Research Methods Mid Term

In logistic regression, one is able to predict

the probability of an occurrence

The only type of research that can manipulate treatments and establish a cause and effect is

experimental research

The t test is used to

test whether two groups differ significantly

In a study designed to assess the comparative effectiveness of two workbooks used in teaching students about laboratory procedures, the independent variable of the study would be

workbooks

Which one of the following statements does not describe an advantage of repeated measures?

Repeated measures can eliminate the influence of some unwanted variable.

This question pertains to the following study: "A researcher wishes to determine the effects of an outdoor adventure summer camp on the self-concept of inner-city boys. Boys are randomly assigned to the summer camp and to a control situation. The experimental treatment is for three months. A secondary purpose is to see if age (ages 6, 9, and 12) affects the relationship of the camp effects and self-concept."The independent variable is

adventure summer camp

A predictive validity technique involving the construction of a two-way grid of percentages of students at different levels of an aptitude test who achieved different grades is called

an expectancy table

When the purpose of the research is to determine the effects of one independent variable (e.g., four groups) on one dependent variable (e.g., self-concept), the best choice of a statistical analysis is

analysis of variance

Comparing test items with the course objectives (course topics) checks which type of validity?

content

A teacher wishes to determine the reliability of three trials on a performance test. He uses ANOVA to obtain the reliability coefficient. This technique is called

intraclass correlation

A research hypothesis

is directly testable

When a researcher claims that there is a difference between treatments (i.e., rejects the null hypothesis) when there really is no difference, what type of error is this?

type I error

In evaluating the methods section of a research report, which is a very important question to keep in mind?

Did the author provide enough information that the study could be repeated?

The term that describes the position of the hump in the curve of a distribution is

skewness

References to books should include

author, date, title, city of publication, publisher's name

With regard to capitalization only in APA style, which of these references is/are correct?

(Book) Plagenhoef, S. C. Patterns of human motion and (Journal) Cassell, J. Ethical patterns in fieldwork. American Educational Research Journal

The researcher obtained a significant F from the ANOVA. Omega squared was found to be .30. This is interpreted to mean that

30% of the total variance is accounted for by the treatments

Which of these statements is/are true concerning the "significance of the study" section in the introduction of a thesis?

All of the above

The premise that the scores from the Minnesota Attitude Inventory are a valid measure of attitude toward school is an example of a

basic assumption

Which of the following is a technique for providing information about the reliability of an instrument?

coefficient alpha

Prediction studies use which of the following as the basic analysis technique?

correlation

It is desirable to carry out a pilot study prior to the actual research study because

it permits a thorough check of the planned data collection and analysis procedures

For confidentiality, the researcher should

all of the above

The introduction to a research report should

move from a general description of the theoretical problem to the specific area to be studied

The extent to which the results of a study can be attributed to the treatments used in the study is the definition of what kind of validity?

internal

A researcher conducts a study on the effectiveness of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) by comparing classes that use this method with classes that do not. The researcher expects the CAI classes to show higher gains in achievement. This expectation is

a hypothesis

A null hypothesis is

a statistical hypothesis that assumes that there is no difference among the effects of treatments

A researcher sought to find out which of two exercises was more effective in building endurance. One group used exercise A, and another group used exercise B. At the end of study, the researcher should compare the two groups' scores by

an independent t test

The determining factor in the order of authorship of a research publication is that the first author is the person who

develops the idea and plans the research

A threat to the validity of rating scales is that the rater may tend to let her previous knowledge of the student in another capacity (e.g., another course) influence the rating. This threat is called the

halo effect

In the description of pertinent characteristics of the participants, which of the following would be least pertinent in a study that surveyed the favorite books of children?

height of the children

A report of a research study submitted for a four-chapter thesis and the same study prepared for a journal differ with respect to the length of the

introduction and review of literature and description of the methods

A thesis was submitted with the title "A study comparing the achievement of sixth-grade students in Moscow, Idaho, instructed in health education through closed-circuit television and regular classroom procedure for a period of 16 weeks." This title

is too long

The property of a distribution of scores that relates to how peaked or flat the curve is called

kurtosis

This question pertains to the following study: "A researcher wishes to determine the effects of an outdoor adventure summer camp on the self-concept of inner-city boys. Boys are randomly assigned to the summer camp and to a control situation. The experimental treatment is for three months. A secondary purpose is to see if age (ages 6, 9, and 12) affects the relationship of the camp effects and self-concept."The researcher states that self-concept is represented by scores on the Tennessee Self Concept Scale. This is an example of a(n)

operational definition

The researcher's statement that "the boys in the adventure program will make significantly greater gains in self-concept than the boys in the control group" is an example of a(n)

research hypothesis

This question pertains to the following study: "A researcher wishes to determine the effects of an outdoor adventure summer camp on the self-concept of inner-city boys. Boys are randomly assigned to the summer camp and to a control situation. The experimental treatment is for three months. A secondary purpose is to see if age (ages 6, 9, and 12) affects the relationship of the camp effects and self-concept."The dependent variable is

self-concept

After a population of 1,000 high school seniors is divided by sex and size of school attended, the random selection of a sample to represent these proportions of the population is called

stratified random sampling

Another term that describes the unscientific method of tenacity is

superstition

Which of the following is not a common error in the review of literature sections of theses?

synthesizing and interpreting the findings of previous research

A researcher wishes to survey student opinions on a proposed increase in fees at her university. She decides to select a sample for telephone interviewing by selecting every 20th name in the student directory. What is this type of sampling called?

systematic

A two-way (factorial) ANOVA with more than one person per cell will yield F values for which of following contrasts?

three F values, one each for rows, columns, and interaction

When an experimenter states that the level of significance is the .05 level, he is setting the probability of committing which type of error?

type I error

In an item analysis, 14 of the 20 high-ability students answered an item correctly, whereas only 8 of the 20 low-ability students did. What is the discrimination index for this item?

.30

What is the mode(s) for the following set of numbers? (5, 10, 4, 1, 4, 5, 12, 8, 9, 4 )

4

Which of the following statements would appear in the procedures part of the methods section of a research report?

Participants in the experimental group exercised three days per week for 30 minutes per day for 10 weeks.

Reliability of a measure may be established by

a and b only

This question pertains to the following study: "A researcher wishes to determine the effects of an outdoor adventure summer camp on the self-concept of inner-city boys. Boys are randomly assigned to the summer camp and to a control situation. The experimental treatment is for three months. A secondary purpose is to see if age (ages 6, 9, and 12) affects the relationship of the camp effects and self-concept."The categorical variable is

age level

To determine which of two methods for learning a motor skill is more effective, the correct statistical analysis is

an independent t test

The abstract of a study should

be a concise summary of the study

The single score that best represents all the scores in a distribution is the definition of

central tendency

A statistical technique that tests for significant differences between observed and expected frequencies of occurrence is

chi square

This question pertains to the following study: "A researcher wishes to determine the effects of an outdoor adventure summer camp on the self-concept of inner-city boys. Boys are randomly assigned to the summer camp and to a control situation. The experimental treatment is for three months. A secondary purpose is to see if age (ages 6, 9, and 12) affects the relationship of the camp effects and self-concept."The number of participants, the selection of the self-concept inventory, and the length of the study are all examples of

delimitations

A researcher decides to use an alpha of .01 and a power of .80. To determine the needed sample size the researcher must ascertain the expected

effect size

For a study with two (or more) independent variables, such as type of instruction and sex, and one dependent variable, such as achievement, the most appropriate analysis technique is

factorial ANOVA

This question pertains to the following study: "A researcher wishes to determine the effects of an outdoor adventure summer camp on the self-concept of inner-city boys. Boys are randomly assigned to the summer camp and to a control situation. The experimental treatment is for three months. A secondary purpose is to see if age (ages 6, 9, and 12) affects the relationship of the camp effects and self-concept."The researcher states that he is aware that responses to questions on a self-concept scale may not always be what the person really believes. This is an example of a(n)

limitation

If two measures have a high positive correlation, and a person has a low score on one measure, her score on the other measure is most likely to be

low

If there is a correlation of .80 between a test of scholastic aptitude and performance on an achievement test, one can infer that

no causation can be inferred

Data such as sex, city of residence, or political party affiliation are what kind of measure?

nominal

The term coined by Kuhn to denote the scientific approach that is used widely in the natural sciences is

normal science

The primary sources of a literature review are

research journal articles

The type of scale that uses items such as "Worthless-Valuable" is called a

semantic differential scale

To determine whether data are normally distributed, one can test to see whether the curve is shifted to the left or right. This shift is called

skewness

In the example in chapter 1 of the experiment that compared aerobic dance with jogging, what was the dependent variable?

skinfold-measured fat

In the instruments part of the methods section, the author should include a description of the

test characteristics of validity and reliability

When a researcher states that a result is significant, this means that

the result is unlikely to be a chance occurrence

According to the American Psychological Association, when a graduate student submits her thesis or dissertation for publication jointly with the major professor, the first author should be

the student

A researcher wishes to determine whether a treatment group made a significant improvement from the pretest (M = 25) to the posttest (M = 30). The correct statistical test to use to compare the two means is the

dependent t test

A researcher used a t test to compare treatments and obtained a t of 3.45. One group had 48 participants, and the other group had 40. The table value for significance at the .01 level was 2.64. Which of the following is the correct way to express these results?

t(86) = 3.45, p < .01

Validity is determined by finding the correlation between scores on

a test and some independent criterion

A main disadvantage of nonparametric techniques that has frequently been stated (although there is some disagreement with this claim) is that they

are not as powerful (less likely to detect a false null hypothesis) as parametric techniques

References to journal articles should include

author, date, article title, journal name, volume, inclusive pages, doi

A physical education teacher develops a skill test in volleyball. After administering the test to 50 students, she asks the volleyball coach to rate the students on volleyball skills. She then correlates the students' test scores with the coach's rating. This is an example of what type of validity?

criterion validity

The generalizability of the results pertains to what kind of validity?

external

The term that denotes using ideas, writings, or drawings of others as your own is

plagiarism

After receiving approval from the university committee on the use of humans as research participants (Institutional Review Board), the researcher

should include a description of this compliance in the methods section of the thesis or dissertation.

Compared to applied research, basic research

usually offers more control, such as that done in a laboratory

A correlation of .00 between two variables indicates

independence (no association) between the variables

At the end of a well-written introduction, the reader should be able to predict the

statement of the problem (purpose of study)