Exam 3: Defining and Measuring Variables

A researcher develops a 20-question test to measure anxiety and administers it to a group of participants. To evaluate the reliability of the test, the researcher computes a score for the first 10 questions and a score for the last 10 questions for each participant and then computes the correlation between the two scores. What is the researcher measuring?

Describe what each of the four scales of measurement can tell researchers about the phenomenon being measured.

Individuals who score low on one variable also tend to score low on another variable. This is an example of a negative relationship between variables.

A teacher separates the students in his class into high, medium, and low reading skill groups. What scale of measurement is being used to create the groups?

How will participants change their normal behavior if they respond to demand characteristics by adopting "the good subject role?"

Why is the range effect known as a "ceiling effect" a problem for researchers?

Describe the problems with relying on face validity when designing a measurement procedure.

Which type of validity involves demonstrating that we are measuring one specific construct and not combining two different constructs in the same measurement process?

A researcher records the number of mathematics problems answered correctly during a 15-minute period. This is an example of measurement on a ratio scale.

What is meant by the reliability of measurement and describe three methods for measuring reliability.

Validity of a measurement procedure is often established with a correlation.

To establish split-half reliability, you must administer the same measurement to the same group of people at two different times.

A researcher plans to evaluate a new reading program by measuring students' reading skill before and after the program begins. If all the students have high reading skills scores before the program begins, then the measurement procedure has a sensitivity problem known as a ____.

Using a PET scan to measure brain activity while participants solve mathematics problems is an example of using what modality of measurement?

Research results indicate that the more servings of red meat eat from age 15 to 25, the higher their cholesterol scores will be at age 60. This is an example of a ____ relationship between variables.

If people score low on one measure and score low on another measure, there is ____

If a researcher measures two individuals on a nominal scale, it is impossible to determine which individual has the larger score.

An artifact such as experimenter bias is a threat to the validity of measurement because the ____.

Using shoe size as a measure of intelligence would produce measurements that have very high test-retest reliability.

Operational definitions are necessary to convert hypothetical constructs into observable variables.