Chapter 1 review
A researcher measures the number of hours spent studying among students living on campus and off campus at a local college. In this study, location (on campus, off campus) is the ______ and hours spent studying is the ______.
C) quasi-independent variable; dependent variable
fractional units
Because continuous variables are measured along a continuum, they can be measured in ___ ___
What two characteristics of rating scales that allow researches to use these values on an interval scale of measurement?
C) Values on an interval scale are assumed to be equidistant but do not have a true zero
Inferential statistics (example)
Evaluation of information example e.g. is diet related to obesity or should we implement a public policy change that can reduce obesity rates
sample
set of individuals, items, or data selected from a population of interest.
research method
set of systematic techniques used to acquire, modify, and integrate knowledge concerning observable and measurable phenomena (also known as scientific method)
Population
the set of all individuals, items, or data of interest.
Impulsive behavior
Identify the DV: A researcher tests whether mindfulness training reduces impulsive behavior in a sample of participants with a history of impulsivity.
Mindfulness training
Identify the IV: A researcher tests whether mindfulness training reduces impulsive behavior in a sample of participants with a history of impulsivity.
discrete, qualitative, ordinal
Label a letter grade (A,B, C, D, F) as continuous vs. discrete, quantitate vs. qualitative, and what is the scale of measurement?
discrete, quantitative, ratio
Label dumber of dreams recalled, number of errors, number of students in your class, number of lever presses per minute as continuous vs. discrete, quantitate vs. qualitative, and what is the scale of measurement?
continuous, quantitative, ratio
Label duration of drug abuse (in years), score (from 0%-100%) on an exam, time (in seconds) to memorize a list, the size of a reward (in grams), weight (in pounds) of an infant as continuous vs. discrete, quantitate vs. qualitative, and what is the scale of measurement?
discrete, quantitative, ordinal
Label ranking of favorite food, position standing in line as continuous vs. discrete, quantitate vs. qualitative, and what is the scale of measurement?
discrete, quantitative, interval
Label ratings of satisfaction (1 to 7), a college student's SAT score as continuous vs. discrete, quantitate vs. qualitative, and what is the scale of measurement?
discrete, qualitative, nominal
Label sex (male/female), seasons (winter, spring, summer, fall), body type (slim, average, heavy), political affiliation (Republican, Democrat), type of distraction (auditory, visual) as continuous vs. discrete, quantitate vs. qualitative, and what is the scale of measurement?
continuous, quantitative, interval
Label temperature (degrees Fahrenheit) as continuous vs. discrete, quantitate vs. qualitative, and what is the scale of measurement?
Interval Scales
Measurement that can be understood readily by two defining principals: equidistant classes and no true zero
Ordinal Scales
Measurement that coveys only that some value is greater or less than another value (i.e. order)
Nominal Scales
Measurements in which a number is assigned to represent something or someone
Correlational Method
Method that determines whether a relationship exists between variables
Coding
Procedure of converting a nominal or categorical variable to a numeric value
Random assignment
Procedure used to ensure that participants in a study have an equal chance of being assigned to a particular group or condition.
Order
Property that describes does a larger number indicate a greater value than a smaller number
Ratio
Property that describes does dividing two numbers represent some meaningful value
Difference
Property that describes does subtracting tow numbers represent some meaningful value
discrete
Qualitative variables can only be ___, as they are often labels for the behaviors we observe
Qualitative
State if this describes qualitative or quantitative variables: A researcher distributes open-ended questions to participants asking how they feel when they are in love.
Quantitative
State if this describes qualitative or quantitative variables: A researcher records the BP of participants during a task meant to induce stress
Qualitative
State if this describes qualitative or quantitative variables: A witness to a crime gives a description of the suspect to the police.
continuous, quantitative
State whether the following is continuous or discrete and quantitative or qualitative: delay (in seconds) it takes drivers to make a left-hand turn when a light turns green
discrete, quantitative
State whether the following is continuous or discrete and quantitative or qualitative: number of questions that participants as during a research study
discrete, qualitative
State whether the following is continuous or discrete and quantitative or qualitative: season of birth (spring, summer, fall, or winter)
discrete, qualitative
State whether the following is continuous or discrete and quantitative or qualitative: type of drug use (none, infrequency, moderate, or frequent)
QI
State whether this is a quasi-experimental (QI) variable or and example of independent variable (IV): Political affiliation
manipulated, comparison (control)
Quasi-experiment meets one or both of the following two conditions: does not include a ___ IV and lacks a ___
most
Ratio scales of measurement are the ___ informative
IV
State whether this is a quasi-experimental (QI) variable or and example of independent variable (IV): environment of research setting
QI
State whether this is a quasi-experimental (QI) variable or and example of independent variable (IV): marital status
IV
State whether this is a quasi-experimental (QI) variable or and example of independent variable (IV): time of delay prior to recall
IV
State whether this is a quasi-experimental (QI) variable or and example of independent variable (IV): type of feedback (negative, positive)
QI
State whether this is a quasi-experimental (QI) variable or and example of independent variable (IV): years of education
True
True or False: A ratio scale variable can be continuous or discrete
True
True or False: An experiment is the only method that can demonstrate cause and effect relationships between variables.
True
True or False: Descriptive statistics can be used to describe populations and samples of data
False
True or False: Graphs, tables, and summary statistics all illustrate the application of inferential statistics
False (can only be discrete)
True or False: Qualitative variables can be continuous or discrete
True
True or False:Inferential statistics are procedures used to make inferences about a population, given only a limited amount of data
experiment
a study that demonstrates cause
Datum
(Singular) single measurement or observation usually referred to as a score or raw score
Data
(plural) set of scores, measurements, or observations that are typically numeric
Population parameter
A characteristic (usually numeric) that describes a population
sample statistic
A characteristic (usually numeric) that describes a sample
temperature (other example is longitude/latitude)
A common example of a scale without a true zero is ___ as the zero is arbitrary
rating scale
A common example of an interval scale
same
A control group must be treated exactly the ___ as an experimental group; except members of this group do not actually receive the treatments believed to cause changes in the dependent variable
Experimental design
A researcher demonstrates that eating breakfast in the morning causes increased alertness throughout the day. What research design must the researcher have used in this example?
Quantitative
A researcher is interested in the effects of stuttering on social behavior with children. He records the number of peers a child speaks to during a typical school day. In this example, would the data be quantitative or qualitative?
Correlational Method (example)
A researcher measures the relationship between annual income and life satisfaction.
quantitative, quantitative
A researcher places a participant in a room filled with 10 strangers. To measure social behavior, he records the number of different people the participant talks to and the time (in seconds) spent talking. The number of people the participant talks to is a ______ variable; the time (in seconds) spent talking is a ______ variable.
Experiment (example)
A researcher tests where dosage level of some drug (low, high) causes significant differences in health
Quasi-Experiment (example)
A researcher tests whether citizens of differing political affiliations (Republican, Democrat) will show differences in attitudes towards morality.
characteristics
A sample is selected from a population to learn more about the ___ in a population of interest.
parameter
A sample statistic is measured to estimate the population ___
measures
A sample statistic is the value that is ___ in a study
Quasi-Independent
A variable that is preexisting and cannot be randomly assigned.
A researcher conducts a study that includes a quasi-independent variable and lacks a comparison group. What type of research method is described?
A) quasi-experimental method
interval
An ___ scale does not have a true zero
dependent
An operational definition is a description for how a ___ variable was measured.
A researcher records the family relationship (brother, son, father, cousin, etc.) of the people who stay in regular contact with loved ones in a nursing home. What type of measure is family relationship?
B) Qualitative, discrete
A researcher measures four variables, which of these variables is not an example of variable measured on a ratio scale?
B) Movie Ratings (1-4 stars)
beyond
Continuous variables are measured at any place ___ the decimal point
controls, cause, effect
Correlational method lacks the ___ needed to demonstrate ___ and ___
operational definition
Description of some observable even in terms of the specific process or manner by which it was observed or measured.
quantify
Descriptive statistics are typically used to ___ the behaviors researchers measure
organize, summarize
Descriptive statistics include applying statistics to ___ and ___ information
(zip codes, license plate numbers, credit card numbers, SSN, country codes, telephone numbers)
Examples of nominal numbers
(race, sex, nationality sexual orientation, hair and eye color, season of birth, marital status, or other demographic or personal information)
Examples of nominal variables
(finishing order in a competition, education level, and rankings)
Examples of ordinal scales
(counts and measures of length, height, weight, and time)
Examples of ratio scales
nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio
Four scales of measurement are ___, ___, ___, and ___
Ordinal
In 2010, Fortune magazine ranked Apple as the most admired company in the world. This ranking is on a(n) ____ scale of measurement
cannot, random
In a typical quasi-experiment, the variables being studied ___ be manipulated which makes ___ assignment impossible
interpret
Inferential statistics include applying statistics to ___ the meaning of the information
likely
It is often not possible to identify all individuals in a population, researchers require inferential statistics to infer that observations made with a sample are also ___ to be observed in the larger population from which the sample was selected.
number of absent students, discrete, quantitative
Name the variable being measured and state whether the variable is continuous or discrete and whether the viable is quantitative or qualitative: A professor records the number of students absent during a final exam.
choice of cereal, discrete, qualitative
Name the variable being measured and state whether the variable is continuous or discrete and whether the viable is quantitative or qualitative: A researcher asks children to choose which type of cereal they prefer (one with a toy and one without). He records the choices cereal for each child.
month of birth, discrete, qualitative
Name the variable being measured and state whether the variable is continuous or discrete and whether the viable is quantitative or qualitative: A researcher records the month of birth among patients with schizophrenia.
time, continuous, quantitative
Name the variable being measured and state whether the variable is continuous or discrete and whether the viable is quantitative or qualitative: A therapist measures the time (in hours) that clients continue a recommended program of counseling.
coded
Nominal scales are often data that have been ___
least
Nominal scales of measurement are the ___ informative
something, someone
Nominal scales represent ___ or ___
Continuous (example)
Olympic sprinters are timed to the nearest hundredths place (in seconds), but if a judge wanted to clock them to the nearest millionths place, they could. What type of variable does this define?
manipulation, randomization, comparison (control)
Requirements for an experiment must satisfy requirements of ___, ___, and ____
equidistant sclae
Scale with intervals or values distributed in equal units
order, difference, ratio
Scales of measurement are characterized by three properties: ___, ___, and ___
Ratio Scales
Similar to interval scales in equal units, however has a true zero
Quantitative
State if this describes qualitative or quantitative variables: A psychologist interested in drug addiction injects rats with an attention-inducing drug and then measures the rate of lever pressing
science
Study of phenomena, such as behavior, through strict observation, evaluation, interpretation, and theoretical explanation.
effect
The dependent variable is the presumed ___
cause
The independent variable is the presumed ___
unchanged
The independent variable remains ___ between conditions being observed in an experiment
descriptive, inferential
The two general types of statistics are ______ and ______.
Independent variable
The variable that is manipulated in an experiment
Continuous
The variable that is measured along a continuum
Discrete
The variable that is measured in whole units or categories that are not distributed along a continuum
Quantitative
The variable that varies by amount and is often collected by measuring or counting
Qualitative
The variable that varies by class and is often represented as a label and describes nonnumeric aspects of phenomena
continuous/discrete, quantitative/qualitative
The variables for which researchers measure data fall into two broad categories: ___/____ and ___/___
Scales of Measurement
This identifies how the properties of numbers can change with different uses.
categorical
Values on a nominal scale are typically ___ variables that have been coded-converted to numeric values
Discrete (example)
Variable that counts the number of pieces of food consumed
Dependent Variable
Variable that is measured in each group of a study, and is believed to change in the presence of the independent variable
order, difference
What properties are included in interval scales of measurement?
None
What properties are included in nominal scales of measurement?
order
What properties are included in ordinal scales of measurement?
All (order, difference, and ratio)
What properties are included in ratio scales of measurement?
true zero
When the value 0 truly indicates nothing on a scale of measurement
continuous, discrete
Which variable(s) can be quantitative?
Statistics
branch of mathematics used to summarize, analyze, and interpret and group of numbers or observations
Descriptive statistics
procedures used to summarize, organize, and make sense of a set of scores called data; presented graphically, in tabular form, or as summary statistics
Descriptive, inferential
two types of statistics are ___ and ___ statistics