Research Methods Quiz Questions

theory

A _____ is a set of statements about relationships among variables. It organizes knowledge and serves as a major driving factor for scientific research.

d

A recent study of major league baseball players found that pitchers that threw more than 200 innings over a single season were more likely to require arm surgery in the future than those pitchers who threw fewer innings. A health panel suggests, therefore, that pitchers be limited to less than 200 innings each year because of the effect extra innings have on the arm. You, as a psychological scientist, think this is... a. smart, because more innings have been shown to cause arm injuries b. smart, because the causal relationship between the two variables of interest has been illustrated c. questionable, because a relationship between usage and injury has not been scientifically demonstrated d. questionable, because it has not yet been demonstrated that usage causes injury e. unsound, because pitchers have always been expected to pitch more than 200 innings

d

As a reviewer, you read the following passage in a manuscript: "Playing video games may have a huge influence on memory. The fact that video games are a waste of time makes this a problem of epic proportion." Why is this passage a bad one? a. it sensationalizes the possible link between memory and video games b. it injects the author's opinion c. it is written in standard English d. A & B e. All of the above

True

Beneficence and nonmaleficence represents one of the American Psychological Associations general principles for guiding ethical research.

Longitudinal designs measure the same individuals at different points in time while cross-sectional developmental designs measure different individuals at different stages of life.

Briefly describe the relevant procedural differences between longitudinal and cross-sectional developmental design.

A cross-lagged panel design is when two variables (that are thought to be correlated) are measured at two different times (both variables are measured twice -- at time 1 and time 2), and the correlations of variable 1 at Time 2 and Variable 2 and Time 1 are determined. Cross-lagged panel designs are useful in determining temporal precedence in situations where a true experiment is not possible.

Briefly describe what a cross-lagged panel design is and why one might be interested in employing one.

Categorization often relies on arbitrary criteria because things in the real world typically don't fit perfectly into one category or another, but rather fall on a continuum/spectrum -- so researchers have to set subjective criteria for what should fall in what category. This reduces the precision of measured data or calculated statistics because these conventions are not based on empirical evidence.

Briefly explain why categorization often relies on arbitrary criteria, and why it may necessarily reduce the precision of measured data or calculated statistics.

A significant two-way interaction means that the effect of one independent variable differs at different levels of the other independent variable.

Conceptually, explain what a significant two-way interaction means.

b

Conventionally, a Cohen's d score of approximately 0.50 is considered to indicate a _____ effect. a. Small b. Medium c. Large d. None of the above

Parsimony implies simplicity and when used in terms of research it means that when determining why something occurs, the simplest explanation should be used. When true experimental investigations are not possible, researchers perform many studies testing different aspects in different ways to try to understand causal relationships. The pattern of the results of these studies can be looked at to help determine causality -- the simplest explanation for the pattern/results of all the studies should be determined.

Define parsimony and explain what it means when it comes to understanding causal relationships that are not open to true experimental investigation.

Internal validity is being confident that the variable that you think is causing the effect is actually what is causing the effect and it's not some other variable. A study that does not use random assignment to groups might suffer from lack of internal validity because an extraneous variable could be causing the effect instead of the manipulated variable.

Define the concept of internal validity. Give an example study idea that might suffer from a lack of it, and why.

The bias blind spot is the belief that you are not affected by biases ( others are more susceptible to biases).

Define the so-called bias blind spot.

A design confound occurs when an experiment is set up in a way that there is systematic variation between the different experimental conditions other than the intended treatment, so there is a possibility that if the results show a significant difference between groups this is due to something other than the IV (i.e., a confound)

Define the term design confound as it applies to experimental research.

The global shape of a proper, empirical, APA-style manuscript begins broadly (with the intro), narrows to specific topic material (for the method and results section), and then broadens again to more general topic material at the end (for the discussion).

Describe the global shape of a proper, empirical, APA-style manuscript with respect to broad to narrow topic material (or, if you prefer, from general to specific). You may draw a diagram if you wish.

e

Dr. Bill conducts an experiment where he investigates the effects of different styles of beer and number of drinks in participants' self-reported emotional state. He finds that people who drink Russian imperial stouts are significantly more aggressive than those who drink English barleywines when the number of drinks is small but nonzero; however, when people drink a lot, aggressiveness is very low (i.e., lower than in the other conditions) but higher in barleywine drinkers. What effect(s) does this likely indicate? a. A main effect of beer style b. A main effect of alcohol consumption c. A significant interaction between the two factors d. All of the above e. B & C

b

Evaluate the following statement: "The data were collected over several days." This sentence is written in _____. a. active voice b. passive voice c. neither active nor passive voice d. Zapf dingbats font e. 42-pt. font

a

Factor A1 Factor A2 Factor B1 50 90 Factor B2 10 90 Refer to the above table. Do these data indicate an interaction? a. Yes b. No c. Need more information

b

I set up a booth in front of Lee Hall at 8AM on a Friday morning with two brands of brewed coffee, A & B. I am interested to know whether UMW students and employees prefer one brand of coffee to another. I use a rule that dictates that I ask any person who walks within 10 feet of my booth to take a blind taste preference test. In this case, I am using a(n)... a. random sample b. opportunity sample c. representative sample d. equal sample e. A & B

b

If I wanted to conduct a well-designed psychological experiment with high internal validity, I would have to be sure to... a. manipulate all relevant dependent variables b. randomize assignment of individuals to groups, if possible c. draw a random sample from the population to serve as participants d. B & C e. All of the above

d

In a philosophical argument, I suggest to my mother, "One plus one must always equal two." She replies that there may exist a time and place in which my statement is not correct, i.e., that one plus one may produce a number different than two. Her statement best indicates a violation of which of the assumptions of science? a. causality b. realism c. discoverability d. regularity e. all of the above

b

In longitudinal studies, the apparent impact of maturation is potentially confounded with... a. Cohort effects b. Secular trends c. cross-lagged correlations d. A & B e. All of the above

Basic research aims to broaden knowledge on a certain topic, whereas applied research aims to provide information that can be applied to improve and develop psychological treatments, therapies, etc.

In two sentences or fewer, describe the relevant difference(s) between basic and applied psychological research.

A

In which of the following situations would a non-equivalent groups experimental design be appropriate? a. when randomization into treatment groups is impossible or unethical b. when you have an n of 1 c. when you plan to utilize the technique of subclassification by propensity scores d. A & C e. All of the above

d

Melanie Melanoma is a prominent cancer researcher. She performs a study in which she examines the efficacy of a particular treatment drug (Blomolax) against a placebo treatment (sugar pill). She tests both treatments in two groups -- a groups of people with lymphatic cancer and a group of people who are cancer-free. In this case, the variable that designates whether a subject has cancer or not is called a(n)... a. dependent variable b. independent variable c. extraneous variable d. quasi-independent variable e. confounding variable

b

Melissa gets angry with her boyfriend for a tasteless joke. When he apologizes, she tells him, "Oh, it's not your fault -- it' been almost 10 hours since I've eaten, and I think I'm just hungry." Using information in this example, hunger is best thought as an example of... a. a dependent variable b. an intervening variable c. an independent variable d. an externalized variable e. none of the above

strength: allows you to test cause and effect weakness: findings don't always translate to the real-world

Name one strength and one weakness of experimental work.

d

Prof. Stahlman designs a study where he aims to test the efficacy of caffeine to stimulate creativity in human subjects. On Wednesday, he taps the first 10 students to arrive to the classroom to be in the Experimental condition, receiving a free large cup of Blackstone Coffee. The next 10 students get placed into the Control condition, getting a large cup of hot water. This design is problematic because... a. Non-random assignment of subjects b. a potential confounding variable c. a lack of differentiation between the two levels of the IV d. A & B e. All of the above

e

Prof. Stahlman designs a study where he aims to test the efficacy of cocaine to stimulate creativity in pigeons. He goes to the park and captures 30 feral pigeons. He randomly assigns them to two groups (Cocaine vs. Saline), injects each with either a high concentration of the drug or just the saline, and has them complete a creativity task. This design is problematic because of... a. Non-random placement of subjects b. A potential confounding variable c. A lack of differentiation between levels of the IV d. A non-random sampling technique e. None of the above are problems

Do you believe that your family and friends are supportive of your career goals?

Provide an example of a double-barreled question that might appear in a survey.

a

Researchers suggest that bilinguals are less likely to suffer from dementia late in life because learning a second language increases connectivity within the brain, and this connectivity serves as a protective factor against dementia. This example describes... a. A mediator b. A moderator c. A mitigator d. A third variable e. More than one of the above

C

The University of California, LA, is known to be the most ethnically- and racially-diverse university in the country. Let's say that you wanted to conduct the same study as you did in question #10 (a survey by randomly selecting 36 UMW students to poll from the foot traffic at Seacobeck), but at UCLA. To ensure _____, you will need to sample _____ students at UCLA than at UMW. a. Verifiability; more b. reliability; fewer c. representativeness; more d. internal validity; the same number e. internal validity; more

c

Trevor is a researcher for Coca-Cola. He is interested in assessing individuals' enjoyment of his company's new product, Vanilla Jalapeno Coke (VJP). While dressed in his favorite Coca-Cola work shirt, he presents participants with labeled cans of VJP and regular Pepsi, and he asks them to cite their preferences between the two. 83% of people choose VJP! How excited should he be about this result? a. Very; there are no obvious flaws in his method. People like VJP more than Pepsi. b. Very; the results indicate that people are likely to defect from Pepsi to Coke products c. Not at all; the demand characteristics of this test call into question their validity d. Not at all; one does not simply compare oddly flavored cola with a regular one e. C & D

a

True of False: A simple main effect is the effect of a single independent variable irrespective of the values of any other independent factors. a. True b. False

True

True or False: A concern one should have when averaging score across individuals within a group is that the mean value of the dependent variable may not, in fact, represent any of the actual individuals in the sample.

False

True or False: A negative value of a correlation coefficient between one dichotomous variable and one continuous variable is meaningful with respect to the natural direction of the predictive relationship.

False

True or False: A potential problem in interpreting the data from a longitudinal study is the possibility of cohort effects.

True

True or False: A true single-n experimental investigation should always utilize a within-subjects design.

b

True or False: As a scientific poster is a visual representation of an APA-style manuscript, it should typically include an abstract before introductory material. a. True b. False

true

True or False: Correlational designs allow for researchers to understand the degree to which differences in one variable predict the value of another variable.

false

True or False: If you obtain a Pearson r correlation coefficient between two variables of 0.00, this indicates that there is no relationship between the variables.

True

True or False: Implementing a "stable-baseline" design in small-n experimental procedures can serve to increase the internal validity of your study.

True

True or False: In correlational designs, the smaller the effect that is being examined, the more data points that are required in order to detect a statistically significant relationship between the variables.

True

True or False: It is generally a good idea to visually represent or graph your data prior to performing inferential statistical analyses.

False

True or False: Multiple regression designs, in practice, allow the researcher to investigate the predictive relationship between two factors independent of all potential third variables.

a

True or False: Paired designs are more similar to between-groups designs in terms of data collection but are more similar to within-subjects designs in terms of statistical analysis. a. True b. False

True

True or False: Push Polls are an unethical method for collecting survey information from participants.

True

True or false: An ordinal variable provides you with no indication of the amount of distance between scores.

a

True or false: Carryover effects may threaten the internal validity of experiments that utilize within-subjects manipulations. a. True b. False

False

True or false: Individual differences can contribute to a so-called "null effect" in any experimental design.

False

True or false: Just like with Pearson's r, it is permissible to compare the size of beta values from different multiple-regression analyses.

False

True or false: Morgan's Canon is a maxim that dictates that scientists should explain psychological phenomena in the least parsimonious way the data may be interpreted.

a

Wealthier people tend to live longer than non-wealthy people. Your belief is that this is because wealthy people can afford to buy and eat healthier food than non-wealthy people can. The relative difference in consumption of healthy food is best referred to as a... a. A mediator b. A moderator c. A mitigator d. A third variable e. More than one of the above

P-hacking requires that you collect a lot of data/variables and then you go fishing for something significant. They are not simply looking to see whether their hypothesis is supported or not. If you look hard enough in any data, you can find significant results; however, if it is not what you were testing for, it is deceiving to do this and especially report it.

What is p-hacking and why is it an inappropriate research practice?

A-B designs are more preferable to other kinds of small-n designs when the treatment that is being implemented cannot/is not ethical to be fully removed/taken away.

When are A-B type designs MORE preferable to other kinds of small-n designs?

e

Which of the following are possible reasons for statistical analysis to yield a null effect? a. Relative insensitivity of the dependent measures b. weak manipulation(s) c. situation noise d. B & C e. All of the above

e

Which of the following is NOT a type of threat to internal validity in a one-group, pretest/posttest design? a. Maturation b. Attrition c. Regression to the mean d. A & C e. All of the above are threats

e

Which of the following is NOT an important characteristic of science (in an ideal world)? a. being self-correcting b. tentativeness c. objectiveness d. B & C e. all of the above are important characteristics of science

e

Which of the following is NOT necessary to demonstrate that Event 1 causes Event 2? a. 1 precedes 2 b. No other event besides 1 is sufficient to cause 2 c. 1 is necessary and sufficient for 2 to occur d. B &C e. all of the above are necessary

e

Which of the following is a necessary principle to properly infer that Event 2 was caused by Event 1? a. Event 1 came before Event 2 b. No other events besides 1 caused Event 2 c. When Event 1 happens, Event 2 happens d. A & C e. All of the above are needed

b

Which of the following is an empirical method of finding out about behavior (or the world, generally)? a. method of tenacity b. examining correlations between variables c. appealing to authority d. logic e. none of the above

c

Which of the following is representative of an association claim? a. smoking results in lung cancer in women b. eating tacos daily is good for your health c. elderly people are more likely to watch reruns of Matlock d. A & C E. B & C

c

Which of the following is representative of an association claim? a. smoking results in lung cancer in women b. eating tacos daily is good for your health c. elderly people are more likely to watch reruns of Matlock d. A & C e. B & C

d

Which of the following is the least defensible example of an operational definition? a. defining hunger as the number of stomach contractions a person has in a 30-min period b. defining intelligence as a person's score on an IQ test c. defining promiscuousness as the number of partners a person has intercourse with over a 2-yr period d. defining anger as the number of irritated facial expressions a person makes when hearing a series of discordant noises e. defining memory as the number of items from a studied list that a subject recalls

e

Which of the following is/are not characteristic of a properly-formatted APA style paper? a. double-spaced throughout the main body b. use of 1" margins c. page headers that include page numbers on top-right portion of each page d. a title page with authors and their affiliations listed e. All of the above are characteristics of a properly formatted APA paper

d

Which of the following represents projective tests? a. the thematic apperception test b. Rorschach test c. semantic-differential tests d. A & B e. All of the above

b

Which of the following scenarios probably represent what is known as "fence-sitting"? a. responding in a socially-desirable way b. consistently responding to challenging questions with a neutral response c. showing a strong tendency to respond with "strongly agree" on a Likert scale d. refusing to answer a researcher's questions e. none of the above

d

Which of the following should NOT be included in a Discussion section of an empirical, APA-style paper? a. a redescription of the subjects section of the methods b. a brief redescription of the inferential tests performed and reported in the Results section c. An explication or interpretation of the Results section materials d. Neither A nor B should be included e. All of the above should be included

D

Which of the following would likely increase the likelihood that your statistical test will reveal a significant effect of a given factor? a. More measurements b. Increasing the precision of measurements c. Implementing a between-groups design, rather than within-subjects d. A & B e. All of the above

These designs have a lot of internal validity threats, without a control group, you cannot be sure whether a difference in the dependent variable from the pretest to posttest is due to the experiment's manipulation or other confounds (practice effects, maturation, habituation, etc)

Why is it advisable to avoid single-group, pretest/posttest experimental designs?

e

You are an experienced shooter, and go to a range and fire 100 rounds from your rifle. You inspect your target and find that 94 of your bullets landed immediately to the left of the bulls-eye. This probably represents... a. random error b. bias c. systematic variability of some kind d. failure to control e. B & C

b

You are interested in examining the causal relationship between parental divorce and sexual behavior in high school students. What type(s) of design would maximize your internal validity whilst avoiding major lapses in ethical researcher behavior? a. simple correlation between two variables b. multiple regression that accounts for a number of variables c. a true experiment d. a single-n A-B-A-B-A design e. None of the above

d

You are interested in the effect of methamphetamine use on intelligence in rats. You divide animals randomly into two groups (METH and CONT) and chronically administer each level of the IV. Your intelligence test follows -- you record how much the animals sleep over the course of the week. According to your work, rats on methamphetamines act far less intelligent than control rats, because you claim that not sleeping is dumb. I object to your conclusions -- why? a. lack of internal validity b. lack of external validity c. lack of statistical validity d. lack of construct validity e. more than one of the above

b

You conduct a mixed design with one within-subjects factor with three levels and one between-groups factor with 2 levels. How many groups of participants do you have? a. 1 b. 2 c. 3 d. 5 e. 6

Low: dark, dim, bright dim, dark, bright bright, dim, dark bright, dark, dim dark, bright, dim dim, bright, dark Medium: dark, dim, bright dim, dark, bright bright, dim, dark bright, dark, dim dark, bright, dim dim, bright, dark High: dark, dim, bright dim, dark, bright bright, dim, dark bright, dark, dim dark, bright, dim dim, bright, dark there will be 2 participants assigned to each permutation

You conduct a mixed factorial design with three levels each of two factors. Factor 1 is Humidity (low, medium, high) and is between groups; Factor 2 is Brightness (dark, dim, and bright) and is within-subjects. Show me the perfect counterbalancing for your total of 36 participants (i.e., identify how many participants are in each of the permutations of your design, and identify the permutations).

e

You conduct a study and calculate that the relationship of interest demonstrates a correlation coefficient of -1.22. This value illustrates... a. a strong positive relationship between variables b. a strong negative relationship between variables c. a weak negative relationship between variables d. no relationship between variables e. that you have made an error in your calculations

e

You conduct a study in which you ask subjects to press a button wvery time they hear a loud clanging sound. You design the study so that the sound is very loud (~90 dB), and you check to make sure that all of your subjects have normal hearing. You want to see if you can disrupt the experimental group's ability to detect the sound by the presentation of a dim flashing light. Your study is probably in danger of running into... a. problems with statistical validity b. a confound c. an extraneous variable d. the third-variable problem e. a ceiling effect

b

You conduct an experiment where you examine the predictive relationship between a person's self-identified gender (either male of female) and their preference between Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola. You would likely wish to compare a _____ to analyze these data. a. Point-biserial correlation coefficient b. phi coefficient c. pearson r coefficient d. A or B e. None of the above

e

You create a 2X2X3 factorial design, with all factors being between-groups. How many total groups of participants will you need to run this experiment? a. 3 b. 6 c. 7 d. 8 e. 12

outliers

You run an experiment in pigeons where you collect millions of data points from each bird, corresponding to the length of time they come into contact with a computer touchscreen. The vast majority of responses last between 8 milliseconds and 15 milliseconds; however, about 0.1% of the responses are for more than 5 minutes! The responses probably will be identified as _____ before inferential analyses are performed.

c

You wish to know about UMW students' political leanings. You conduct a survey by randomly selecting 36 students to poll from the foot traffic at Seacobeck. You are using... a. Stratified random sampling b. systematic unbiased sampling c. an opportunity sample d. A & C e. All of the above

The threat to internal validity that is most relevant here is the expectation the students have prior to running the experiment causes them to be biased and interpret the data to support their expectation for the results of the study (experimenter expectancy effects)

You're a professor at a research institution. You give your Learning and Motivation students two sets of rats to train in a maze-running task. The first set, you tell them, are "Bright" rats, bred to be more intelligent. The second set, you tell them, are "Dull" rats, bred to be dumber. In reality, the rats come from the same cohort, and are not systematically different. The data come back: The "Bright" rats learn to run through the maze faster than the "Dull" rats! What threat to internal validity probably is most relevant here? Name it or describe it.

c

You're interested in knowing whether an aversive motivational state (i.e., disgust) interferes with working memory. In Phase 1, you show your Experimental group a series of images of moldy food, animal feces, and pictures of prominent national politicians' faces before administering a memory test in Phase 2. Your Control group saw images of lawn furniture in Phase 1, instead. After the test, you give one more brief questionnaire where you ask all participants to report their feelings on the images you presented in Phase 1. This is probably... a. Another manipulated variable b. Another independent variable c. A manipulation check d. A & B e. A & C

e

_____ is the likelihood that your statistical test correctly rejects the null hypothesis. When it is low, you run the risk of a _____ error. a. Probability; Type I b. Precision; Type I c. Precision; Type II d. Power; Type I e. Power; Type II