Exam 5: Making Systematic Observations

In the context of Steven's four basic scales, Lord's (1953) story about football jerseys illustrates the scale of measurement that applies to a number depends on:

A participant comes to your laboratory and does everything he or she can to derail your experiment. This participant has a(n) _____ attitude.

One way to avoid the problem of experimenter bias is to:

In a psychological study, a manipulation check simply tests whether or not the independent variables had the intended effects on the research participants.

A drawback of doing a pilot study is that:

The habituation technique is a method of tailoring measures that capitalizes on:

An advantage of split-half reliability over parallel-forms reliability is that only the former eliminates the possibility that participants will:

A ratio scale has a zero point that literally indicates the absence of the quantity being measured, whereas an interval scale has a zero point that does not indicate the absence of the quantity.

A participant comes to your laboratory to participate in your experiment. She is eager to please you and tries very hard to perform well on the experimental tasks. This participant has a(n) _____ attitude.

A measure is valid if it:

Q-sort methodology is a qualitative measurement technique that involves establishing evaluative categories and sorting items into those categories.

Manipulation checks are needed only when new measures are used in an experiment.

You conduct an experiment to contrast two study techniques. After participants either "cram" or study over a period of time, you give them a test of comprehension. You find that your test was too easy because everyone in your experiment got 100 percent of the items correct. You have:

List and discuss the three factors that should be considered when choosing a scale of measurement for a given variable.

Which of the following can help you choose variables for your study?

The difference between a ratio scale and an interval scale is that the ratio scale:

Discuss the factors that affect your decision concerning the variables to be included in your study.

An advantage of manipulation checks is that they:

A scale of measurement should be chosen regardless of ecological validity.

Pilot studies are miniature versions of an experiment used to test methods and measures.