Exam 8: Solving Problems: Controlling Extraneous Variables

Physical Variables Lindsay videotaped instructions for subjects to ensure that all subjects in each condition receive the same information.This illustrates the control procedure of

Social Variables Placebo effects in drug trials are due to

Social Variables The demand characteristics of an experiment may result in a subject

Personality Variables Keesha's study involved deception.She was supposed to truthfully inform control subjects that they might not have time to solve a difficult puzzle and lie to experimental subjects that previous subjects completed the same puzzle with time to spare.Sadly, she has no talent for lying.While she was relaxed in the control condition, she was visibly anxious in the experimental condition.This systematic change in her emotional state

Social Variables Which of these techniques to control demand characteristics involves deception?

Physical Variables Although James wanted to run all the subjects in his experiment by himself, he realized that he couldn't complete the experiment in time without a second experimenter.To control for experimenter personality, he ran half the subjects in each condition and his roommate ran the other half.This strategy is called

Physical Variables Experimenters remove potentially confounding extraneous variables when they employ

Physical Variables Which of these could be a physical variable in an experiment?

Physical Variables ____ are aspects of the testing conditions that need to be controlled.

Social Variables Wasson and colleagues' (1984) study of outpatient health care in elderly men kept both the patients and health-care providers from knowing

Context Variables Cat was concerned that she might have difficulty obtaining subjects because it was late in the semester.She brainstormed with her teammates and then said, "Most of the experiments advertised this semester have totally boring titles like 'The Attribution Experiment.' If we select an exciting title like 'The Extreme Sports Study,' we'll recruit hundreds of subjects." The problem with Cat's solution is that it could

Context Variables Select the title that best follows the authors' suggestions for obtaining an unbiased sample.

Physical Variables By randomly assigning subjects to treatment conditions, many extraneous variables are automatically ____ across conditions.

Social Variables Graduate students who were told their rats were either "maze-bright" or "stupid" observed dramatic differences in maze performance.The "maze-bright" rats quickly learned to run the maze while the "stupid" rats did poorly.What do these results illustrate?

Personality Variables Rosenthal reported that when an experimenter acts in a friendly manner, subjects sometimes

Social Variables Researchers should not routinely employ cover stories because they

Context Variables When subjects sign up for studies that are scheduled at a convenient time or have an exciting title, this can

Physical Variables Michele ran all treatment conditions during the evening to control for the effect of time of day.Which control technique did she use?

Social Variables Experimenters generally want subjects to be as naïve as possible concerning the experimental hypothesis to reduce confounding by

Personality Variables Zack is excited about how experimenter personality can positively influence subject performance.He says, "This is so cool! I'm going to smile at all my experimental subjects and they're going to perform like Pavlov's dog for me." What issue has Zack overlooked?