Com 3073 Test 2

Internal reliability

Degree to which multiple items invoke the same response from a participant; expressed in value from 0 (no internal consistency) to 1.00 (complete internal consistency

External Validity

Degree to which the findings of a research project can be extended to participants an settings beyond those studied

Expert panel pretesting

Form of questionnaire pretesting in which experts in research methodology or in the survey's content read through the questionnaire together and discuss potential problems with the survey

Mean

Most common measure of central tendency; commonly referred to as the average; computed by adding up all the scores on one variable and then dividing by the number of cases, or n, for the variable

Degree of Freedom

Number of values that vary within a statistical test; represented by the symbol df; accounts for variation due to error

Descriptive Statistics

Numbers that summarize essential and basic information about the dataset as a whole

closed-ended questions

Question form in which respondents are asked a question (or given a statement) and then given a set of responses to select from

Spurious correlation

Relationship between two variables in which a third variable -- sometimes identified, at other times unknown -- is influencing the variables tested. ALSO KNOWN AS SPURIOUS RELATIONSHIP

Chi-square

Represent by the symbol x^2, statistical test used to determine if differences among nominal, or categorical, level data are statistically significant. Examines the observed frequencies in comparison to the expected frequencies to determine if the categorical differences that occurred are the same as would occur by chance

Standard deviation

Representation of the variability or spread of the dataset; the amount the scores in a distribution deviate from the mean.

classical experiment

Research design in which participants are randomly selected and the researcher controls the treatment or the manipulation of the independent variable by RANDOMLY assigning participants to treatment or control groups

Regression analysis

Set of statistical techniques that predict some variables by knowing others; the most common use of regression is to asses the influence of several continuous level predictor, or independent, variables on a single continuous criterion, or dependent, variable

Skewness

Shape of a distribution of scores that is not normal; the curve is asymmetrical; the mean, median, and mode are not at the same point

Recall cues

Statement preceding a survey or questionnaire designed to direct participants to recall episodes or past interactions in which they participated

Correlation analysis

Statistical test that examines the linear relationship between two continuous level variables; represented by the symbol r; also known as PEARSON PRODUCT-MOMENT CORRELATION COEFFICIENT

Inferential analysis

Statistical tests that provide information about the relationships between or among variables in the study; used to draw conclusions about a population by examining the sample

Factorial design

Type of ANOVA design based on two or more categorical independent variables, each with at least two levels; allows the researcher to test for the effects of each independent variable and the interaction effect on the continuous level dependent variable

conventional pretesting

Type of questionnaire pretest in which a researcher selects several individuals who are like persons in the population; the survey is completed just as it will be done in the study

Behavior coding pretesting

Type of questionnaire pretesting for face-to face surveys; a third person monitors the interaction between the interviewer and respondent to look for problems in the questionnaire or its administration

Cognitive PreTesting

Type of questionnaire pretesting in which researcher asks questions about the stimulus question to eliminate alternative meanings

Posttest only

Type of research design in which participants are assigned to treatment or control groups; the simple comparison between groups allows a researcher to conclude that any significant difference found are due to the fact that the treatment group received some stimulus that participants in the control group did not.

Pretest-Posttest

Type of research design in which the dependent variable is measured before the treatment group is exposed to the stimuli; after the stimulus is given, the dependent variable is measure again in exactly the same way with the same participants

Interaction effect

combined and simultaneous influence of two or more independent variables on the dependent variable

Type 1 Error

error in hypothesis testing that occurs when the null hypothesis is rejected even when it is true; set or controlled by the researcher when choosing the significance level for the statistical test

Semantic differential scale

form of interval measurement; using a stimulus statement, participants are asked to locate the meaning they ascribe to the stimulus on a response scale anchored by two opposites

Main effect

simple influence of independent variable on the dependent variable; the influence of one independent variable is examined without considering the influence of another independent variable

T-test

statistic used to find differences between two groupings of the independent variable on a continuous level dependent variable.

ANOVA

statistical test that compares the influence of two or more groups of one or more nominal independent variables on a continuous level dependent variable; represented by the symbol F; also referred to as ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE

Likert-Type Scales

type of interval scale measurement widely used in communication research; participants are given a statement and then asked to respond, indicating the degree to which they agree or disagree with the statement; a typical response set is "strongly disagree, disagree...etc"

population size (small n stands for sample size)

what does the letter N stand for in a sample?