Exam 2: Studying Behaviour Scientifically

In neuropsychology, researchers often measure how quickly/slowly participants respond to commands or sensory stimulations. This is often termed?

An operational definition defines a variable in terms of the specific procedures used to produce or measure it.

Let's say that you conduct a study on the effects of vitamin B12 on maze learning in rats. Your statistical analysis reveals that 60% of the variance can be accounted for by the manipulation of vitamin B12. The remaining variance (40%) is referred to as

Which of the following is the first step in the scientific process?

A researcher conducting a study on the effectiveness of a new prescription medication gives the actual medication to a group of people. A second group of participants are told they are receiving the medication but instead are given an inert sugar pill. Though the drug is found to be effective for the people who actually took it, a sizeable percentage of the people given the sugar pill also improve. The improvement of this second group is most likely due to

Nathaniel is designing an experiment: He wants to learn how much time other students at his university spend studying for their art history exams. He decides to use a self-report survey, but he knows that people might over- or under-report their study time, due to

Dr. Graham submitted a research proposal to the Ethics Review Board (ERB) at his university in late November. He is studying student's gender identification and life satisfaction. He tells you (his colleague) that he plans to do some interviews with students before they leave for Christmas, so he would have some data to look at over the holidays. He has not received ERB approval for his study, but knows it is a simple research design that will surely be approved. As a colleague of his, you should

Which of the following would specifically be an advantage of the case study method of research? Case Studies

Dr. Doucette is preparing a new research study looking at novel treatments for acute strokes in adult rats. She will have to

All of the following decrease internal validity EXCEPT

When presented with the findings of psychological research, it is not uncommon for people to comment that the results are trivial, obvious, and that they "knew that all along." This tendency is referred to as

A researcher conducted a study relating the time parents spent with their children to their children's happiness. From a correlational analysis of the data, the researcher concluded that happier children are a result of parents spending more time with them. The possibility that the parents spent more time with their children in response to the fact that their children were happier is an example of

Which of the following methods can be used to study rare phenomena in-depth?

A researcher is interested in studying the Canadian women's beliefs about the pros and cons of sending a child to daycare. She recruits ten women from a major city in each province and territory and asks them to fill in a survey and mail it back to her. The population for this study would be

Random sampling is important in selecting a representative sample from the population?

Elyse is interested in studying aggression. To do so, she decides to look at horn-honking behaviour at stop signs and records the number of times someone honks their car horn before the car in front moves on. In this example, horn-honking is the _____ and the number of honks recorded is the _____.

In correlational research, the experimenter measures all of the variables and statistically determines whether there is an association between them.

The ethical guideline that refers to how participants should be given full descriptions about the procedures involved in a study and told that they are free to withdraw from a study at any time is called ______________.

A sample that accurately reflects the population from which it was taken is called a _______________ sample.

The degree to which the results of a study can be generalized to other people, settings, and conditions is called __________.