RM final exam

Consider a researcher comparing test scores across two different classes. If the researcher adds school year (i.e. freshmen, sophomore, junior, senior) as a 2nd IV, it would be a ___ x ___design.

2 x 4 IV1 = 2 levels and IV2 = 4 levels

How many independent variables does the following design have: 3 x 2 x 2

3

Expert dancers in foxtrot and tango were recruited from dance studios and participated in Nick's study. Their task was to listen to classical music while their electrical brain activity (EEG) was measured. Nick then compared foxtrot dancers' EEG alpha activity to that of tango dancers'. He found that tango dancers had more alpha activity in the brain than foxtrot dancers. Is Nick's method correlational or experimental? If experimental, what design?

Correlational (no random assignment, no manipulation of the IV)

Lisa finds a strong positive correlation between impulsivity and rash decision-making. r = 0.8, p < 0.05. It turns out there were several pathological gamblers in her sample. Pathological gamblers score unusually high on impulsivity measures. When she takes these people out, what will happen to the correlation? Increase or decrease?

Decrease - removing the outliers will weaken the correlation

If a study fulfills all other validities, the lack of which type of validity does not disqualify its findings?

External validity

Which of the four validities should you focus most on, when interrogating experiments?

Internal validity (did the IV really cause the difference in the DV?)

Dr. Lucas is examining the effect of a talking treatment on hyperactivity in adolescent boys in a local high school. He randomly samples students from this high school and measures their hyperactivity using self-report tests. Dr. Lucas then engages this group in his talking intervention for 2 hours a week every week for 6 months and measures hyperactivity again. He finds that his group is less hyperactive than 6 months before. Is there a threat to internal validity present? If so, which threat?

Maturation ( due to a change in behavior that emerges spontaneously over time. e.g. kids behavior improved on its own)

When a relationship between two variables depends on the level of a third variable, that kind of a third variable is called a:

Moderator

The ______ design is a quasi-experimental study that has at least one control group and one comparison group, but participants have not been randomly assigned to the two groups

Nonequivalent control group

Dr. Ba is interested in whether joining a fraternity/sorority causes people to become more concerned about their attractiveness. She recruits a group of 55 freshmen (25 men, 30 women) who are planning to go through fraternity/sorority recruitment on her campus. After they join, she gives them a measure of attractiveness concern (the Body Concern Scale)

Research study 13.1 questions 48-50

Melanie conducts a study for her research methods class to determine if consuming caffeine causes people to perform better on cognitive tasks. In her study, she gives half of her participants a glass of water and half of her participants a glass of cola and then has them attempt to solve 15 math problems. She finds that people who drink caffeine beforehand solve more math problems than those who drink water beforehand.

Research study 14.1 questions 57-58

Cindy decides to conduct a meta-analysis examining the relationship between daily stress and cardiovascular health for her senior psychology research project

Research study 14.2 questions 60-61

Participants in a research study are given a list of words to study for 3 minutes and then, following a delay, are asked to recall the list. The length of the delay is manipulated between participants to be either 2 minutes, 5 minutes, or 10 minutes. Since different groups need different amounts of time, the first 25 participants who arrive are assigned to the 10-minute group, the next 25 are assigned to the 5-minute group, and the final 25 are assigned to the 2-minute group. What threat to internal validity does this create?

Selection effect (initial differences prior to experimentation, avoid with random assignment)

What are the three rules for causal claims

Temporal precedence - IV comes before DV. Covariance - As A changes B changes. Internal validity - there is no third variable that describes the relationship (cannot tell from associational)

Which popular media headline does NOT suggest that a multiple regressionhas been used? a. "Dog ownership decreases stress." b. "After taking into account job experience, people who are happier withtheir jobs report greater productivity." c. "After correcting for several factors that affect memory, includingintelligence, researchers found that people who read more frequentlyremember 12% more about a crime scene than those who don't read frequently." d. "The link between traumatic experience and the development ofanxiety symptoms existed even when controlling for the effect ofparental anxiety.

a. "Dog ownership decreases stress."

45. Dr. Green is interested in conducting a 2 × 2 × 3 within-group factorial design, with 20 participants in each cell. How many participants does she need overall? a. 20 b. 40 c. 80 d. 240

a. 20

60. Which of the following is a step Cindy will do in conducting her meta- analysis? a. Collect all the studies that have been conducted on daily stress and cardiovascular health. b. Measure daily stress and cardiovascular health in several new samples of participants. c. Determine the average cardiovascular health of undergraduates at her university. d. Journal her own daily stress level.

a. Collect all the studies that have been conducted on daily stress and cardiovascular health.

Which of the following conclusions can Dr. Guidry draw about the number of friends one has and life satisfaction based on her statistical analyses? a. People with more friends tend to report greater life satisfaction. b. People with more friends tend to report lower life satisfaction. c. Having more friends increases one's life satisfaction, d. Having more friends decreases one's life satisfaction.

a. People with more friends tend to report greater life satisfaction.

39. You read an article that states, "How well you remember different types of information depends on the context in which you learned them." Based on this information, what else is true about this study? a. The influence of context on memory depends on the type of information presented. b. You remember information best only when it's presented in a specific context. c. There is no effect of context on memory. d. There is an effect of information type on memory

a. The influence of context on memory depends on the type of information presented

57. Melanie decides to conduct the exact same study again to ensure that she can find the same difference between the groups a second time. This study is known as a a. direct replication. b. replication-plus-extension. c. conceptual replication. d. secondary replication

a. direct replication.

46. Which of the following designs involves repeated measurement of a variable before and after some event? a. interrupted time-series design b. nonequivalent control group design c. matched group factorial design d. multiple regression design

a. interrupted time-series design

Which of the following is a necessary component of a longitudinal design? a. measuring the same variables at two points in time b. measuring at least four variables at one time c. measuring different age groups at two different times d. manipulating a variable at two points in time

a. measuring the same variables at two points in time

21: Which of the following allows Dr. Lonsbary to conclude that she met the covariance rule for causality? a. noting that there is a difference between the number of words recalled by the happy and neutral people b. having people listen to music or silence before they wrote down the list of words they remembered c. making sure that all participants were asked to remember the same list of words d. putting the 60 participants into equal groups

a. noting that there is a difference between the number of words recalled by the happy and neutral people

In a business class experiment on the edowment 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 is 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. Sellers select the minimum price they would accept for the mug. Theo then compares the buyers' and sellers' prices. What kind of design is this? a. posttest only b. pretest-posttest c. concurrent measures

a. posttest only

33: Imagine that in Dr. Hamid's study, he notes that all of the students do extremely well on the midterm exam. When he looks at the results of the final exam, he notices that all the students' exam scores went down. Given this information, which of the following threats might be present in his study? a. regression b. attrition c. maturation d. observer bias

a. regression

55. Seeing stability in a stable-baseline design can help rule out which of the following threats to internal validity? a. regression to the mean b. placebo effects c. attrition d. observer bias

a. regression to the mean

Matt, Dr. Guidry's research assistant, isdiscussing the findings of the study with some other students. He claimsthat the experience of more daily stress causes people to have lower lifesatisfaction. Which of the following causal criteria did Matt meet? a. the covariance of cause and effect b. temporal precedence c. internal validity d. external validity

a. the covariance of cause and effect

61. Cindy's advisor recommends that she contact several researchers in the field for articles that were not published and/or that found null effects. Doing this will address which of the following? a. the file drawer problem b. the need for overestimation c. the lack of reporting significant findings d. ecological validity

a. the file drawer problem

Dr. Guidry submits her study forpublication in a scientific journal. If one of the peer reviewers is concernedabout the external validity of her study, which of the following is the mostimportant aspect of Dr. Guidry's study to consider? a. the random sampling technique used to recruit the participants b. the number of people in the sample c. the use of three measured variables d. the number of significant findings

a. the random sampling technique used to recruit the participants

31. Which of the following can help prevent testing effects? a. using a comparison group b. establishing reliability of the measure c. using a clear coding manual d. employing a pretest-only design

a. using a comparison group

35. Which of the following things can be done to reduce the effect of individual differences? a. using a matched-groups design b. decrease power c. collecting measurements from diverse groups of people d. using a between-groups design

a. using a matched-groups design

44. If a study describes the "difference in differences," what is the minimum number of variables the researchers were studying? a. 1 b. 2 c. 3 d. 4

b. 2

Which of the following is true of multiple regression? a. It can control for all third variables, including those that are not measured b. Adding more predictors means research is controlling for more variables. c. There is a limit to the number of predictors that can be statisticallysignificant. d. There is a limit to the number of predictors that can be included in aregression.

b. Adding more predictors means research is controlling for more variables.

56. If a researcher is concerned about external validity, which of the following would you recommend with regard to conducting small-N designs? a. Do not conduct small-N designs if you are concerned about external validity. b. Compare the results of a small-N design with other studies. c. Conduct only reversal designs. d. Use only one's own clients/patients/students.

b. Compare the results of a small-N design with other studies.

38. Which of the following can be said of the interaction in a study? a. It can be determined by investigating marginal means. b. It can exist even if the main effects are not significant. c. It is usually less important than a study's main effects. d. There can be only one type of interaction.

b. It can exist even if the main effects are not significant.

25. Which of the following is true of selection effects? a. Selection effects are a type of control variable. b. Selection effects can occur when experimenters allow participants to choose their own treatment group. c. Selection effects are unimportant for interrogating external validity. d. Selection effects are rarely considered in causal experiments

b. Selection effects can occur when experimenters allow participants to choose their own treatment group.

Considering Dr. Guidry's sample, which of the following statements is true? a. The association found in her study could probably generalize to young adults. b. The association found in her study could probably generalize to elderly people in other large cities in the South. c. The association found in her study could probably generalize to people living in other capital cities (e.g., Sacramento, California). d. The association found in her study could probably generalize to elderly persons living in nursing homes.

b. The association found in her study could probably generalize to elderly people in other large cities in the South

51. Which of the following is an advantage of using quasi-experimental designs? a. They allow researchers to capitalize on random assignment. b. They allow researchers to enhance external validity. c. They allow researchers to disregard internal validity. d. They are better suited to detect significant effects

b. They allow researchers to enhance external validity.

53. In which of the following ways are correlational designs similar to quasi- experimental designs? a. They both use nonrandom samples. b. They both suffer from possible threats to internal validity. c. They both use random assignment. d. They both use small numbers of participants.

b. They both suffer from possible threats to internal validity.

52. Why do quasi-experiments tend to have very good construct validity for the independent variable? a. The manipulations have been previously validated in the lab. b. They use real-world manipulations/experiences. c. They tend to use more participants. d. They also have good construct validity for the dependent variable

b. They use real-world manipulations/experiences.

47. If a person describes the results of a study to you by saying that there is a zero difference in one condition but a large difference in another condition, the person is most likely describing which of the following? a. a crossover interaction b. a spreading interaction c. a three-way interaction d. a difference interaction

b. a spreading interaction

When examining the results of a multiple regression, which of the following should be compared to determine which predictor variables have the largest relationship to the criterion variable? a. b values b. beta values c. significance values d. effect sizes

b. beta values

27. A 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 is known as a(n) a. staggered-administration design. b. concurrent-measures design. c. repeated-measures design. d. between-group design

b. concurrent-measures design.

Considering Dr. Guidry's study, herresults could most safely be generalized to which of the following groups? a. people in the southern United States b. elderly people c. people with a high number of friends d. people with high life satisfaction

b. elderly people

22. Which of the following allows Dr. Lonsbary to conclude that she met the temporal precedence rule for causality? a. noting that there is a difference between the number of words recalled by the happy and neutral people b. having people listen to music or silence before they wrote down the list of words they remembered c. making sure that all participants were asked to remember the same list of words d. putting the 60 participants into equal groups

b. having people listen to music or silence before they wrote down the list of words they remembered

In understanding "controlling for" a third variable, which of the following is a similar concept? a. creating a longitudinal study b. identifying subgroups c. creating an operational definition d. conducting a replication

b. identifying subgroups

29. The addition of a comparison group can address which of the following threats to internal validity? a. instrumentation b. maturation c. selection-history d. attrition

b. maturation

49. In addition to measuring the group of participants who joined a fraternity/sorority, Dr. Ba decides to give the same measure to another group of 55 participants who decided to not join a fraternity/sorority. This type of design is known as a(n) a. interrupted time-series design. b. nonequivalent control group design. c. nonequivalent groups interrupted time-series design. d. reversal design

b. nonequivalent control group design.

Dr. Guidry has decided to examine one of her relationships with a scatterplot to double-check for a curvilinear relationship. Which relationship will be most important for her to examine? a. life satisfaction and experience of daily stress b. number of friends one has and experience of daily stress c. number of friends one has and life satisfaction d. life satisfaction, experiences of daily stress, and number of friends one has simultaneously

b. number of friends one has and experience of daily stress

50. In addition to measuring the group of participants who joined a fraternity/sorority, Dr. Ba decides to give the same measure to another group of 55 participants who decided to not join a fraternity/sorority. After conducting the study, Dr. Ba finds out that the people who joined a fraternity/sorority all saw a documentary on body image sponsored by the InterGreek Council the night before recruitment began. This threat to internal validity is known as a a. selection threat. b. selection-history threat. c. history threat. d. testing threat

b. selection-history threat.

42. The phrase "especially for" would be used to describe which of the following results? a. crossover interactions b. spreading interactions c. one significant main effect d. two significant main effects

b. spreading interactions

24. A threat to internal validity occurs only if a potential design confound varies with the independent variable a. haphazardly b. systematically c. spontaneously d. especially

b. systematically

19: How many conditions/levels of the independent variable were in Dr. Lonsbary's study? a. two b. three c. five d. nine

b. three

36. Which of the following is a reason why a researcher might choose to conduct a double-blind placebo control group study? a. to eliminate testing effects b. to control for observer bias c. to prevent attrition d. to control for regression to the mean

b. to control for observer bias

34. Which of the following is a reason that a study might yield a null result? a. too much between-group difference b. too much within-group variance c. a false positive d. use of a within-subjects design

b. too much within-group variance

If an experiment cannot be done for practical or ethical reasons related tomanipulating the variable of interest, which of the following events shouldhappen? a. The study should not be conducted at all b. The researchers should wait until the experiment can be done c. A longitudinal correlational design could be done instead d. The IRB can grant a waiver of review to conduct the study anyway

c. A longitudinal correlational design could be done instead

Cross-lag correlations are NOT helpful for answering/addressing which rule of causation? a. Rule of covariance: Is there covariance? b. Rule of temporal precedence: Is there temporal precedence? c. Are there third variables that could explain the relationship? d. Rule of parsimony

c. Are there third variables that could explain the relationship?

41. Why are factorial designs useful in testing theories? a. They allow researchers to explore the construct validity of a theory. b. Results from factorial designs are typically straightforward and easy to interpret. c. They allow researchers to understand the nuances of how variables interact. d. Results from factorial designs are always intuitive

c. They allow researchers to understand the nuances of how variables interact

58. Melanie decides to conduct a variation of the original study in which she measures participants' ability to solve verbal analogies as the cognitive task instead of measuring their ability to solve math problems. She finds that people who drink caffeine beforehand solve more verbal analogies than those who drink water beforehand, suggesting caffeine consumption causes improved cognitive performance. This study is known as a a. statistical replication. b. replication-plus-extension. c. conceptual replication. d. secondary replication

c. conceptual replication.

54. Which of the following CANNOT typically be applied to a small-N experiment? a. experimental control b. manipulation of variables c. inferential statistics d. replication

c. inferential statistics

28. Spontaneous remission in clinical studies is an example of which of the following threats to internal validity? a. regression b. attrition c. maturation d. placebo effects

c. maturation

Dr. Guidry finds that the relationshipbetween the number of friends one has and life satisfaction is stronger for men than for women. In this study, gender (male or female) is considereda(n) a. outlier b. cause c. moderator d. spurious variable

c. moderator

Dr. Guidry creates a scatterplot of the relationship between the experience of daily stress and life satisfaction. In doing so, she realizes there are three scores that seem to be very extreme and are nowhere near the other points on the scatterplot. Specifically, it appears that three people report very high levels of daily stress and very low levels of life satisfaction. Dr. Guidry should probably consider these scores a. random. b. moderators. c. outliers. d. curvilinear scores.

c. outliers

20: Which of the following is a control variable in Dr. Lonsbary's study? a. the number the participant rolled on the dice b. the type of song c. the amount of time allowed for memorizing the words d. the mood of the participant

c. the amount of time allowed for memorizing the words

32. Dr. Carter is curious about how self-esteem changes as a result of a new counseling program. She is concerned about testing threats in her study. Which of the following would you recommend to her as a way to address this type of threat? a. refusing to let participants drop out of the study b. conducting a pretest-only study c. using a different measure of self-esteem at pretest than at posttest d. omitting a comparison group

c. using a different measure of self-esteem at pretest than at posttest

Regression, maturation, history, testing and placebo effects are all threats to internal validity that can be addressed by adding a ________.

comparison group

Which popular media headline might suggest that a multiple regression hasbeen used? a. "Pet ownership is an important predictor of well-being in elderly adults." b. "Daughters are happier when their mothers are happy working outsidethe home." c. "Eating lunch away from your desk is associated with greater workproductivity." d. "Vacations are important for happiness, even when length of vacationis controlled for."

d. "Vacations are important for happiness, even when length of vacationis controlled for."

43. Dr. Peterson is conducting a 2 × 4 independent-groups factorial design. How many cells are in his design? a. 2 b. 4 c. 6 d. 8

d. 8

23. Which of the following is true of control variables? a. Control variables help define the control group. b. Control variables determine external validity. c. Control variables change the level of the manipulation. d. Control variables are kept the same for all participants.

d. Control variables are kept the same for all participants.

48. If Dr. Ba is interested in a causal relationship between joining a fraternity/sorority and attractiveness concern, why doesn't she conduct a true experiment? a. It is not possible to study private organizations, like fraternities/sororities. b. It is not possible to measure body concern. c. He was unable to recruit an equal number of men and women. d. He was unable to randomly assign participants to join a fraternity/sorority.

d. He was unable to randomly assign participants to join a fraternity/sorority.

59. Which of the following is true of a scientific literature? a. It comprises studies conducted by a single researcher. b. It comprises studies that have tested only the exact same variable. c. It comprises studies conducted all in the same year. d. It comprises studies conducted with different methods.

d. It comprises studies conducted with different methods.

40. What is the difference between a main effect and an overall effect? a. Main effects are less important than overall effects. b. Main effects are more complicated to determine than overall effects. c. Main effects look at one variable at a time; overall effects look at all variables simultaneously. d. There is no difference between main effects and overall effects

d. There is no difference between main effects and overall effects

30. Which of the following threats to internal validity can apply even when a control group is used? a. attrition b. history threats c. instrumentation threats d. demand characteristics

d. demand characteristics

A criterion variable is also known as a(n) ________ variable a. predictor b. independent c. control d. dependent

d. dependent

Dr. Guidry realizes that the women in her study have more friends than the men in her study. This might result in which of the following? a. outliers due to subgroups b. larger effect sizes c. more measured variables d. spurious associations due to subgroups

d. spurious associations due to subgroups

26. One reason researchers use within-group designs is a. to eliminate practice effects. b. it is less time-consuming for the participants. c. to increase the diversity of the participant pool. d. they require fewer participants

d. they require fewer participants

37. What are the two main reasons to conduct a factorial study? a. to increase internal validity and to establish external validity b. to compare participant variables and to establish covariance c. to find moderators and to find mediators d. to test limits and to test theories

d. to test limits and to test theories

A longitudinal study that took place during the Great Depression is particularly susceptible to this type of threat

history threat

This threat to internal validity occurs systematically and affects most members of the group due to an external factor/event

history threat

The possibility that a third variable is the reason for the relationship between x and y is a problem with what type of validity?

internal validity

What type of research design involves measuring the same variables, from the same people, across different time points? There is no manipulation involved

longitudinal

maturation, history, regression, attrition, testing, and instrumentation threats are present in which type of design (while observer bias, demand characteristics, and placebo effects could occur in any experiment)?

one group, pretest/posttest

Eric designs a study to examine drink preferences of university freshmen. He is planning to have all of 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 that he could have a problem with ____ effect in his study. How can Eric fix this problem?

order effect

Research study 10.1

questions 19-22

Research study 10.1 table

questions 19-22

Quasi experiments differ from true experiments because they lack this type of participant assignment

random assignment

This method assigns people to groups in experiments. It ensures that features of people are 'equated' except on the independent variable.

random assignment

In previous studies, Dr. Hamid has established that finding meaning in one's everyday work activities can lead to greater success in the workplace (e.g., productivity, creativity). He is curious as to whether this can happen in the college classroom. Specifically, he is curious whether finding meaning in one's classroom experience can lead to greater academic performance. In the spring semester, he has his teaching assistant randomly assign half the class to write a paragraph each class period about how the material has meaning for their lives (meaning group). The other half writes a paragraph about what they did to prepare for class (preparation group). He does not know which of his students are writing which paragraph, and the students are not aware they are responding to different writing assignments. To measure academic performance, he gives the students a midterm essay exam and a final exam

research study 11.1

Dr. Guidry conducts a study examining the relationship between the number of friends one has and the experience of daily stress and life satisfaction. She randomly samples 1,500 elderly men and women in Nashville, Tennessee (the state capital), located in the southern United States. Below are her findings: • Life satisfaction and experience of daily stress: r = -.57, 95% CI [-.77, - .37] • Number of friends one has and experience of daily stress: r = .09, 95% CI [-.27, .45] • Number of friends one has and life satisfaction: r = .36, 95% CI [.12, .60]

research study 8.1 for questions 1-9

Dr. Mike is hired to treat a patient with World of Warcraft addiction. After administering the treatment and noticing an improvement, Dr. Mike temporarily stops the treatment for a short period, and then resumes the treatment after documenting the effect. This type of research is known as a _____ design.

reversal

Nicole is comparing high-impulsive and low-impulsive people on a gambling-like task. She finds that high-impulsives tended to take more risks than low-impulsive people. It turns out that most people who signed up on SONA during the last two weeks of the semester were high-impulsives; early birds were low-impulsives. What kind of threat is present?

selection threat (the two IV groups are systematically different from each other on something other than the IV)

What is a bivariate correlation and what type of claim is usually made from them

A bivariate correlation is an association between two variables. Associational claims are made from bivariate correlations

______ is a simple study that uses a seperate group of participants that is generally completed before conducting the study of primary interest in order to confirm the effectiveness of manipulation

A pilot study

What is the relationship between moderators and external validity?

When generalizability is affected by moderators, your association may not generalize to all groups of people