Research Methods Mid Term
In logistic regression, one is able to predict
the probability of an occurrence
The only type of research that can manipulate treatments and establish a cause and effect is
experimental research
The t test is used to
test whether two groups differ significantly
In a study designed to assess the comparative effectiveness of two workbooks used in teaching students about laboratory procedures, the independent variable of the study would be
workbooks
Which one of the following statements does not describe an advantage of repeated measures?
Repeated measures can eliminate the influence of some unwanted variable.
This question pertains to the following study: "A researcher wishes to determine the effects of an outdoor adventure summer camp on the self-concept of inner-city boys. Boys are randomly assigned to the summer camp and to a control situation. The experimental treatment is for three months. A secondary purpose is to see if age (ages 6, 9, and 12) affects the relationship of the camp effects and self-concept."The independent variable is
adventure summer camp
A predictive validity technique involving the construction of a two-way grid of percentages of students at different levels of an aptitude test who achieved different grades is called
an expectancy table
When the purpose of the research is to determine the effects of one independent variable (e.g., four groups) on one dependent variable (e.g., self-concept), the best choice of a statistical analysis is
analysis of variance
Comparing test items with the course objectives (course topics) checks which type of validity?
content
A teacher wishes to determine the reliability of three trials on a performance test. He uses ANOVA to obtain the reliability coefficient. This technique is called
intraclass correlation
A research hypothesis
is directly testable
When a researcher claims that there is a difference between treatments (i.e., rejects the null hypothesis) when there really is no difference, what type of error is this?
type I error
In evaluating the methods section of a research report, which is a very important question to keep in mind?
Did the author provide enough information that the study could be repeated?
The term that describes the position of the hump in the curve of a distribution is
skewness
References to books should include
author, date, title, city of publication, publisher's name
With regard to capitalization only in APA style, which of these references is/are correct?
(Book) Plagenhoef, S. C. Patterns of human motion and (Journal) Cassell, J. Ethical patterns in fieldwork. American Educational Research Journal
The researcher obtained a significant F from the ANOVA. Omega squared was found to be .30. This is interpreted to mean that
30% of the total variance is accounted for by the treatments
Which of these statements is/are true concerning the "significance of the study" section in the introduction of a thesis?
All of the above
The premise that the scores from the Minnesota Attitude Inventory are a valid measure of attitude toward school is an example of a
basic assumption
Which of the following is a technique for providing information about the reliability of an instrument?
coefficient alpha
Prediction studies use which of the following as the basic analysis technique?
correlation
It is desirable to carry out a pilot study prior to the actual research study because
it permits a thorough check of the planned data collection and analysis procedures
For confidentiality, the researcher should
all of the above
The introduction to a research report should
move from a general description of the theoretical problem to the specific area to be studied
The extent to which the results of a study can be attributed to the treatments used in the study is the definition of what kind of validity?
internal
A researcher conducts a study on the effectiveness of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) by comparing classes that use this method with classes that do not. The researcher expects the CAI classes to show higher gains in achievement. This expectation is
a hypothesis
A null hypothesis is
a statistical hypothesis that assumes that there is no difference among the effects of treatments
A researcher sought to find out which of two exercises was more effective in building endurance. One group used exercise A, and another group used exercise B. At the end of study, the researcher should compare the two groups' scores by
an independent t test
The determining factor in the order of authorship of a research publication is that the first author is the person who
develops the idea and plans the research
A threat to the validity of rating scales is that the rater may tend to let her previous knowledge of the student in another capacity (e.g., another course) influence the rating. This threat is called the
halo effect
In the description of pertinent characteristics of the participants, which of the following would be least pertinent in a study that surveyed the favorite books of children?
height of the children
A report of a research study submitted for a four-chapter thesis and the same study prepared for a journal differ with respect to the length of the
introduction and review of literature and description of the methods
A thesis was submitted with the title "A study comparing the achievement of sixth-grade students in Moscow, Idaho, instructed in health education through closed-circuit television and regular classroom procedure for a period of 16 weeks." This title
is too long
The property of a distribution of scores that relates to how peaked or flat the curve is called
kurtosis
This question pertains to the following study: "A researcher wishes to determine the effects of an outdoor adventure summer camp on the self-concept of inner-city boys. Boys are randomly assigned to the summer camp and to a control situation. The experimental treatment is for three months. A secondary purpose is to see if age (ages 6, 9, and 12) affects the relationship of the camp effects and self-concept."The researcher states that self-concept is represented by scores on the Tennessee Self Concept Scale. This is an example of a(n)
operational definition
The researcher's statement that "the boys in the adventure program will make significantly greater gains in self-concept than the boys in the control group" is an example of a(n)
research hypothesis
This question pertains to the following study: "A researcher wishes to determine the effects of an outdoor adventure summer camp on the self-concept of inner-city boys. Boys are randomly assigned to the summer camp and to a control situation. The experimental treatment is for three months. A secondary purpose is to see if age (ages 6, 9, and 12) affects the relationship of the camp effects and self-concept."The dependent variable is
self-concept
After a population of 1,000 high school seniors is divided by sex and size of school attended, the random selection of a sample to represent these proportions of the population is called
stratified random sampling
Another term that describes the unscientific method of tenacity is
superstition
Which of the following is not a common error in the review of literature sections of theses?
synthesizing and interpreting the findings of previous research
A researcher wishes to survey student opinions on a proposed increase in fees at her university. She decides to select a sample for telephone interviewing by selecting every 20th name in the student directory. What is this type of sampling called?
systematic
A two-way (factorial) ANOVA with more than one person per cell will yield F values for which of following contrasts?
three F values, one each for rows, columns, and interaction
When an experimenter states that the level of significance is the .05 level, he is setting the probability of committing which type of error?
type I error
In an item analysis, 14 of the 20 high-ability students answered an item correctly, whereas only 8 of the 20 low-ability students did. What is the discrimination index for this item?
.30
What is the mode(s) for the following set of numbers? (5, 10, 4, 1, 4, 5, 12, 8, 9, 4 )
4
Which of the following statements would appear in the procedures part of the methods section of a research report?
Participants in the experimental group exercised three days per week for 30 minutes per day for 10 weeks.
Reliability of a measure may be established by
a and b only
This question pertains to the following study: "A researcher wishes to determine the effects of an outdoor adventure summer camp on the self-concept of inner-city boys. Boys are randomly assigned to the summer camp and to a control situation. The experimental treatment is for three months. A secondary purpose is to see if age (ages 6, 9, and 12) affects the relationship of the camp effects and self-concept."The categorical variable is
age level
To determine which of two methods for learning a motor skill is more effective, the correct statistical analysis is
an independent t test
The abstract of a study should
be a concise summary of the study
The single score that best represents all the scores in a distribution is the definition of
central tendency
A statistical technique that tests for significant differences between observed and expected frequencies of occurrence is
chi square
This question pertains to the following study: "A researcher wishes to determine the effects of an outdoor adventure summer camp on the self-concept of inner-city boys. Boys are randomly assigned to the summer camp and to a control situation. The experimental treatment is for three months. A secondary purpose is to see if age (ages 6, 9, and 12) affects the relationship of the camp effects and self-concept."The number of participants, the selection of the self-concept inventory, and the length of the study are all examples of
delimitations
A researcher decides to use an alpha of .01 and a power of .80. To determine the needed sample size the researcher must ascertain the expected
effect size
For a study with two (or more) independent variables, such as type of instruction and sex, and one dependent variable, such as achievement, the most appropriate analysis technique is
factorial ANOVA
This question pertains to the following study: "A researcher wishes to determine the effects of an outdoor adventure summer camp on the self-concept of inner-city boys. Boys are randomly assigned to the summer camp and to a control situation. The experimental treatment is for three months. A secondary purpose is to see if age (ages 6, 9, and 12) affects the relationship of the camp effects and self-concept."The researcher states that he is aware that responses to questions on a self-concept scale may not always be what the person really believes. This is an example of a(n)
limitation
If two measures have a high positive correlation, and a person has a low score on one measure, her score on the other measure is most likely to be
low
If there is a correlation of .80 between a test of scholastic aptitude and performance on an achievement test, one can infer that
no causation can be inferred
Data such as sex, city of residence, or political party affiliation are what kind of measure?
nominal
The term coined by Kuhn to denote the scientific approach that is used widely in the natural sciences is
normal science
The primary sources of a literature review are
research journal articles
The type of scale that uses items such as "Worthless-Valuable" is called a
semantic differential scale
To determine whether data are normally distributed, one can test to see whether the curve is shifted to the left or right. This shift is called
skewness
In the example in chapter 1 of the experiment that compared aerobic dance with jogging, what was the dependent variable?
skinfold-measured fat
In the instruments part of the methods section, the author should include a description of the
test characteristics of validity and reliability
When a researcher states that a result is significant, this means that
the result is unlikely to be a chance occurrence
According to the American Psychological Association, when a graduate student submits her thesis or dissertation for publication jointly with the major professor, the first author should be
the student
A researcher wishes to determine whether a treatment group made a significant improvement from the pretest (M = 25) to the posttest (M = 30). The correct statistical test to use to compare the two means is the
dependent t test
A researcher used a t test to compare treatments and obtained a t of 3.45. One group had 48 participants, and the other group had 40. The table value for significance at the .01 level was 2.64. Which of the following is the correct way to express these results?
t(86) = 3.45, p < .01
Validity is determined by finding the correlation between scores on
a test and some independent criterion
A main disadvantage of nonparametric techniques that has frequently been stated (although there is some disagreement with this claim) is that they
are not as powerful (less likely to detect a false null hypothesis) as parametric techniques
References to journal articles should include
author, date, article title, journal name, volume, inclusive pages, doi
A physical education teacher develops a skill test in volleyball. After administering the test to 50 students, she asks the volleyball coach to rate the students on volleyball skills. She then correlates the students' test scores with the coach's rating. This is an example of what type of validity?
criterion validity
The generalizability of the results pertains to what kind of validity?
external
The term that denotes using ideas, writings, or drawings of others as your own is
plagiarism
After receiving approval from the university committee on the use of humans as research participants (Institutional Review Board), the researcher
should include a description of this compliance in the methods section of the thesis or dissertation.
Compared to applied research, basic research
usually offers more control, such as that done in a laboratory
A correlation of .00 between two variables indicates
independence (no association) between the variables
At the end of a well-written introduction, the reader should be able to predict the
statement of the problem (purpose of study)