Which of the following is NOT a goal of the psychologist conducting research into human behavior and metal processes?
A. significance
Control, precision, and testable hypotheses are all characteristics of __________
the scientific method
In a study investigating the role of anger and aggression the researcher is using heart rate and breathing rate as in indicator of the level of anger. The greater the increase in the heart rate and breathing rate the more angry the participant. The method of defining what you are using as a measure of a concept and what the measurement means is called a __________.
operational definition
A precise, testable prediction about the relationship between two or more variables is called a:
hypothesis
An experiment is conducted to determine the effects of varying levels of anxiety on test performance. The independent variable in this experiment would be the _________.
level of anxiety
Dennis wants to find out if his hair color determines how much "fun" he has. He tries three different hair colors (blond, brown, and red) to see
how much "fun" he has with each color. In this example, which of the following is the independent variable?
D. hair color
A researcher wanted to design a true experiment that would measure changes in reaction time. Which of the following could be used as a
manipulated independent variable to determine it’s effect on reaction time. The participants are to be college seniors.
sleep deprivation
In a true experiment, a researcher manipulates one variable to see how it changes a second variable. The second variable is called the ____________.
dependent variable
A researcher gives different sets of instructions to students solving written problems to see whether some strategies work better than others.In this research, the students' problem solving performance is the ______variable.
dependent
The major difference between an experimental and a correlational research design is:
manipulation of the IV
Citizens' groups complain that television is related to children's aggressive behavior. Television executives argue that aggressive children watch more aggressive programs. The only way to determine whether television violence is CAUSING aggressive behavior is to:
conduct a true experiment
A research design that does not allow for the manipulation of the independent variable is called _______ design.
a correlational design
A major advantage to using a correlational design is:
you can study a wider variety of variables
The standard deviation reflects the spread of scores around the ____________
mean
To determine the most typical data value in a data set you could use which of the following:
D. mean, median, or mode
The type of statistics you use to determine if the association between or difference between two variables is significant are ______________
statistics.
inferential
A t-test indicates the ____________ two means
difference between
Which of the following choices is the correct format for reporting: “the probability that the results occurred by chance is less than 5 percent”?
p<.05
A correlation coefficient of -0.89 would show __________ between the two variables.
a strong association
When the values of the independent variable fall in a numerical or quantitative order the results of a study should be shown on a ________ graph.
line
Which of the following choices is the element of a graph that is ALWAYS placed below a figure?
caption
The use of uniform, consistent procedures in all phases of data collection is called ______.
standardization
A psychologist studying pilot trainees picks the trainees who will be in her experimental group by selecting every third name appearing on the
list of all available trainees. She is controlling for extraneous variables by using the control technique called ____________.
randomization
A journal article that presents the procedures and results from a single study or a group of coordinated studies investigating the same phenomenon is called ______________ journal article.
an empirical
Which of the following is NOT an ethical concern for researchers in psychology?
A. statistical significance
If deception is needed in a study, the participants must be told at the earliest possible moment about the true purpose of the research. The process of informing them of the true purpose of the study is called _____.
debriefing
in the Cognition study your information processing speed was measured.
Your information processing speed was defined as:
the difference in reaction time in a simple and choice condition
In the memory lab you were shown cards with two words on them. You were asked to remember which words went together on each card. The number of words you could recall was measured. What was the independent variable in this study?
imagery of the words
In the Anxiety/Stress project you measured how a student's level of anxiety affected their Grade Point Average. Which inferential statistic did you use to determine the association between the two variables?
correlation coefficient
During the social psychology lab we measured your attitudes about love and generated a score on each of six scales. What two independent variables did we compare in this study?
gender and age
Students always wonder about changing answers on multiple choice exams. A psychology professor decided to determine if changing answers was a
good idea. During each of four regular class exams the professor examined the answer sheets of the students to determine the number of
answers changed and if changing an answer increased or decreased a students score on the exam. The net result of the changes (increased
score or decreased score) was measured. What was the dependent variable in this study ?
the net result of the changes
Students always wonder about changing answers on multiple choice exams. A psychology professor decided to determine if changing answers was a
good idea. During each of four regular class exams the professor examined the answer sheets of the students to determine the number of answers changed and if changing an answer increased or decreased a students score on the exam. The net result of the changes (increased
score or decreased score) was measured. What was the research design used in this study ?
correlational
A researcher compares the reactions of two randomly divided groups of children attending a summer camp. One group is told scary stories every night before bedtime. The other group listens to a variety of stories that are funny or interesting but never frightening. At the end of one
week, the researcher finds that those who heard frightening stories prefer more group activities than the children who did not hear frightening stories. Which of the following statements about this research is NOT true?
C. this is an example of a correlational investigation.
A researcher compares the reactions of two randomly divided groups of children attending a summer camp. One group is told scary stories every night before bedtime. The other group listens to a variety of stories that are funny or interesting but never frightening. At the end of one
week, the researcher finds that those who heard frightening stories prefer more group activities than the children who did not hear frightening stories. What was the dependent variable in this study?
the number of group activities in which the students participated
An researcher studies two groups of participants. One group is slightly developmentally delayed (DD) (5 males and 5 females). The second group
is college freshman (CF) (5 males and 5 females). All participants are the same age. The study consists of having each participant run the 40
yard dash three times, once on each of three days. The results were that the DD males run the slowest, DD females next slowest, CF males next
and CF females ran the fastest. The researcher concluded that mental ability caused a change in running speed. Which inferential statistic should be used to measure the association between mental ability and running speed?
correlation coefficient
An researcher studies two groups of participants. One group is slightly developmentally delayed (DD) (5 males and 5 females). The second group
is college freshman (CF) (5 males and 5 females). All participants are the same age. The study consists of having each participant run the 40
yard dash three times, once on each of three days. The results were that the DD males run the slowest, DD females next slowest, CF males next
and CF females ran the fastest. The researcher concluded that mental ability caused a change in running speed.The major problem with the conclusions presented by the researcher is
________________
causation cannot be shown with a correlational study
A researcher studies two groups of participants. One group is slightly developmentally delayed (DD) (5 males and 5 females). The second group
is college freshman (CF) (5 males and 5 females). All participants are the same age. The study consists of having each participant run the 40
yard dash three times, once on each of three days. The results were that the DD males run the slowest, DD females next slowest, CF males next
and CF females ran the fastest. The researcher concluded that mental ability caused a change in running speed. The dependent variable in this study is __________.
running speed
A researcher wants to find out whether there is a difference in recall ability between children (ages 4-9) and the elderly (ages 65-75). There are two groups of participants: the old group (25 people) and the young group (25 people) . Both groups memorize a list of eight nonsense syllables (i.e. VYN, CIG, DOK). It took the young group 9 trials to memorize the list. It took the old group 15 trials to memorize the list. After 48 hours both groups were asked to recall all the nonsense syllables they could. The old group recalled a mean of 7 nonsense syllables, the young group recalled a mean of 4 syllables. What is the independent variable in this study?
age
A researcher wants to find out whether there is a difference in recall ability between children (ages 4-9) and the elderly (ages 65-75). There are two groups of participants: the old group (25 people) and the young group (25 people) . Both groups memorize a list of eight nonsense syllables (i.e. VYN, CIG, DOK). It took the young group 9 trials to memorize the list. It took the old group 15 trials to memorize the list. After 48 hours both groups were asked to recall all the nonsense syllables they could. The old group recalled a mean of 7 onsense
syllables, the young group recalled a mean of 4 syllables. What is the dependent variable in this study?
number of syllables recalled
A researcher wants to find out whether there is a difference in recall ability between children (ages 4-9) and the elderly (ages 65-75). There are two groups of participants: the old group (25 people) and the young group (25 people) . Both groups memorize a list of eight nonsense syllables (i.e. VYN, CIG, DOK). It took the young group 9 trials to memorize the list. It took the old group 15 trials to memorize the list. After 48 hours both groups were asked to recall all the nonsense syllables they could. The old group recalled a mean of 7 nonsense syllables, the young group recalled a mean of 4 syllables. Which method of control was used in this study?
matching
What is a short 75-100-word summary of an article published in a scholarly journal.
Abstract
What is Anonymity?
participants will not be individually identified in published reports about the study
What is Attention?
a concentration of mental activity to process incoming sensations
Define Automaticity:
the apparently effortless, involuntary processing conducted without intention
What is used when data falls within discrete categories or is unordered (qualitatively different)?
Bar graph
What are Baseline Responses?
the initial levels of a behavior, before training
Define: Chance
the normal variation among and across people
What measures how quickly the participant can react physically plus the time it takes to decide which response is correct?
Choice Reaction Time Task
What is Classical Conditioning?
a type of learning in which a response naturally elicited by one stimulus comes to be elicited by a different formerly neutral stimulus.
Define: Confidentiality
prohibits the sharing of information gained in a study with others or for personal gain
What is a characteristics of the scientific method representing that any variable which plays a part in changing the values of the dependent variable is measured, eliminated, and/or otherwise accounted for?
Control
Define: Correlational Research Design
systematic empirical studies in which the researcher does not have direct control over the IV due to the nature of the IV.
What is the procedure whereby the true nature of the study is fully explained to the participant?
Debreifing
Define: Deception
withholding some information about the true nature of the study before participation in the study
What are the pre-existing variables used in many studies, such as age, weight, height, etc?
Demographic Variables
Define: Dependent Variable (DV)
a measure of some behavior expressed in numbers
Define: Degrees of Freedom (df)
the number of cases in a data set minus 1 or 2 depending on the statistic
What kind of statistics describe the data? They show how spread out the data values are (Range and Standard Deviation) and how the data clusters together (Mean, Median, and Mode.)
Descriptive statistics
Define: Empirical
emphasizes direct observation and experimentation as a way of answering questions
What reports the results of a study or experiment and usually advances the knowledge in a field?
Empirical Journal Article
What is the term for systematic empirical studies in which the researcher has direct control over the independent variable, who receives it, and how much of the IV each participant experiences?
Experimental Research Designs
Define: Extraneous Variables
variables in a study, which are not controlled that may affect the dependent variable.
Define: Hypothesis
a precise, testable prediction about the relationship between two or more factors (variables).
What is used when each participant contributes one value to each variable in the data set?
Independent t-test
Define: Independent Variable (IV)
the variable the researcher predicts will be associated with changes in the DV
What kind of statistics allow the researcher to draw conclusions (inferences) about the data collected. Two statistics included in this category are the t-test and correlation coefficient?
Inferential Statistics
Define: Information Processing Speed
the difference between the mean time to respond in a simple task (one stimulus) and a choice task (two or more stimuli/reactions).
Define: Informed Consent
the participant has been fully informed about the study before participation
Define: Level of Significance
how sure the researcher is of the results, represented by the probability
What is a relatively permanent change in behavior or behavior potential resulting from experience?
Learning
What kind of graph is used when the data is continuous or falls into a logical order (quantitatively different)?
Line Graph
Define: Magazine Training
reinforcing behaviors that will teach an animal to press a bar to obtain a food reinforcer
Define: Manipulated IV
a manipulated IV is directly under the researchers' control. The manipulated IV is what the participant will experience after they begin a study
Define: Matching
selecting or placing participants into groups according to some pre-existing feature
What is the arithmetic average of the data?
the mean
What is the category of descriptive statistics that tell you how the data clusters together. The three major statistics in this group are the mean, median, and mode?
Measures of Central Tendency
What is the category of descriptive statistics that inform you about how spread-out or variable the data values are. The two major statistics in this group are the range and Standard Deviation?
Measures of Dispersion/Variability
What is a descriptive statistic that represents the middle data value in the data set?
the median
Define: Memory
the ability to store and retrieve information
What is the descriptive statistic that presents the data value that occurs most often?
the mode
What is it called when the values for the variables move in opposite directions, as one variable increases (decreases) the second variable decreases (increases)?
Negative Correlation
Define: Negative Punishment
removes something desired and decreases the probability of the behavior occurring again
Define: Negative Reinforcement
removes or allows you to avoid or escape something aversive and increases the probability of the behavior occurring again
What is the term for IV’s that are pre-existing, they represent some aspect about the participants the researcher selects, which divides them into two or more exclusive groups?
Non-Manipulated IV
What is a Novel Task?
something most people would not have had experience with in everyday living
Define: Observational Learning
learning by observing other people’s behavior
Define: Operational Definition
describes the concept under investigation, explaining how it is to be measured, what operations produce it, and what the measurements mean.
What is the type of learning in which behaviors are emitted to earn reinforcers or avoid punishment?
Operant Conditioning
What statistic is used when each participant contributes more than one data value to the data set?
Paired t-test
What is the Pearson Correlation Coefficient?
the inferential statistic used to measure the association between two variables
What is the term for a person's unique pattern of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that persist over time and situations?
Personality
Define: Positive Correlation
the values for both variables move in the same direction, as one variable increases (decreases) so does the second variable.
Define: Positive Punishment
presents something aversive and decreases the probability of the behavior occurring again.
Define: Positive Reinforcement
presents something desired and increases the probability of the behavior occurring again
What is Precision?
a characteristics of the scientific method representing that data is collected in a manner that keeps the possibility of errors at a minimum
What is the statistic that represents the chance that another study, conducted exactly like the original study, will have different results?
Probability
What is PsycINFO?
a computerized database covering the professional and academic literature in psychology and related disciplines
What is used to decrease the chances of a behavior occurring again?
Punishment
Define: Randomization
each participant has an equal chance to be in any of the experiment's groups
What is the descriptive statistic that measures the difference between the lowest and highest data point?
Range
What measures the amount of time that elapses between the presentation of a stimulus and the response of the participant?
Reaction Time Task
What is used to increase the chance of a behavior occurring again?
Reinforcement
What is a Research Question?
a general question about the relationship between two or more variables.
Define: Review Journal Article
summarizes the research of others and gives an overview of an area
What is the Scientific Method?
a set of procedures used to analyze and solve problems by relying on objective research data
What is the process of reinforcing behaviors that are closer and closer to the desired final behavior?
Shaping
Define: Simple Reaction Time
presents a single stimulus and asks the participant to respond as quickly as possible
Define: Standard Deviation (SD)
a descriptive statistics that measures the spread of scores around the mean
What is Standardization?
all participants are treated exactly the same, with the exception of the variable being investigated
What is a characteristics of the scientific method representing that psychologists plan what they are going to do?
Systematic
Define: Trial
occurs each time the new behavior or task is attempted and measured to determine progress or improvement with the task
What statistic measures the difference between two means and determines whether the difference between the groups is large enough to be significant?
t-test
What is a characteristic of the scientific method representing that researchers do not let personal opinion enter into the analysis of the data collected?
