MAR 5625 - Marketing Research and Analytics - Chapter 9

Which experimental design involves manipulating a single independent variable to observe its effect on a single dependent variable?

Basic experimental design

Which term refers to an alternative explanation beyond the experimental variables for any observed differences in the dependent variables?

Confound

When subjects in all experimental groups are exposed to identical conditions except for the differing experimental treatments, we say that ______________ has been achieved.

Constancy of conditions

A food company tests a new product by having one group of subjects taste their own product first and then taste a competitor's product second, while a second group of experimental subjects tastes the competitor's product first followed by the company's own product. Which type of experimental design is being used?

Counterbalanced

Experimental treatments are administered to the control group.

False

When a competitor introduces a 15 percent price cut in order to blunt the effect of a test marketing study, a _______________ effect has occurred.

History

A research organization conducts a taste test in its offices located in a shopping mall. These taste tests are best termed a(n) ________________ experiment.

Laboratory

A difference in means between the different levels of any single experimental variable is referred to as a(n) ___________________.

Main effect

When the psychological impact that goes along with belief that a treatment has been administered affects the dependent variable but, in reality, no treatment has been administered, the ________________ effect has occurred.

Placebo

Caroline is participating in an experimental study in which she is taking an herbal supplement and the researcher measures her perceived energy levels for several weeks. Although she doesn't know it, the supplement she is given in the study does not contain the herb of interest. However, Caroline feels as though she has more energy than before, and she attributes it to the herbal supplement. This effect is called a(n) _____________________.

Placebo effect

The group receiving the treatment being studied is called the ____________.

Experimental group

A(n) ___________________ is an experimental deception that involves a false treatment.

Placebo

When the experimenter's comments influence the subjects' behavior so that they give answers that they think the experimenter wants to hear rather than their true feelings, we say that _______________ has occurred.

Experimenter bias

When the person administering experimental procedures influences the subjects' behavior or sways them to slant their answers to cooperate with him or her, _________________ has occurred.

Experimenter bias

When a researcher claims that the results of a test market in Indianapolis, Indiana will hold in a national rollout of the new product, this researcher is claiming _______________.

External validity

A confound is an experimental deception involving a false treatment.

False

When subjects guess the purpose of an experiment, this creates a confound known as a bias effect.

False

When Procter & Gamble test markets a new shampoo to consumers in Kansas City and St. Louis, the consumers are participating in a(n) _________________ experiment.

Field

Research projects involving experimental manipulations that are implemented in a natural environment are called _______________.

Field experiments

An experiment can have only one independent variable.

Flase

A confound in an experiment means that there is an alternative explanation beyond the experimental variables for any observed differences in the dependent variable.

True

A maturation effect is a function of time and the naturally occurring events that coincide with growth and experience.

True

Experimental treatment refers to the way an experimental variable is manipulated.

True

In an experiment, effects are the characteristics of experiments that allow hypotheses to be tested.

True

In experimental research, the independent variable is manipulated rather than simply measured.

True

People are the most common test units for most marketing experiments.

True

Random assignment of subjects to treatment and control groups helps ensure that experimental and control groups do not differ from each other in important ways at the beginning of a research study.

True

Demand characteristics can be reduced in a number of ways. Which strategy below is NOT one of these?

Administer multiple experimental treatment levels to each subject

In a certain study, different interviewers are used in a pretest from those used in the posttest and this produces different results in the study. This is an example of a(n) ______________.

Instrumentation effect

Experimental results that show that consumers purchased more when a store had bright blue lights than they did when the store had bright orange lights. However, when the lighting was low, there was no difference between blue and orange lights. This illustrates a(n) _________.

Interaction

The question as to whether the independent variable was the sole cause of the change in the dependent variable is the basic issue in __________.

Internal validity

All of the following are experimental design elements EXCEPT for the _____________.

Manipulation of the dependent variable

Which term means that subjects in all experimental groups are exposed to identical conditions except for the differing experimental treatments?

Constancy of conditions

In an experiment, the _________________ group does not receive the experimental treatment.

Control

A continuous variable that is expected to show a statistical relationship with the dependent variables is called a(n) _____________.

Covariate

In an experiment, change in the ______________ variable is presumed to be the cause of the results.

Independent

In an experiment, the ___________________ variable is manipulated and its effect is measured on the ___________________ variable.

Independent; Dependent

The test of an experimental manipulation to intended make sure that the manipulation does produce desired differences in the independent variable is called a _______________.

Manipulation check

A researcher can equally distribute the effects of extraneous variables to all conditions in an experiment by using ____________.

Randomization

________________ is intended to equally distribute the effects of extraneous variables to all conditions.

Randomization

Salespeople are tested one year after a sales training program and perform better on the exam, not because of the training program, but because they have gained one year's experience in sales. Which type of effect has occurred?

Maturation effect

Which type of effect is a function of time and the naturally occurring events that coincide with growth and experience?

Maturation effect

When a test market is conducted in five retail stores in Erie, Pennsylvania, a laboratory experiment has been performed.

False

When some subjects stop participating in an experiment before it is completed, affecting the results of the study, a(n) ______________ effect has occurred.

Mortality

Which experimental research design involves repeated measures?

Within-subjects design

The term linkage refers to a specific treatment combination associated with an experimental group.

False

In which experimental research design does each subject receive only one treatment combination?

Between-subjects design

In experimental research, categorical variables like a subject's gender or ethnicity are known as ___________.

Blocking variables

Which term refers to a treatment combination within an experiment?

Cell

The change in the dependent variable that occurs because members of one experimental group experienced different historical situations than members of other experimental groups is called a(n) ___________.

Cohort effect

An experimental construct refers to one of the possible levels of an experimental variable manipulation.

False

Between-subjects designs involve repeated measures because with each treatment the same subject is measures again.

False

Covariates are categorical variables such as a subject's gender or ethnicity.

False

Factorial experimental designs are the least sophisticated type of experimental design.

False

In an experiment, the researcher manipulates the dependent variable and measures its effect on the independent variable.

False

Participants in experimental research are typically referred to as respondents.

False

A(n) ___________________ effect is a nuisance effect occurring when the initial measurement or test alerts or primes subjects in a way that affects their response to the experimental treatments.

Testing

A set of high school students who take the ACT in their junior year perform better on the exam during their senior year because they know better how to take the exam due to what they experienced on the first exam. This is an example of a(n) _________________.

Testing effect

The people administering an experiment must be aware of the experimental hypotheses.

False

An experimental design element of procedure that unintentionally provides subjects with hints about the research hypothesis is called a(n) __________________.

Demand characteristic

One way to reduce demand characteristics is to tell subjects the true purpose of the experiment so that they will be more willing to participate honestly.

False

The question as to whether the experimental treatment was the "sole cause" of the changes in the dependent variable is the basic issue in external validity.

False

When a change in the wording of questions, a change in interviewers, or a change in other procedures causes a change in the dependent variable, a(n) ___________________ effect has occurred.

Instrumentation

Monica is conducting an experiment in which all subjects see all of the ads she is testing. This type of experiment, in which an individual subject is exposed to more than one level of an experimental treatment, is called a ___________ design.

Repeated measures

A researcher is conducting an experiment in which one group of people is exposed to one advertisement and another group is exposed to another advertisement. Specifically, he is examining the effect of headline font sizes on consumers' attitude toward the brand advertised. The participants in this experimental research are referred to as __________________.

Subjects

If the sampling units in an experimental cell are somehow different than the units in another cell, and this difference affects the dependent variable, ______________ may occur.

Systematic error

When subjects in the experimental group are administered the treatment in the afternoon while the subjects in the control group participate in the experiment in the morning, it is likely to result in _________________ error.

Systematic nonsampling

Experimental research attempts to find causal relationships among variables.

True

Experiments in which an individual subject is exposed to more than one level of an experimental treatment are referred to as repeated measures designs.

True

Test-market sabotage involves intentional attempts to disrupt the results of a test-market being conducted by another firm.

True