention group and the control group. The sexual behavior of all participants is measured in a pretest interview with Dr. Robinson. After the pretest interview, participants in the intervention group are scheduled for an individual shaming session with Dr. Robinson. The control group does not receive the shaming session. One week after the intervention, both groups are interviewed by Dr. Robinson about their sexual behavior during the past week. She finds that the intervention group reported less-risky sexual decisions than the control group in the posttest interview. In which way could Dr. Robinson improve the internal validity of her study?

She could make it a masked design.

Hilda is studying the effects of a major natural disaster on people living nearby. She finds that many of the victims are depressed and show stress-related symptoms. Why can't Hilda conclude that the natural disaster caused the depression and stress-related symptoms?

She doesn't have a comparison group.

Which of the following is true of operational definitions?

Some psychological concepts are more difficult to operationally define than others.

Which of the following is true of variables?

Some variables can be either manipulated or measured.

The following problematic question appears on a survey: "Please indicate whether the following statement is true or false for you: My cell phone is new and has all the latest features." In which way could this question be changed to improve its construct validity?

Split the question into two so that it is not double-barreled.

The campus safety committee has asked Professor Ibrahim to study bicycling on his campus. He trains two observers and has them observe the number of cyclists and their safety at various points around campus. After completing the observational study, Professor Ibrahim sends a survey out to the entire campus about bicycle safety, and asks all bicyclists to respond. He finds a large difference between their reports of how safely they ride and what his observers found. Which is the most likely cause of the self-report ratings being inconsistent with the observational data?

The bicyclists were probably responding in a socially desirable way on the self-report survey.

Mendoza et al. (2009) introduced a coin-rotation task as a convenient test of motor dexterity. It involves timed completion of twenty 180° rotations of a nickel using the thumb, index, and middle fingers. The results were compared with the results of another widely used test of motor dexterity, the finger-tapping task, in which participants tap their index fingers as many times as possible in 10 seconds. The results indicated that there was a statistically significant relationship between the finger-tapping task and the coin-rotation task (r = −.40). Which of the following would a scatterplot of these results (coin-rotation scores on the x-axis, finger-tapping scores on the y-axis) look like?

The cloud of points would slope downward from left to right.

Dr. Johnson wants to investigate whether the physiological measure, heart rate variability, varies over time or whether it is a trait that stays stable within the same person over time. He records participants' heart rate variability once at the beginning of the semester and once at the end of the semester. He finds a high positive correlation (r = .55) between the first and second time points. Which of the following would a scatterplot of these results (heart rate variability at the beginning of the semester on the x-axis, heart rate variability at the end of the semester on the y-axis) look like?

The cloud of points would slope upward from left to right.

Julie has developed an intervention to improve the relationship between parents and preschool-aged children. To evaluate the effectiveness of her intervention, Julie video records the parents interacting with their children at the end of the study. She has two research assistants watch the videos and rate the level of warmth in the interaction. Julie then correlates the ratings of the raters. She finds a high positive correlation (r = .87) between the two raters. Which of the following would a scatterplot of these results (ratings by the first research assistant on the x-axis, ratings of the second research assistant on the y-axis) look like?

The cloud of points would slope upward from left to right.

reliability

The consistency of the results of a measure. (page 125)

Franchesca read about Mrazek et al.'s (2013) study in which students scored higher on the GRE after completing a 2-week mindfulness training course. Franchesca is interested in the idea that practicing mindfulness improves the ability to control one's minds from wondering. She decides to conduct a similar study in which she has students practice either mindfulness or read and then take a test of attention. Franchesca predicts that, in line with the original study, students who had practiced mindfulness would perform better on the attention test. She runs the study and finds that the results match her prediction.The data matched Franchesca's prediction. What conclusion can Franchesca make?

The data support the theory.

parsimony

The degree to which a theory provides the simplest explanation of some phenomenon. In the context of investigating a claim, the simplest explanation of a pattern of data; the best explanation that requires making the fewest exceptions or qualifications.

covariance

The degree to which two variables go together. Also one of three criteria for establishing a causal claim, which states that, in a study's results, the proposed causal variable must vary systematically with changes in the proposed outcome variable.

content validity

The extent to which a measure captures all parts of a defined construct. (page 135)

face validity

The extent to which a measure is subjectively considered a plausible operationalization of the conceptual variable in question

statistical validity

The extent to which statistical conclusions derived from a study are accurate and reasonable.

generalizability

The extent to which the subjects in a study represent the populations they are intended to represent; how well the settings in a study represent other settings or contexts.

RESEARCH STUDY 9.2: Dr. Finkel is a social psychologist who studies romantic relationships. Several researchers have found that there is a link between income and marital satisfaction (e.g., Dakin & Wampler, 2012). Dr. Finkel is curious as to whether there is a causal link between the two variables, such that having a higher income causes higher levels of marital satisfaction. He is confident that he cannot reasonably or ethically manipulate people's income level, so he decides to use a multivariate design. He is also curious as to whether there is a causal link between these two variables or if two other variables (number of arguments and life satisfaction) can explain the relationship. He measures his three variables in a sample of 124 married couples recruited from a local community center. Below are his results. Given Dr. Finkel's design, which of the following issues is his study best able to address?

The issue of possible third variables

power

The likelihood that a study will show a statistically significant result when an independent variable truly has an effect in the population; the probability of not making a Type II error.

effect size

The magnitude, or strength, of a relationship between two or more variables.

effect size

The magnitude, or strength, of a relationship between two or more variables. (page 211)

Which of these is NOT a characteristic of an edited book?

The peer-review process for edited books is more rigorous than for that of a journal.

observational research

The process of watching people or animals and systematically recording how they behave or what they are doing

Which of the following can be concluded based on the results of Dr. Finkel's study?

The relationship between life satisfaction and marital satisfaction has the weakest effect size of all of the results.

operational variable

The specific way in which a concept of interest is measured or manipulated as a variable in a study.

A school district decides to compare a new math textbook with the textbook that has been used for the past few years. Each of the fourth graders in one school is randomly assigned to be in one of two classes, one in which a teacher continues using the old book and another in which a new teacher uses the new book. The school administrators compare the average scores of the two classes on a mathematics standardized test at the end of the year to determine which book is better. Which of the following is a potential confound in this study?

The teachers have different amounts of teaching experience.

bias blind spot

The tendency for people to think that compared to others, they themselves are less likely to engage in biased reasoning.

confirmation bias

The tendency to consider only the evidence that supports a hypothesis, including asking only the questions that will lead to the expected answer.

When the data from a study do not support the theory behind the study's hypothesis, what does that mean for the theory?

The theory should be revised.

slope direction

The upward, downward, or neutral slope of the cluster of data points in a scatterplot. (page 128)

random assignment

The use of a random method (e.g., flipping a coin) to assign participants into different experimental groups.

empiricism

The use of verifiable evidence as the basis for conclusions; collecting data systematically and using it to develop, support, or challenge a theory. Also called empirical method or empirical research.

criterion variable

The variable in a multiple-regression analysis that the researchers are most interested in understanding or predicting. Also called dependent variable.

Jenny recently learned of plans to cut down an old, beautiful tree on her campus to make way for a new bike path. Jenny is opposed to cutting down the tree, and she decides to survey some students at her university to see if others also oppose cutting down the tree. She plans to share the results of her survey with the school administration to argue to keep the tree. One question on Jenny's survey asks, "Would you be in favor of brutally cutting down this majestic tree to make way for a stupid bike path?" In which way could this question be changed to improve its construct validity?

Use more neutral language.

Jenna is interested in the association between the height of professional basketball players and their free-throw shooting percentage. She looks at the correlation between NBA players and their free-throw percentage from last season and she finds a statistically significant negative association. Jenna's friend Elizabeth suggests Jenna should look at a scatterplot of the data. Jenna follows Elizabeth's advice and finds one of the players is much shorter than the rest of the players and that player has a much better free-throw shooting percentage. When Jenna removes this player from her analysis, she finds there is no longer a statistically significant relationship between height and free-throw shooting. Which kind of problem has Elizabeth helped Jenna identify?

a problem with an outlier in the sample

Judy writes a survey to assess how much people worry. Her survey has 20 questions to which people can rate their level of agreement on a seven-point Likert scale. All the questions are worded so that higher responses will indicate a higher level of worry. After having 100 people complete her survey, she finds many respondents often respond to all the questions by choosing only the "strongly agree" option. This kind of responding is called which of the following?

acquiescence

Research using animals must be approved by which of the following?

an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)

In research, a confound is

an alternative explanation for an outcome that comes about because more than one thing changed at the same time.

within-groups design

an experimental design in which each participant is presented with all levels of the independent variable. Also called within-subjects design.

A school district is comparing two reading programs for high school students reading below grade level. Two very similar schools are used to test the programs, using a different program at each school. Students participating in the programs are pretested for their reading abilities and the mean scores are similar at both schools. The reading program implemented at high school A is known to be much more rigorous than the program implemented at high school B. The posttest shows more improvement at high school A, but more of the students dropped out of the program. Which threat to internal validity does this pose?

attrition

In a quasi-experiment by Minke (2011), the effectiveness of Skejby, a Danish half-way house that mixes offenders with nonoffenders, was compared with that of the control condition of half-way houses housing only offenders. Measurement of effectiveness was based on rate of recidivism of former inmates. If those inmates who were sent to prison from their half-way houses for violations were not included in the recidivism measurement, which threat to internal validity would this potentially pose?

attrition

Which of the following allow us to make strong predictions using association claims?

both strong positive associations and strong negative associations

Following a study using deception, how does the researcher attempt to restore an honest relationship with the participant?

by debriefing each participant in a structured conversation

In a business class experiment on the endowment effect, Theo is comparing the value of a coffee mug to someone who owns it and is selling it to someone who is buying it. The endowment effect describes the tendency of sellers to value something they own more than buyers do. Participants are randomly assigned to be buyers or sellers of a mug with their first name on it. Buyers select the maximum price they would pay for the mug. Sellers select the minimum price they would accept for the mug. Theo controls for selection effects in which of the following ways?

by using random assignment of participants

RESEARCH STUDY 3.2: Dr. Ramon makes the following claim: "Watching television leads people to spend less time communicating with their spouses, study says." Dr. LaSalle makes the claim: "Research shows that making more money correlates with spending less time talking with your spouse."Which type of claim is Dr. Ramon making?

causal

The students in Professor Zhao's 50-student Introductory Psychology class were randomly assigned to one of two review sessions, each being taught with a different technique. The next day, all 50 students got all 10 test questions correct. Which problem does Professor Zhao have in determining the better teaching technique for review sessions?

ceiling effect

In a developmental psychology class, Trina learned about Baumarind's (1971, 1991) work on parenting styles. She recognized that her parents used an authoritarian style of parenting, as did all her relatives. Because that was the style of parenting she planned to use, she researched the advantages to that style while ignoring any studies that support the use of another parenting style. What is the term for what Trina was doing?

cherry-picking the evidence

The superintendent of schools in a small town in Ohio made many policy changes to the way school administration worked in his district. A researcher at a nearby university wanted to look at what teachers in his district thought about the changes. The researcher made a list of all the schools in the district and used a random number generator to select a sample of five schools from the district. Then the researcher interviewed every teacher at each of those five schools. Which sampling method did the researcher use?

cluster sampling

Which of the following is the term used in psychology to describe a person who is an actor playing a specific role as part of an experiment?

confederate

Mendoza et al. (2009) introduced a coin-rotation task as a convenient test of motor dexterity. It involves timed completion of twenty 180° rotations of a nickel using the thumb, index, and middle fingers. Research participants' results on the coin-rotation task are compared with their results on two widely used tests of motor dexterity: the finger-tapping task and the grooved pegboard task. Which empirical way of assessing construct validity is being used?

convergent validity

Eric designs a study to examine drink preferences of university freshmen. He is planning to have all the freshmen who participate in his study drink a cup of coffee, then rate their enjoyment of the coffee; then drink a cup of tea and rate their enjoyment of the tea; and, finally, drink a cup of milk and rate their enjoyment of the milk. Eric tells Theresa about the plans for his study and she says she is concerned he could have a problem with order effect in his study. Eric could fix this problem by using which of the following?

counterbalancing

Some colleges no longer require the SAT I or the ACT tests; instead, they base their admissions on other factors, such as high school GPA. A major reason they have done this is they have found a low correlation between the scores on the tests and the students' freshman-year GPA. In other words, they were concerned that college entrance exams lacked which type of validity?

criterion validity

The Yerkes-Dodson law (1908) shows performance increases with arousal up to a point, but beyond that, performance decreases with increasing arousal. Which type of correlation is this?

curvilinear

A statement, or set of statements, that describes general principles about how variables relate to one another is a ________________.

theory

Professor Kwan studies violence and designs a study of the effects of video game violence on children. She recruits low-income, Hispanic children from schools near the university to participate. Each child is assigned to play either a violent or nonviolent video game 2 hours each evening for a month. The children's teachers are asked to assess changes in behavior. Data analysis shows no effect of game type, but Professor Kwan knows several children didn't follow the procedure, so she makes up data for them and then shows a significant effect. Which part of American Psychological Association (APA) Ethical Standard 8 did the data violate?

data fabrication

Dr. Sanders conducted a study that investigated the happiness of people listening to different kinds of music. He predicted that people would report being happier when they were listening to rock music than when they were listening to country music. Dr. Sanders threw out the data from several participants who reported being very happy while listening to country music because he thought that they weren't being honest. Dr. Sanders has committed what kind of ethical violation?

data falsification

Sun Mi is designing a questionnaire on loneliness. She is concerned that some features of loneliness are similar to depression and to low self-esteem. Which type of validity does she need to show to demonstrate that her questionnaire assesses loneliness and not depression or low self-esteem?

discriminant validity

Dr. Harrison wants to test the effectiveness of the support group he runs for undergraduates who have drinking problems. He recruits a group of students who have been referred to the counseling center. He randomizes them to two groups: a structured-session group and an unstructured-session group. The structured-session group attends 10 structured support-group sessions at 8:00 a.m. on Fridays that are facilitated by Dr. Harrison. The unstructured-session group attends 10 unstructured meetings at 3:00 p.m. on Wednesdays that are facilitated by members of the group. Several of the participants in the structured-session group stop attending after just a couple of sessions. All the members of the unstructured-session group attend their meeting regularly. At the end of the 10 weeks, Dr. Harrison measures drinking behavior of the people who are still attending the groups. He finds the drinking behavior of people who attended all 10 structured-group sessions is less than the drinking behavior of people who attended all 10 unstructured-group sessions. Which kind of threat to internal validity should Dr. Harrison be concerned about?

election attrition

Psychological scientists base their conclusions on evidence. They collect and use data to develop, support, or challenge a theory. This approach is known as ____________.

empiricism

Which of the following is a common way journalists misrepresent science when they write about it for a popular audience?

exaggerating the strength of the findings

A drought in California created the opportunity for a quasi-experiment on the effectiveness of fines on water conservation (Agras et al., 1980). Three comparable cities were considered - two that instituted fines at different times and a third that did not. Water consumption data for the 3 years before the onset of the fines were used as baseline and subsequent consumption data were gathered through the end of the drought. Effectiveness of fines was assessed by examining consumption the following month. In this study, researchers capitalized on real-life opportunities to study phenomena. Therefore, they maximized which type of validity?

external

Frances conducted a study on the concreteness on memory in her dorm. She created a list of 12 items that are very concrete (e.g., pencil and table) and a list of 12 items that are very abstract (e.g., justice and freedom). Each item was viewed for 1 second, then participants recalled them in order. Ten participants were randomly assigned to each list of items. The study showed null effects. Which is a possible explanation for this null effect?

external distractions that lead to unsystematic variability

Professor Schwartz examines the relationship between time spent at a shopping mall and happiness. She finds that for millennials, the more time in the mall is associated with higher levels of happiness. She finds that for baby boomers, the more time in the mall is associated with lower levels of happiness. Which is the moderator in this relationship?

generation of the people being examined

Koordeman et al. (2011) conducted a study on the effect of alcohol commercials on alcohol consumption in a movie theater. Participants saw one of two types of beverage commercials: alcoholic or nonalcoholic. Their consumption of alcohol during the movie was then measured. Finally, they completed a questionnaire on their usual drinking habits. Koordeman et al. found that young adults who generally consume large amounts of alcohol each week were influenced to drink more alcohol when they saw alcohol commercials, whereas the alcohol consumption of young adults who generally consume small amounts of alcohol each week was not influenced by the type of commercial shown. Which type of design is this?

independent-groups factorial design

Which of the following outlines the correct order of steps in the theory-data cycle?

theory, research questions, research design, hypothesis, data

Professor Hammond studies ethical behavior and designs a study to examine the amount of cheating at her school. At the beginning of class each day, she passes around a chart showing the dates of the class meetings, with boxes for students to initial if they were present. She photocopies the sheet after each class so that she can find if any students initial for days they were absent. The students are not aware they were participating in the study until the end of the quarter. Which ethical standard does this violate?

informed consent to research

In an experiment on improving children's handwriting, two different techniques of improving handwriting and a control condition are used. Using a pretest/posttest design, both groups who received the treatment showed more improvement than the control group. However, the two groups didn't show any difference from each other. The researcher believes there is a difference but that the 5-point assessment scale of handwriting cannot detect it. Which measurement problem is the researcher concerned with?

insensitive measures

On the first exam in an Introductory Psychology class, the grades are lower than Professor Mutola expected. She suspects that multitasking is to blame. She bans computers and cell phones from her class between the first and the second exam. When she compares the scores on the two exams, she finds a significant improvement on the second exam. Professor Mutola looks back over the second exam and begins to wonder if it was just an easier exam. Which threat to internal validity is she considering?

instrumentation

In quasi-experiments, researchers lack full experimental control. Therefore, which type of validity must they assess to make sure they can draw firm conclusions from their results?

internal

Lorenzo is studying aggression in children. He administers a questionnaire to the children that asks them about their feelings of aggression. Lorenzo runs a statistical test to find how consistent the responses are to different wordings of items on the questionnaire given to the children. Which type of reliability is he examining with this questionnaire?

internal

Which type of validity is important to interrogate for causal claims, but not association claims?

internal validity

Which of the following validities is correctly matched with the technique to address concerns regarding that validity?

internal validity and random assignment

When researchers conduct an experiment comparing two different treatment conditions, they are likely to be more concerned with ______________ validity than validity.

internal; external

Julie has developed an intervention to improve the relationship between parents and preschool-aged children. To evaluate the effectiveness of her intervention, Julie video records the parents interacting with their children at the end of the study. She has two research assistants watch the videos and rate the level of warmth in the interaction. Julie then correlates the ratings of the raters. She finds a high positive correlation (r = .87) between the two raters. Which of the following types of reliability is she examining?

interrater

After implementation of a new city law, a restaurant chain began displaying the nutrition labels for their menu items. The restaurant owner recorded sales of the 15 highest-calorie menu items on three occasions: once the month before the change in menu display, once the week of the change in menu display, and once the month after the change in menu display. The owner observed that the sale of the high-calorie menu items dropped, while overall sales remained steady. Which type of design is this?

interrupted time series design

Which of the following phrases would be a clue that the study described in a popular media article was a factorial design?

it depends

To study a sample of participants from only one ethnic group, researchers must first demonstrate that the problem being studied is especially prevalent in that ethnic group. This is an application of which principle from the Belmont Report?

justice

When examining the statistical validity of a frequency claim, one should look for the:

margin of error estimate.

Calculating which of the following allows us to examine the main effect of one variable?

marginal means

Kathryn wants to control for intelligence in her study. She has a list of all the participants for her study and their IQ scores. She 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, she randomly assigns each group to one of the conditions of her study. Which kind of design is Kathryn using?

matched groups

Gathercole and Baddeley (1990) examined phonologic memory skills in children with disordered language development, using two control groups, one of which comprised much younger children who were matched on verbal abilities. If they had done a follow-up study a year later, which type of threat to internal validity would this age difference most likely have caused?

maturation

On the first exam in an Introductory Psychology class, the grades are lower than Professor Mutola expected. She suspects that multitasking is to blame. She bans computers and cell phones from her class between the first and the second exam. When she compares the scores on the two exams, she finds a significant improvement on the second exam. Professor Mitchell points out that in her classes, students always do better on the second exam because they are more used to her tests. Which threat to validity is Professor Mitchell suggesting?

maturation

Professor Fofana wonders if there is an association between students' grades and whether they complete extra credit in his classes. He makes a scatterplot, with the number of extra credit points earned on the x-axis and the numerical grade in his course without extra credit on the y-axis. He finds r = .28. According to Cohen's conventions, how strong is this association?

medium, or moderate

If the relationship between two variables changes depending on the level of another variable c, which of the following is the term for this other variable, c?

moderator

A drought in California created the opportunity for a quasi-experiment on the effectiveness of fines on water conservation (Agras et al., 1980). Three comparable California cities were considered - two that instituted fines at different times and a third that did not institute fines. Water consumption data for the 3 years before the onset of the fines were used as baseline and subsequent consumption data were gathered through the end of the drought. Effectiveness of fines was assessed by examining consumption the following month. With regard to the monitoring of water consumption, which type of design was this?

multiple baseline

A psychologist is working with the parents of four children who exhibit violent behaviors toward each other. The parents have been instructed to record the number of these behaviors each child exhibits in the predinner hour for 1 week. The parents then begin using a positive reinforcement technique to shape the behavior of the youngest child while continuing to record violent behaviors. The recording continues and the technique is used on one additional child each week. By the end of 6 weeks, there is a significant decrease in violent behaviors for each of the children. Which type of design is this?

multiple baseline

The campus safety committee has asked Professor Ibrahim to study bicycling on his campus. He trains two observers and has them observe the number of cyclists and their safety at various points around campus. He randomly selects 10 observation locations from the places bicycles can be ridden on campus and randomly selects five 1-hour spans of time for each place. He has his observers make observations at each of the 10 places for each of the five time spans. Which type of sampling is he using?

multistage

On the first exam in an Introductory Psychology class, the grades are lower than Professor Mutola expected. She suspects that multitasking is to blame. She bans computers and cell phones from her class between the first and the second exam. When she compares the scores on the two exams, she finds a significant improvement on the second exam. Which of the following is the name for this type of design?

one group pretest posttest

Georgina graduated as valedictorian of her high school class because of her class ranking. What type of scale is used for the quantitative variable of class ranking?

ordinal scale

Mr. Stratford is the president of a national organization of lesbian, bisexual, gay, and transgender people in the United States. He wants to survey 1,000 members of his organization about the position they want the organization to take on several political issues. He knows that transgender people make up only 5% of his organization, but he wants to make sure their views are accurately represented. He decides to randomly sample 100 transgender members and then adjust the final results so transgender people are weighted to their actual proportion in the organization. Which type of sampling is Mr. Stratford using?

oversampling

Some theories are better than others. What are the features of a good theory?

parsimonious, falsifiable, and supported by data

"All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best." Which principle does this describe?

parsimony

Which of the following is a simple study that uses a separate group of participants that is generally completed before conducting the study of primary interest to confirm the effectiveness of a manipulation?

pilot study

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. One group will receive his new medication and the other will receive a sugar pill. The second group is called which of the following?

placebo group

Which type of research misconduct involves representing the ideas or words of others as one's own?

plagiarism

Which of the following refers to the entire set of people in which the researchers are interested?

population

Dr. Ellison finds a relation between amount of sleep and problem solving. Specifically, having a higher amount of sleep the night before an exam is associated with higher scores on two measures of problem solving. This is an example of which type of association?

positive association

Which kind of design is an experiment in which each participant is randomly assigned to one level of the independent variable and then tested on the dependent variable once?

posttest only

In a quasi-experiment by Minke (2011), the effectiveness of Skejby, a Danish half-way house that mixes offenders with nonoffenders, was compared with that of the control condition of half-way houses housing only offenders. Measurement of effectiveness was based on rate of recidivism of former inmates. Which was the dependent variable in this study?

rate of recidivism

Jared is conducting an experiment with extrasensory perception (ESP) training. He begins with a pretest of his 40 participants and then divides them into two groups based on their scores. The participants with the 10 lowest scores are given extensive training on how to detect the signals. The participants with the 30 highest scores are given no training. Both groups are retested and the average score of the participants with the training improved, whereas the average score of the participants without the training fell. Which threat to internal validity should Jared consider?

regression

Eric designs a study to examine drink preferences of university freshmen. He is planning to have all the freshmen who participate in his study drink a cup of coffee and then rate their enjoyment of the coffee; then drink a cup of tea and rate their enjoyment of the tea; and, finally, drink a cup of milk and rate their enjoyment of the milk. Which kind of design is this?

repeated measures

Professor Kwan studies violence and designs a study of the effects of video game violence on children. She recruits low-income, Hispanic children from schools near the university to participate. Each child is assigned to play either a violent or nonviolent video game 2 hours each evening for a month. The children's teachers are asked to assess changes in behavior. To assure good participation, the participants are offered a chance to win a family trip to a major theme park. Which of the Belmont Report principles is violated by this incentive?

respect for persons

Which of the following describes a "fence-sitting" response to a survey?

responding to a controversial question on a survey by selecting the response right in the middle

Which of the following is NOT one of the "three Rs" provided by the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals?

restoration

Ellen is an elementary school teacher who has a very disruptive child in her classroom. She wants to see whether using a good-behavior point system will be effective for managing this child's behavior. She begins by noting the child's behavioral outbursts for a week before she begins the point system, then she tries using the point system for 2 weeks and notices a drop in the child's outbursts. For the next 2 weeks, she discontinues using the point system and she notes an increase in the child's outburst. Which kind of design is Ellen using to test this intervention?

reversal

A(n) _____ by Cartwright-Hatton and his colleagues (2010) summarizes 10 studies on the effectiveness of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) as a treatment for anxiety disorders of childhood and adolescence.

review journal article

In a nonequivalent control group design, participants in the control group may match the treatment group on an important factor. This is an attempt to prevent which threat to internal validity?

selection

Two universities are involved in a study of the effects on student retention and attitude toward campus life, based on a prefreshman-year summer visit program one of the schools had implemented. The schools, both state universities in the same state, were closely matched in student-body characteristics. In the fall of the first year of the program, the school that was serving as the control was struck by a rare fall tornado, which did damage to several campus buildings. Which type of threat to internal validity would this cause?

selection histroy

The student government at a college is interested in determining how important intercollegiate sports are to the students there. Because all students have e-mail accounts, the student government can send a survey to all the students. About 50% of the students respond. Which is the most likely bias in this sample?

self selection

Lorenzo is studying aggression in children. He administers a questionnaire to the children that asks them about their feelings of aggression. Which type of measure is the questionnaire?

self-report

Which of the following is an example of a physiological measure?

skin conductance

Beth is working on a research study focused on attention span in children. Among the participants, the group of 11-year-old boys is underrepresented. Beth asks her 11-year-old brother to distribute flyers about participation in the study to his male classmates and soccer team. Which type of sampling is this?

snowball

A college administrator knows that 70% of the students at her college are from out of state, so she decides to make sure that she includes 70 out-of-state students and 30 in-state students in her survey about admission practices at the college. She has a list of all the out-of-state and in-state students currently enrolled at the college. She randomly selects 70 students from the out-of-state list and 30 students from the in-state list. Which sampling method is she using?

stratified random sampling

In psychology lab, Tetiana is conducting an experiment on depth perception using the Howard-Dolman box. Inside the box are two vertical rods and a horizontal ruler. The participant manipulates the rods until they appear to be aligned at the same distance, then the experimenter measures how far out of alignment they are. There are three conditions: left eye only, right eye only, and both eyes. Tetiana is using a repeated-measures design. She finds d = 1.53. Which effect size is this?

strong

Mischel (1972) studied delay of gratification in preschoolers: Children were offered a special reward if they could wait or a less attractive treat if they chose not to wait. A follow-up study was done years later, looking at the same children as adolescents. The researchers found an association between the waiting times of the preschoolers and parents' reports of the same children's behaviors as adolescents. The parents' ratings of likelihood of yielding to temptation correlated with the preschool waiting time measurement at r = −.50. Which describes this effect size according to Cohen's benchmarks?

strong

Professor Fofana wonders if there is an association between students' grades and extra credit points earned in his classes. He first made a scatterplot, with the number of extra credit points earned on the x-axis and the numerical grade in his course without extra credit on the y-axis. He then decides the plot would be clearer if he converted the numerical grades into passing or failing the course, so he plots a bar graph with pass/fail on the x-axis and the mean number of extra credit points earned on the y-axis. Which type of statistic would he run to determine if there is a relationship between pass/fail and extra credit points earned?

t test

Vida is studying the connection between school grades and time spent using social media. She finds a strong correlation, showing students with lower grades spend more time using social media. She decides that before she can claim increased use of social media causes grades to drop, she must make sure the social media came before the low grades. Which criterion of causality is she concerned with?

temporal precedence

Researchers are conducting a repeated-measures quasi-experiment. Which type of threat to internal validity should concern the researchers if they notice the participants are taking less and less time to complete the assessment questionnaires that are administered weekly?

testing

validity

the appropriateness of a conclusion or decision. See also construct validity, external validity, internal validity, statistical validity

The idea that things that easily come to mind tend to guide our thinking is known as which of the following?

the availability heuristic

Dr. Kang sends his study to a journal to be published. One of the peer reviewers questions the way Dr. Kang manipulated emotion, arguing that being exposed to emotional words does not make one emotional. The reviewer is questioning which of the following?

the construct validity of the study

RESEARCH STUDY 3.4: Dr. Kang, a cognitive psychologist, conducts an experiment examining the effect of emotion on memory. He provides lists of 15 words to two groups of participants at his university. He puts the names of all the participants in a hat. The first 20 names he assigns to Group A and the last 20 he assigns to Group B. Group A is given a list of words that are very emotional in content (e.g., passion, murder). Group B is given a list of words that are neutral in content (e.g., houseplant, desk). He then measures how many words each group is able to remember after being distracted for 5 minutes by watching a video about the history of the university. He finds that Group A remembers 15% more words than Group B.Which of the following is the independent variable in Dr. Kang's study?

the emotional or neutral content of the words

Dr. Hadden wants to conduct a study that will allow him to make claims that apply to all college students. Which of the following validities is he prioritizing?

the external validity of the study

In a factorial-design study, which effect is usually considered the most important?

the interaction

If Dr. Kang decided against using random assignment, which of the following would be threatened?

the internal validity of the study

The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) receives a complaint that some of their employees who administer the road test pass a much higher percentage of test takers than other employees. In this example, what aspect of the road test is being questioned?

the interrater reliability of the road test

Lisa is interested in how well people are able to detect whether another person is a "cooperator," a "competitor," or an "individualist" simply by looking at a picture of the person's face. She wants to know which kind of face can be identified most easily and whether this varies by the race of the person in the picture. She designs a 2 × 3 within-group design where she has participants in her study look at faces of African American people and Caucasian people who are "cooperators," "competitors," or "individualists." The participants try to identify the personality of the person in each picture and Lisa keeps track of the number of pictures accurately identified for each picture type. Which is the dependent variable?

the number of pictures accurately identified

Which of the following is the dependent variable in Dr. Kang's study?

the number of words remembered

Which of the following are two ethical issues raised by Milgram's studies of obedience?

the stress experienced by the teachers and the lasting effects of the study on the teachers

Franchesca read about Mrazek et al.'s (2013) study in which students scored higher on the GRE after completing a 2-week mindfulness training course. Franchesca is interested in the idea that practicing mindfulness improves the ability to control one's mind from wondering. She decides to conduct a similar study in which she has students practice either mindfulness or read and then take a test of attention. Franchesca predicts that, in line with the original study, students who had practiced mindfulness would perform better on the attention test. She runs the study and finds that the results match her prediction.Which of the following is the data in this study?

the students' performance on the attention task

Franchesca read about Mrazek et al.'s (2013) study in which students scored higher on the GRE after completing a 2-week mindfulness training course. Franchesca is interested in the idea that practicing mindfulness improves the ability to control one's mind from wondering. She decides to conduct a similar study in which she has students practice either mindfulness or read and then take a test of attention. Franchesca predicts that, in line with the original study, students who had practiced mindfulness would perform better on the attention test. She runs the study and finds that the results match her prediction.Franchesca's process of conducting a study to evaluate whether the effects of practicing mindfulness extend to tests of attention can best be described as which of the following?

the theory-data cycle

RESEARCH STUDY 3.1: Anderson is reading his morning paper and sees the following headline: "Men Should Avoid Rock Music When Playing Board Games." (This headline is based on a study conducted by Fancourt, Burton, & Williamon, 2016.) In the study, men and women played the game "Operation" when listening to different types of music. Male participants performed worse when listening to AC/DC than when listening to Mozart, but female participants' performance did not differ based on music.Which of the following is a constant in this study?

the type of game

deception

the withholding of some details of a study from participants (deception through omission) or the act of actively lying to them (deception through commission).

Explain why the relationship betweenapplied and basic research can best be thought of as interrelated

they both *inform eachother*. Specifically, basic research can be used later to conduct appliedresearch and inform basic research.

selection- history threat

threat to internal validity in which a historical or seasonal event systematically affects only the participants in the treatment group or only those in the comparison group, not both.

The phrase "the difference in differences is different" suggests the presence of which type of interaction?

three-way

Which of the following are the two main reasons researchers use factorial designs?

to test the limits of an effect and to test theories

After reading about Harlow's contact comfort theory, Dr. Borden wonders if these findings would apply to premature babies in the neonatal intensive care unit. He designs a study to test whether touch and cuddling could speed up weight gain in premature babies. What type of research is Dr. Borden's study?

translational research

RESEARCH STUDY 3.1: Anderson is reading his morning paper and sees the following headline: "Men Should Avoid Rock Music When Playing Board Games." (This headline is based on a study conducted by Fancourt, Burton, & Williamon, 2016.) In the study, men and women played the game "Operation" when listening to different types of music. Male participants performed worse when listening to AC/DC than when listening to Mozart, but female participants' performance did not differ based on music.How many variables are included in this study?

two

Jane is conducting a study on the effects of meditation on stress with highly anxious and nonanxious participants. She finds that overall, highly anxious participants reported greater levels of stress and that, overall, participants in the meditation group reported lower levels of stress than the group that did not practice meditation. She also found that the impact of meditation on lowering stress was particularly strong for participants who were highly anxious. Which of the following is a correct description of the results?

two main effects and an interaction

Lisa is interested in how well people are able to detect whether another person is a "cooperator," a "competitor," or an "individualist" simply by looking at a picture of the person's face. She wants to know what kind of face can be identified most easily and whether this varies by the race of the person in the picture. She designs a 2 × 3 within-group design where she has participants in her study look at faces from African American people and Caucasian people who are "cooperators," "competitors," or "individualists." The participants try to identify the personality of the person in each picture and Lisa keeps track of the number of pictures accurately identified for each picture type. Which of the following correctly lists all the differences that must be examined?

two main effects and one interaction

Susan ran a study in which she had a group of younger adults (18 to 24 years old) and a group of older adults (50 to 65 years old). She had both groups recite a poem by memory once in front of an audience of 50 people and once in a room by themselves. She counterbalanced the order of these tasks between participants. She had the participants rate their level of anxiety right before they recited the poem each time. Susan found a main effect for age such that younger people reported being more anxious than older people. She found a main effect for audience size such that people were more anxious in the room with 50 people than they were in the room by themselves. She did not find an interaction in the results. If Susan were to graph her results, which of the following would they look like?

two parallel, diagonal lines

Which of the following is a problem that may contribute to a null effect in a study?

weak manipulations

RESEARCH STUDY 3.1: Anderson is reading his morning paper and sees the following headline: "Men Should Avoid Rock Music When Playing Board Games." (This headline is based on a study conducted by Fancourt, Burton, & Williamon, 2016.) In the study, men and women played the game "Operation" when listening to different types of music. Male participants performed worse when listening to AC/DC than when listening to Mozart, but female participants' performance did not differ based on music.In this study, the authors were interested in participants' board game performance. Which of the following would be a reasonable operational definition of performance?

whether participants won against a partner

In psychology lab, Tetiana is conducting an experiment on depth perception using the Howard-Dolman box. Inside the box are two vertical rods and a horizontal ruler. The participant manipulates the rods until they appear to be aligned at the same distance, then the experimenter measures how far out of alignment they are. There are three conditions: left eye only, right eye only, and both eyes. Tetiana is using a repeated-measures design. The independent variable in Tetiana's design is being manipulated in which of the following ways?

within groups

Dr. Hoda measures job satisfaction and number of years of education. In examining her scatterplot, she sees the cloud of points has no slope. This indicates which type of relationship?

zero