Exam 2: Scientific Methods in Psychology

In one study,the experimental group is subjected to loud,unpredictable noises to see whether or not those noises will affect performance on a memory task.What will the control group do?

The burden of proof concept argues that it is up to the skeptic to prove that no person can demonstrate psychic abilities.

The horse named Clever Hans that seemed to answer mathematical questions,got the answers from?

In many psychological experiments the experimenter will take elaborate steps to conceal the purpose of the experiment from the participants.The purpose of concealing this information is

The advantage of the experimental method as opposed to correlational studies is that an experiment

To determine whether a theory is parsimonious,psychologists pay attention to whether

The ____________________ is a measurement of the amount of variation among scores in a normal distribution. standard deviation

The experimental group in one study receives a free copy of the study guide so that the experimenter can determine the effect of the study guide on test performance.What will the control group in this experiment do?

A ____________________ is one of the most difficult to obtain,but is best-suited for generalizing to the whole population? random sample

To say that a theory is falsifiable is to say that

For a variety of reasons,many scientists recommend that instead of (or in addition to)stating the p value,researchers should show the means and:

Which of the following is an example of an inferential statistic?

A psychic claims that he can read the minds of people on the planet Zipton,which is millions of light years away.The main scientific objection is that this claim

To test the effects of eating on learning,Professor Lee permits her morning class to bring snacks to class but forbids her afternoon class from bringing snacks.To measure performance,she counts the number of "intelligent questions" asked by students in each class,and reports getting more such questions in the morning class.What are two serious flaws in this experiment?

Before conducting any experiment on humans,a psychological investigator must obtain ____________________. informed consent

Which of the following correlation coefficients indicates that two variable have no measurable relationship to each other?

To test the effect of an informal atmosphere on class performance,Professor Hall dresses in shorts and bare feet for his morning class and in conventional clothing for his afternoon class.He then counts the number of "intelligent questions" in each class and reports more in the class for which he wore shorts.What are the two things wrong with this experiment?

Professor Smith conducts a study,and he finds that his results are not statistically significant.This means that Professor Smith must conclude that his hypothesis was wrong.

The tendency for researchers to believe that they see what they expected to see rather than observing what is really happening,is called

Scientists usually prefer the more "parsimonious" explanation because it is: