methods final (practice quiz questions)
If a study uses an unrepresentative sample, which of the following questions should you ask when assessing its external validity? a) "Are the characteristics that make the sample biased actually relevant to what is being measured?" b) "Is the sample size sufficiently large?" c) "Is the study making a frequency, association, or causal claim?" d) "Could the study have used a representative sample instead?"
a) "Are the characteristics that make the sample biased actually relevant to what is being measured?"
When reading an empirical journal article "with a purpose," which two questions should you ask yourself as you read? a) "What is the argument?" and "What is the evidence to support the argument?" b) "What were the methods?" and "What are the results?" c) "What is the hypothesis?" and "What are the explanations?" d) "What research exists on this topic?" and "What research needs to be conducted to answer the question?"
a) "What is the argument?" and "What is the evidence to support the argument?"
Dr. Green is interested in conducting a 2 × 2 × 3 mixed factorial design, with 20 participants in each cell. Which of the following would NOT be a possible number of participants for this study? a) 20 b) 40 c) 60 d) 80
a) 20
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
What is the difference between data that is collected anonymously and data that is collected confidentially? a) Confidential research collects participants' names but separates them from the data; anonymous research does not collect participants' names. b) Anonymous research collects sensitive information about participants (e.g., sexual behavior, illegal behavior); confidential research collects nonsensitive information about participants. c) Confidential research collects sensitive information about participants (e.g., sexual behavior, illegal behavior); anonymous research collects nonsensitive information about participants. d) Anonymous research and confidential research are the same thing.
a) Confidential research collects participants' names but separates them from the data; anonymous research does not collect participants' names.
In interrogating the construct validity of a measure, which question should a researcher ask? a) Is there enough evidence that this measure is valid? b) Do I know that this measure is valid? c) Does this measure have the right kind of validity? d) Has an expert said that this measure is reliable?
a) Is there enough evidence that this measure is valid?
Which of the following is true of interrater reliability? a) It is measured with an ICC. b) It is necessary to calculate only if you have four or more raters. c) It does not need to be calculated if your research assistants are well-trained. d) If interrater reliability is established, it means the observations are also valid.
a) It is measured with an ICC.
Which of the following is true of the Belmont Report? a) It was written at the request of the U.S. Congress. b) It was written primarily in response to the Milgram obedience studies. c) It was written primarily in response to medical experiments performed in Nazi-occupied Europe. d) It was replaced by the APA guidelines.
a) It was written at the request of the U.S. Congress.
A popular media articles describes how children and adolescents differ in the US and Canada. How does the inclusion of participant variable information denote a factorial design? a) Participant variables are often used as moderators. b) Participant variables are found only in factorial designs. c) Studies with participant variables always find significant interactions. d) Studies with participant variables are easier to write about.
a) Participant variables are often used as moderators.
RESEARCH STUDY 8.1: 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] 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.
Which of the following statements is true of random assignment and random sampling? a) Random assignment is necessary for internal validity, whereas random sampling is necessary for external validity. b) They both are necessary for frequency claims. c) They both mean the same thing. d) Random sampling is more important than random assignment.
a) Random assignment is necessary for internal validity, whereas random sampling is necessary for external validity.
Which of the following is an example of convenience sampling? a) Researchers recruited participants from online websites, such as Prolific Academic. b) Researchers oversampled Latinx participants for their study and adjusted their results. c) Researchers reached out to participants attending Gambler's Anonymous meetings. d) Researchers asked international college students to recommend other international students to participate in their study.
a) Researchers recruited participants from online websites, such as Prolific Academic.
Why are techniques like cluster sampling and multistage sampling just as externally valid as simple random sampling? a) They all contain elements of random selection. b) They all measure every member of the population of interest. c) They all use lists of all population members. d) They all rely on large samples.
a) They all contain elements of random selection.
Which of the following correctly explains the relationship between a moderator and a spurious association? a) They are different: A moderator indicates the association is not spurious. b) They are different: A moderator only involves one variable, while a spurious association involves both variables. c) They are different: A moderator indicates that the same association exists within subgroups, while a spurious association indicates that the associations differ for subgroups. d) They are the same: A moderator indicates that the association is spurious.
a) They are different: A moderator indicates the association is not spurious.
RESEARCH STUDY 5.1: Dr. Rodriquez is considering conducting a study examining whether narcissistic people have poorer romantic relationships than those who are not narcissistic. One of her first tasks is to determine which of her participants are narcissistic and which are not. She decides to use the scale created by a colleague, the Donal scale. Question 1 reads, "I tend not to think about other people as much as I think about myself." Question 2 reads, "I do not have a high opinion of myself." Question 3 reads, "I think other people think I am really special." Before using the measure in her study, Dr. Rodriquez gives the measure to a group of participants on the first day of the semester and again on the last day of the semester. Dr. Rodriquez is examining the scatterplot of the data she collected on the first day of the semester and the last day of the semester. On the scatterplot, she sees that the dots are very close to forming a diagonal line. This indicates which of the following? a) a strong relationship b) a non-relationship c) a valid finding d) a negative finding
a) a strong relationship
Naomi is studying the effect of popularity on academic success for her research methods project. To do this, she has elementary school students rate how popular each member of their class is. She then uses this information to rank the students on popularity (e.g., John is the most popular, Vanessa is the second-most popular). Which of the following best describes this variable? a) an ordinal scale of measurement b) a self-report measurement c) a categorical measurement d) an interval scale of measurement
a) an ordinal scale of measurement
If researchers measure every member of a population, they have a) conducted a census b) collected a sample c) increased internal validity d) biased the study
a) conducted a census
Sasha believes that she is a nice person. To confirm this, she asks all her friends whether she is a nice person; they all agree that she is. Sasha concludes that she is a nice person and says she has evidence of it. However, she does not ask any of her enemies whether they think she is a nice person. This is an example of which of the following? a) a confirmation bias b) a present/present bias c) fourth cell reasoning d) overconfidence
a) confirmation bias
RESEARCH STUDY 5.2: Dr. Sheffield is a clinical psychologist who specializes in treating pathological gambling. Pathological gambling is defined as being unable to resist impulses to gamble. Bothered by not having a good measure that he can give to clients to determine whether they are suffering from this condition, he creates a new measure of pathological gambling. The measure has 15 questions, and it takes 20 minutes to complete. Dr. Sheffield gives his measure to his supervisor, who is also an expert in pathological gambling. His supervisor says that his measure appears to test all the components of pathological gambling, including feeling restless when attempting to stop gambling, jeopardizing jobs in order to keep gambling, and using gambling to escape from problems and a bad mood. Given this information, Dr. Sheffield's measure has evidence of which of the following? a) content validity b) convergent validity c) criterion validity d) discriminant validity
a) content validity
RESEARCH STUDY 10.1: Dr. Lonsbary is a cognitive psychologist who is curious about how mood affects memory. She recruited 60 high school students and divided them into three groups. Group A listened to a 5-minute piece of music intended to make them feel happy ("Happy" by Pharrell). Group B listened to a 5-minute piece of music intended to make them feel sad (a song titled "Home Is Such a Lonely Place" by Blink-182). Group C listened to no music and instead was asked to sit quietly for 5 minutes (thought to make them feel neutral). When a participant would come to her laboratory, Dr. Lonsbary would greet the participant and then ask them to roll a six-sided die. Participants who rolled a 1 or 2 were assigned to Group A. Participants who rolled a 3 or 4 were assigned to Group B. Participants who rolled a 5 or 6 were assigned to Group C. The participants were then given an unlabeled CD to listen to based on their group assignment. The CD contained either the song selection or 5 minutes of silence. They were then escorted into a different room, where they were greeted by a research assistant who conducted the experiment. The research assistant sat the participants in front of a computer screen and told them that a list of 25 words would be displayed on the screen. They were instructed to listen to the CD with headphones while trying to memorize the list of words. All participants were given the same list of 25 common words to remember (e.g., desk, gray, plane, car, mask). When 5 minutes had passed, the screen displayed a question asking them whether they felt happy, sad, or neutral. After the participant responded, a new screen was displayed asking them to type in all the words they could remember from the list of 25 words. All participants were given 3 minutes to type the words they remembered. Afterward, the participant was thanked and dismissed. In response to the mood question, a majority of Group A participants said they were happy, a majority of Group B participants said they were sad, and a majority of Group C participants said they were neutral in their mood. Dr. Lonsbary is considering doing a follow-up study in which instead of asking participants to listen to music to induce mood, she has them write either a story about a character who just won the lottery or a story about a character who just experienced the death of their spouse. This change in the mood variable is designed to enhance the study's ________ validity. a) external b) statistical c) internal d) construct
a) external
External validity is most important for which of the following claims? a) frequency claims b) association claims c) causal claims d) external validity is equally important for all claims.
a) frequency claims
RESEARCH STUDY 11.2: Dr. Bloedorn is a health psychologist who researches nutrition. She is curious as to whether a new drink additive will help people consume fewer calories during a meal. The drink additive is a white, odorless, tasteless powder that a person can add to any drink. She collects a random sample of 63 overweight students on campus and measures the calories they eat during lunch using a calorimeter. She then gives this additive to the same 63 participants to use at dinner and measures how many calories they eat (again using the calorimeter). The addition of a control group that does not use the drink additive would help Dr. Bloedorn address which of the following threats to internal validity? a) history b) demand characteristics c) instrumentation d) placebo effects
a) history
Which of the following determines the construct validity of a survey question? a) how well it is worded b) how many people answer it c) how short it is d) how many response options it has
a) how well it is worded
A participant's score on a dependent variable is a combination of which of the following? a) measurement error and their true score b) systematic variance and error variance c) manipulation effect and observer bias d) their mean score and their standard deviation
a) measurement error and their true score
The construct validity of observations can be threatened by a) reactivity. b) socially desirable responding. c) acquiescence. d) leading questions.
a) reactivity.
Edward believes that there are a lot of differences between men and women on a variety of different dimensions. He believes this because when he thinks about books that have been written on men and women, he can quickly recall only books that say men and women are different (e.g., Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus) and cannot recall any that say men and women are the same. His reliance on what comes to mind is an example of which of the following? a) the availability heuristic b) a present/present bias c) a confirmation bias d) overconfidence
a) the availability heuristic
Nadia submits her article to a scientific journal for publication. Who makes the final decision on whether her article is published in that scientific journal? a) the editor of the journal b) Nadia, the author of the article c) a panel of experts d) the publisher of the journal
a) the editor of the journal
Who is responsible for deciding which validity is prioritized in a study? a) the researcher b) the participants c) the peer reviewers d) the journalist
a) the researcher
When evaluating the external validity of an association claim, which of the following is the most important issue to consider? a) the way the sample was selected from the population b) he size of the sample c) the number of subgroups d) the size of the original population
a) the way the sample was selected from the population
Which of the following is a reason that a researcher might choose a pretest/posttest design? a) to ensure that random assignment made the treatment/comparison groups equal b) to determine between-group differences c) to allow for the study of spontaneous behaviors d) to improve construct validity
a) to ensure that random assignment made the treatment/comparison groups equal
RESEARCH STUDY 8.1: 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] Dr. Guidry finds that the relationship between the number of friends one has and life satisfaction is stronger for men than for women. Why might Dr. Guidry have looked for this difference? a) to examine her study's external validity b) to examine her study's internal validity c) to determine whether the association was curvilinear d) to determine whether the association was spurious
a) to examine her study's external validity
A scatterplot is a graph a) with points plotted to show a possible relationship between two sets of data. b) that shows the size of a difference on a variable between two groups. c) that shows changes over time on a variable. d) used to show causal associations.
a) with points plotted to show a possible relationship between two sets of data.
Which of the following is correct about sample size? a) A large sample size is more representative of the population than a small sample. b) A large sample size still needs to be a random sample in order to be generalizable. c) A sample size of 1,000 allows for the most statistically accurate conclusions. d) A sample size of 1,000 has the optimal balance of external validity and statistical accuracy.
b) A large sample size still needs to be a random sample in order to be generalizable.
For his research methods class project, Hiro is studying the effect of pet ownership on stress levels. Although a lot of research has been done on dog and cat owners, not much is known about other pets, so Hiro decides to study bird owners. Which of the following would demonstrate a purposive sampling technique? a) He contacts the Twitter followers of Dr. Oiseau, a famous biologist who studies birds. b) He recruits bird owners by e-mailing members of the National Bird Owners Association and asking for participants. c) His participants are all the people who have purchased birds at his local pet store in the past six months. d) He asks bird owners to give him the names of other bird owners.
b) He recruits bird owners by e-mailing members of the National Bird Owners Association and asking for participants.
Which of the following ethical violations did NOT occur in the Tuskegee Study? a) Researchers told participants they were receiving treatment even though they were not. b) Participants in the study were given/infected with the disease. c) Participants were not told they had been infected with the disease. d) Researchers prevented participants from seeking treatment.
b) Participants in the study were given/infected with the disease.
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.
RESEARCH STUDY 5.2: Dr. Sheffield is a clinical psychologist who specializes in treating pathological gambling. Pathological gambling is defined as being unable to resist impulses to gamble. Bothered by not having a good measure that he can give to clients to determine whether they are suffering from this condition, he creates a new measure of pathological gambling. The measure has 15 questions, and it takes 20 minutes to complete. Dr. Sheffield decides to test the criterion validity of his measure. Dr. Sheffield gives his measure to a group of people that includes suspected problem gamblers and non-gamblers. Which of the following options below could he also do to get evidence for criterion validity? a) give the measure to a group of people attending Gamblers Anonymous meetings b) correlate the measure with a behavior, such as amount of money lost in a casino during the past year c) ask the participants to give their opinion on whether the measure is valid d) give a measure of alcohol addiction to the same group of clients
b) correlate the measure with a behavior, such as amount of money lost in a casino during the past year
RESEARCH STUDY 11.2: Dr. Bloedorn is a health psychologist who researches nutrition. She is curious as to whether a new drink additive will help people consume fewer calories during a meal. The drink additive is a white, odorless, tasteless powder that a person can add to any drink. She collects a random sample of 63 overweight students on campus and measures the calories they eat during lunch using a calorimeter. She then gives this additive to the same 63 participants to use at dinner and measures how many calories they eat (again using the calorimeter). The addition of a control group that does not use the drink additive would help Dr. Bloedorn address which of the following threats to internal validity? a) history b) demand characteristics c) instrumentation d) placebo effects
b) demand characteristics
When your scale does not correlate with other, unrelated procedures or scales, it has ________ validity. a) convergent b) discriminant c) face d) criterion
b) discriminant
The number of main effects that need to be examined is ________ the number of independent variables. a) more important than b) equal to c) unrelated to d) independent of
b) equal to
RESEARCH STUDY 5.1: Dr. Rodriquez is considering conducting a study examining whether narcissistic people have poorer romantic relationships than those who are not narcissistic. One of her first tasks is to determine which of her participants are narcissistic and which are not. She decides to use the scale created by a colleague, the Donal scale. Question 1 reads, "I tend not to think about other people as much as I think about myself." Question 2 reads, "I do not have a high opinion of myself." Question 3 reads, "I think other people think I am really special." Before using the measure in her study, Dr. Rodriquez analyzes the data she gets from her students. She looks at the relationship between each of the individual questions. She sees that participants who agree with Question 1 also agree with Question 3 and disagree with Question 2. This is a test of which of the following? a) interrater reliability b) internal reliability c) test-retest reliability d) construct reliability
b) internal reliability
Identify a major disadvantage to using matched groups when assigning participants. a) it removes randomness b) it requires more time and resources c) participants may know the person they are matched with d) the researcher will lose data from participants who don't match
b) it requires more time and resources
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.
Imagine that you are reading a journal article and you see the following sentence: "The study used a 2 × 2 × 4 design." Where are you likely to have encountered this sentence? a) the introduction b) the Method section c) the Results section d) the Discussion section
b) the Method section
Which aspect of the peer-review cycle allows for the greatest amount of honesty in reviews? a) the number of peer reviewers b) the anonymity of the peer reviewers c) the possibility of rejection d) the frequency of publication
b) the anonymity of the peer reviewers
Dr. West wants to know what kind of exercise makes people happiest. She randomly assigns participants to either a weight-lifting or cardio group. Each group does the assigned exercise for 30 minutes. They then report on their mood on a scale of 1-10. What could Dr. West do to eliminate potential confounds in her experiment? a) study only one type of exercise b) use the same room and exercise instructor for both groups c) let participants choose what type of exercise they want ahead of time d) have participants describe their emotions however they want instead of using a scale
b) use the same room and exercise instructor for both groups
In which of the following cases might a small effect still be important? a) when the sample is very large b) when it is aggregated over many situations c) when the outcome is extreme, like success or failure d) when external validity is high
b) when it is aggregated over many situations
Regression is especially problematic in which of the following situations? a) when the experimental and comparison groups are equal at posttest b) when one group has an extremely high score at pretest c) when the experimental and comparison groups are equal at pretest d) when one group has an extremely low score at posttest
b) when one group has an extremely high score at pretest
From an ethical standpoint, in what way is researching prisoners with tuberculosis similar to researching children with ADHD? a) Neither group of participants can provide informed consent. b) Researchers must ensure anonymity when dealing with both types of participants. c) Both groups of participants have less autonomy than other types of participants. d) Researchers do not have to have written informed consent with these groups of participants.
c) Both groups of participants have less autonomy than other types of participants.
Which of the following questions assesses internal validity when evaluating causal claims? a) Are the groups large enough to find a significant difference? b) How well did the experiments manipulate the variables? c) Did the researcher randomly assign participants? d) To what populations can we generalize this claim?
c) Did the researcher randomly assign participants?
In what way does high within-groups variance obscure between-groups variance? a) It decreases the power of the study. b) It leads to larger effect sizes. c) It causes more overlap in scores between experimental/comparison groups. d) It limits the type of statistical analyses that can be conducted.
c) It causes more overlap in scores between experimental/comparison groups.
Why is there a publication bias against null effects? a) Null effects are not real. b) Null effects are the result of badly designed studies. c) People generally want to read about independent variables that change the outcome. d) Null results happen less often than significant results.
c) People generally want to read about independent variables that change the outcome.
Dr. Tung is investigating the association between smartphone use and mindless eating. In his first study with a sample size of 25 college students, he finds r = .32. If Dr. Tung hopes to find that college major (education, history) is a moderator, which of the following results should he find? a) Education majors use their smartphones more and mindlessly eat more, compared to history majors. b) Smartphone use is positively linked to mindless eating for both education and history majors. c) Smartphone use is positively associated with mindless eating for education majors, but not for history majors. d) Education majors engage in mindless eating more than history majors because they use their smartphones more.
c) Smartphone use is positively associated with mindless eating for education majors, but not for history majors.
Neely is examining the graph of an interaction and sees that one line is flat and one line rises sharply to the right. Which of the following should Neely conclude? a) There is no interaction. b) There is a crossover interaction. c) There is a spreading interaction. d) There is a main-effect interaction.
c) There is a spreading interaction.
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.
Which of the following is true of instrumentation threats? a) They are the same as testing threats. b) They occur only when using mechanical instruments (e.g., blood pressure cuffs, scales). c) They can be avoided with counterbalancing. d) They are problematic only in observational research.
c) They can be avoided with counterbalancing.
Which of the following is true of moderators? a) They help establish a cause-and-effect relationship. b) They decrease effect size. c) They can inform external validity. d) They weaken statistical significance.
c) They can inform external validity.
Of the following, which will produce the MOST narrow and precise confidence interval? a) a small sample size with less variability b) a small sample size with greater variability c) a large sample size with less variability d) a large sample size with more variability
c) a large sample size with less variability
Studies with one independent variable can show a) a difference in differences. b) an interaction effect. c) a simple difference. d) a factorial effect.
c) a simple difference.
Ethical decision-making is a) as easy as a yes-no decision. b) based only on what is good for society. c) based on a balance of priorities. d) determined by legal experts.
c) based on a balance of priorities.
RESEARCH STUDY 3.2: Dr. Ramon makes the following claim: "Watching television leads people to spend less time communicating with their spouses, study says." Dr. LaSalle makes the claim: "Research shows that making more money correlates with spending less time talking with your spouse." Which type of claim is Dr. Ramon making? a) statistical claim b) association claim c) causal claim d) frequency claim
c) causal claim
Which of the following sections comes last in an empirical journal article? a) method b) results c) discussion d) introduction
c) discussion
Which of Robert Merton's scientific norms describes the idea that scientists should always accurately report the findings of their study even if the findings do not support the scientist's hypotheses or theories? a) universality b) communality c) disinterestedness d) organized skepticism
c) disinterestedness
Dr. Choi is studying the extent to which Asian American mothers enforce gender roles at home. She wants to ensure that her sample includes 50 first generation, 50 second generation, and 50 third generation immigrants. If Dr. Choi obtains her particular sample by putting flyers in the local Asian grocery store, which of the following sampling techniques is she using? a) snowball sampling b) purposive sampling c) quota sampling d) stratified random sampling
c) quota sampling
Dr. Choi is studying the extent to which Asian American mothers enforce gender roles at home. She wants to ensure that her sample includes 50 first-generation, 50 second-generation, and 50 third-generation immigrants. If Dr. Choi obtains her particular sample by putting flyers in the local Asian grocery store, which of the following sampling techniques is she using? a) snowball sampling b) purposive sampling c) quota sampling d) stratified random sampling
c) quota sampling
If you wanted to know exactly which statistical analyses were used in a particular study, you should consult the a) introduction of a journal article. b) method section of a journal article. c) results section of a journal article. d) discussion section of a journal article.
c) results section of a journal article.
Statistical significance depends on which of the following? a) sample size and number of variables analyzed b) direction of the association and strength of the association c) sample size and effect size d) number of outliers and direction of the association
c) sample size and effect size
Using a computerized measure of implicit opinions, such as the Implicit Association Test, is a way to address a) fence-sitting. b) acquiescence. c) socially desirable responding. d) nondifferentiation.
c) socially desirable responding.
RESEARCH STUDY 7.1: Professor Kramer has decided to measure how happy his students are with his teaching this semester. He is teaching two classes this semester—Psychology and Law and Introduction to Neuroscience. He gives his students a survey. Dr. Kramer could reasonably use his sample to say something about which of the following populations of interest? a) students enrolled at the university b) students who are political science majors c) students who have taken a class with Dr. Kramer d) students currently taking a psychology class
c) students who have taken a class with Dr. Kramer
RESEARCH STUDY 3.4: Dr. Kang, a cognitive psychologist, conducts an experiment examining the effect of emotion on memory. He provides lists of 15 words to two groups of participants at his university. He puts the names of all the participants in a hat. The first 20 names he assigns to Group A and the last 20 he assigns to Group B. Group A is given a list of words that are very emotional in content (e.g., passion, murder). Group B is given a list of words that are neutral in content (e.g., houseplant, desk). He then measures how many words each group is able to remember after being distracted for 5 minutes by watching a video about the history of the university. He finds that Group A remembers 15% more words than Group B. Dr. Kang's decision to assign participants randomly to Group A and Group B increases which of the following? a) the covariance of the study b) the temporal precedence of the study c) the internal validity of the study d) the external validity of the study
c) the internal validity of the study
The need to balance the potential costs and benefits to participants taking part in a research study is done to address which principle of the Belmont Report? a) the principle of respect for persons b) the principle of justice c) the principle of beneficence d) the principle of integrity
c) the principle of beneficence
Which of the following phrases would NOT indicate that a researcher is making a causal claim? a) "curbs" b) "seems to decrease" c) "suggests a change" d) "is at higher risk of"
d) "is at higher risk of"
RESEARCH STUDY 12.3: Dr. Yared is interested in memorization techniques and motivation. He splits his participants into four equal groups of 20 people each and gave each participant a list of 30 words to try to memorize in three minutes. Two groups were told to repeat the words silently to themselves and two groups were told to make up a story using the words. Two groups were offered 10 cents per word they recalled and two were offered $1 per word. The table shows how many words each group was able to recall. repetition (memory technique 1) & 10 cents per word = 11 words recalled repetition (memory technique 1) & 1 dollar per word = 10 words recalled make up a story (memory technique 2) & 10 cents per word = 17 words recalled make up a story (memory technique 2) & 1 dollar per word = 19 words recalled What are the marginal means for memory technique? a) 28 and 29 b) 14 and 14.5 c) 21 and 36 d) 10.5 and 18
d) 10.5 and 18
The American Psychological Association's ethical guidelines have ________ principles and ________ standards. a) 3; 10 b) 3; 8 c) 3; 5 d) 5; 10
d) 5; 10
The ethical principles that govern psychological research and the code of conduct for how to protect human and nonhuman participants in research are published by the a) Institutional Review Board. b) Nuremberg Code. c) Belmont Report. d) American Psychological Association.
d) American Psychological Association.
Which of the following is the reason that scientific journals use peer review? a) it is cost-effective b) it is more efficient/faster c) it encourages collaboration among researchers d) it ensures that the studies published are of the highest quality
d) It ensures that the studies published are of the highest quality
Which the following statements are correct about the question format of survey and polls? a) The format of a question has a larger impact on construct validity than wording. b) Political polls typically use Likert scales to ask people which candidate they would vote for. c) Researchers compute an average to score a survey with forced-choice questions. d) Open-ended questions usually include rich and spontaneous information.
d) Open-ended questions usually include rich and spontaneous information.
RESEARCH STUDY 4.1: Dr. Kushner is planning on conducting a study next semester. He is curious as to whether sleep deprivation is associated with poorer cognitive performance. For example, if you sleep poorly the night before a big exam, will you do worse? Dr. Kushner is especially curious about selective sleep deprivation, where people are kept from entering REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Using an electroencephalograph (EEG) to monitor brain waves, he plans to let participants sleep until they enter REM sleep and then wake them. After the participants are awake for one minute, Dr. Kushner plans to let them return to sleep. As they enter REM sleep again, he will wake them again and follow the same procedure. He plans to do this through the entire eight-hour sleep session. The following morning, participants will be asked to take a sample SAT test. Dr. Kushner plans to use deception in his study and is thinking about a debriefing session. Which of the following is true of the debriefing? a) Dr. Kushner needs to invite only participants who were troubled by the study to the debriefing session. b) Because his study has potential medical applications, the use of a debriefing session is optional. c) During the debriefing, Dr. Kushner needs to tell the participants only that there was deception. d) Participants must be told the reasons for the deception.
d) Participants must be told the reasons for the deception.
RESEARCH STUDY 2.1: Sariyah is studying subliminal messages and weight loss. She is curious whether people will lose more weight if they hear subliminal messages that encourage weight loss ("don't eat that food," "you want to be thin," etc.) in the music compared to people who do not have subliminal messages in their music. She studies 40 people and finds the following results: exposed to subliminal messages & lost weight = (cell A) 15 not exposed to subliminal messages & lost weight = (cell B) 10 exposed to subliminal messages & didn't lose weight = (cell C) 5 not exposed to subliminal messages & didn't lose weight = (cell D) 10 To understand whether the subliminal messages have an effect, Sariyah needs to consider which of the following cells in the chart? a) She must consider only Cell A. b) She must consider Cells A and B. c) She must consider Cells A and C. d) She must consider all of the cells.
d) She must consider all of the cells.
a simple difference is also called a) a factorial design. b) a marginal means difference. c) an interaction effect. d) a main effect.
d) a main effect.
RESEARCH STUDY 10.1: Dr. Lonsbary is a cognitive psychologist who is curious about how mood affects memory. She recruited 60 high school students and divided them into three groups. Group A listened to a 5-minute piece of music intended to make them feel happy ("Happy" by Pharrell). Group B listened to a 5-minute piece of music intended to make them feel sad (a song titled "Home Is Such a Lonely Place" by Blink-182). Group C listened to no music and instead was asked to sit quietly for 5 minutes (thought to make them feel neutral). When a participant would come to her laboratory, Dr. Lonsbary would greet the participant and then ask them to roll a six-sided die. Participants who rolled a 1 or 2 were assigned to Group A. Participants who rolled a 3 or 4 were assigned to Group B. Participants who rolled a 5 or 6 were assigned to Group C. The participants were then given an unlabeled CD to listen to based on their group assignment. The CD contained either the song selection or 5 minutes of silence. They were then escorted into a different room, where they were greeted by a research assistant who conducted the experiment. The research assistant sat the participants in front of a computer screen and told them that a list of 25 words would be displayed on the screen. They were instructed to listen to the CD with headphones while trying to memorize the list of words. All participants were given the same list of 25 common words to remember (e.g., desk, gray, plane, car, mask). When 5 minutes had passed, the screen displayed a question asking them whether they felt happy, sad, or neutral. After the participant responded, a new screen was displayed asking them to type in all the words they could remember from the list of 25 words. All participants were given 3 minutes to type the words they remembered. Afterward, the participant was thanked and dismissed. In response to the mood question, a majority of Group A participants said they were happy, a majority of Group B participants said they were sad, and a majority of Group C participants said they were neutral in their mood. Dr. Lonsbary's study contains which of the following techniques designed to address a threat to construct validity? a) counterbalancing b) a placebo group c) a demand characteristic d) a manipulation check
d) a manipulation check
When bivariate association claims do not meet the criteria of temporal precedence and internal validity, this means that ________ cannot be ________. a) covariance; established b) construct validity; interrogated c) hypotheses; tested d) causal inferences; made
d) causal inferences; made
Which of the following is most likely to be part of a debriefing? a) asking participants to summarize the data they provided as one strategy for checking their understanding of the study hypotheses b) having participants review and sign an informed consent form c) an explicit warning about any potential risks d) fully informing participants about all aspects of the study
d) fully informing participants about all aspects of the study
Which of the following ethical considerations is relevant to research with animals? a) ensuring anonymity b) obtaining informed consent c) obtaining IRB approval d) minimizing harm
d) minimizing harm
A confound that keeps a researcher from finding a relationship between two variables is known as a(n) ________ confound. a) weak b) insensitive c) null d) reverse
d) reverse
The principle of justice calls for a balance between ________ and ________ . a) costs to the participant; benefits to the participant b) needing to deceive participants; needing to obtain informed consent c) the interests of the researcher; the interests of the institutional review board (IRB) d) the kind of people who participate in research; the kind of people who benefit from it
d) the kind of people who participate in research; the kind of people who benefit from it
Dr. Gavin decides that instead of conducting a 2 × 4 independent-groups factorial design, he is going to conduct a 2 × 3 × 4 mixed factorial design. Which of the following things will NOT have to change? a) the number of main effects that need to be examined b) the number of interactions that need to be examined c) the number of participants needed d) the number of researchers needed
d) the number of researchers needed
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
RESEARCH STUDY 12.1: Dr. Singh was interested in the way people recognize objects as members of categories. For example, what makes us recognize a dog as being a dog and not a cat? More specifically, she was curious as to whether people think about categories in a more complex way if they contemplate an "opposite" category first. For example, does a person think differently about the category of "southern" if they first think about the category of "northern"? She was also curious as to whether people categorize differently if they are shown examples of those categories (e.g., looking at pictures of different animals) compared with generating those examples themselves (e.g., drawing pictures of different animals). Dr. Singh has four groups of participants (with 30 people in each group). In Group A, participants were told to cut out pictures of dogs and cats from magazines. In Group B, participants were told to cut out pictures of just dogs from magazines. In Group C, participants were told to draw pictures of cats and dogs. In Group D, participants were told to draw pictures of just dogs. After doing this for 30 minutes, participants in all groups were asked to list the attributes that define the "dog" category. Having a higher number of attributes listed was considered to be an indication of thinking about the category in a more complex way. The results of her study are below. Which of the following is the most likely reason Dr. Singh conducted a factorial design? a) to determine whether a mediator was present in participants' ability to categorize b) to test whether there is a difference between creating and searching for category members c) to test whether there is a difference between thinking about a category and thinking about a category and its opposite d) to test whether task type interacts with the effect of activity focus
d) to test whether task type interacts with the effect of activity focus
Vinai learns that people with schizophrenia have a problem labeling their emotions. Using this information, he designs a research study to examine whether teaching patients with schizophrenia to label the emotions of people they see in movie clips helps them to better label their own emotions. Vinai hopes that the findings of this research could then be used to create an intervention to treat schizophrenia. Vinai's study is an example of a) basic research. b) applied research. c) empirical research. d) translational research.
d) translational research.
A biased sample consists of too many ________ cases. a) basic b) ideal c) complicated d) unusual
d) unusual
A study finds a correlation coefficient of r = .52. According to the guidelines for interpreting effect sizes, the magnitude of this effect is a) very small or very weak. b) small or weak. c) moderate. d) unusually large in psychology.
d) unusually large in psychology.
Hosea is studying the relationship between caffeine consumption and problem-solving ability. Which of the following is a categorical way to operationalize caffeine consumption? a) the number of cups of coffee consumed in a day b) the number of milligrams of caffeine consumed during the study c) the frequency of buying energy drinks d) whether the participant drank coffee in the 24 hours prior to the study
d) whether the participant drank coffee in the 24 hours prior to the study
You are looking to purchase a new pair of running shoes. Which of the following should you consider when looking at the Zappos.com headline "61% said this shoe felt true to size"? a) whether the people who rated the shoe were randomly assigned to the running shoe b) whether the people who rated the show were more conscientious than average c) whether the people who rated the shoe had Internet access d) whether the people who rated the shoe share the same characteristics as others who bought the shoe
d) whether the people who rated the shoe share the same characteristics as others who bought the shoe
