Exam 2: Scientific Methods in Psychology

Psychologists have the greatest confidence in their results if the results have been

The Lizard Lick State Fighting Nematodes scored 50,50,55,60,and 85 points in their first five basketball games.What was their mean score?

The main advantage of an experimental study,in contrast to a correlational study,is that an experiment is

In general,the smaller the p value,the more impressive the results.

Which of the following is used in calculating a standard deviation?

The ganzfeld procedure,used to investigate claims of extrasensory perception,has been

A survey company that wants to know the views of the average person sends an agent to a shopping mall to interview anyone who is available.The people who are interviewed constitute a

A ____________________ is the entire group of individuals to be considered. population

Random assignment is a procedure that psychological researchers apply to their

A placebo is a

Often the experimental group receives a pill believed to have strong effects,and the control group receives a pill that looks like the other pill,but has no effects,other than those due to expectations.The one given to the control group is called a

The cues that tell a participant what is expected or what the experimenter hopes to find are known as

To say that a theory is ____________________ is to say that it makes simple,acceptable assumptions. parsimonious

Several years ago,researchers examined the effect of listening to music from Mozart on psychological test performance.It appeared that those people who had listened to Mozart performed better on tasks of spatial reasoning than did those people who listened to a relaxation tape or had experienced silence.Later research revealed some problems with these findings.Specifically,

Dr.Rodentz deprives several rats of food for different lengths of time and then places them at the start of a maze.He records how long each rat takes to reach the food at the end of the maze.The time needed to reach the food is the

A correlation is a

Lycanthropy is an extremely rare condition in which someone believes he or she is a wolf.An investigator who wished to study this condition would most likely rely on which method?

All else being equal,scientists always prefer the most parsimonious theory.

Which of the following procedures would be most likely to reduce the effects of demand characteristics?

A population is the entire group of individuals to be considered.