Exam 2: Sources of Information: Why Research Is Best and How to Find It

Imagine that Dr. Jones publishes a study that claims that drinking while pregnant is dangerous for the health of the unborn baby. He finds that of the 100 women in his study who drank when pregnant, 78 had children who experienced problems with attention. Of the 100 women in his study who did not drink when pregnant, only 29 children experienced problems with attention. Your neighbor says that Dr. Jones is wrong because she drank when pregnant and her child is perfectly healthy. Explain why Dr. Jones is not wrong.

Name four examples of biases of intuition.

Yasmine believes that attractive people make more money because among her four friends who work at a local restaurant, the most attractive of the four makes the most in tips. A study by Judge, Hurst, and Simon (2009) found that attractive people make more money than unattractive people. Provide two reasons why Yasmine should be more convinced about the relationship between attractiveness and income by the Judge, Hurst, and Simon paper than by her personal experience.

Sasha believes that she is a nice person. To confirm this, she asks all her friends whether she is a nice person; they all agree that she is. Sasha concludes that she is a nice person and says she has evidence of it. Sasha would likely draw a different conclusion if she did which of the following?

James is asked about the best way to study for an exam. He responds that the best way to study is by making flash cards. He easily thinks of all the times he used flash cards and he made As. However, he fails to take into consideration all the times he made As and did not use flash cards and the times he used flash cards and did not do well. His faulty thinking is an example of:

When reading an empirical journal article "with a purpose," which two questions should you ask yourself as you read? To this end, which section should you read first in order to quickly answer these questions?

What is the difference between advice from an authority and that from a researcher?

What is the problem with being swayed by a good story?

Advice that is based on is most likely to be correct.

Vanessa claims that she sleeps better when she falls asleep to music. She has a comparison group because she has noticed that she does not listen to music every night, only when she remembers to charge her iPod. She typically remembers to charge her iPod on nights when she is able to finish studying earlier. What problem do you see in Vanessa's reasoning about sleeping better to music?

Describe three ways that scientific journals/journal articles are different from popular magazines/magazine articles.

Marcella is conducting a PsycINFO search for treatments for autism spectrum disorder by searching "autism treatment." However, her search is returning too many results. If she is interested in getting more specific results, Marcella could search:

You read research that found that first-born children tend to have higher IQs than their siblings. However, you typically earn higher grades than your older brother. Scientists might explain this discrepancy by saying that:

If you are interested in reading an overview of peer-reviewed scientific research within a specific area, which of the following reading sources would you choose?

Diego is interested in examining the relationship between a person's attachment style and his or her relationship satisfaction. He finds 65 studies that have examined this topic. He combines the results of all these studies and calculates an effect size. His research is most accurately described as:

Ellie is looking for a summary of research on the effect size of childhood abuse on adult depression. Which of the following scientific sources would be an ideal source?

After reading the chapter, Cyril says to himself, "I am sure other people might engage in faulty thinking, but I never would." What is Cyril experiencing?

Which of the following is a problem presented by the availability heuristic?

Asking questions to get the answers we want is known as:

Sasha believes that she is a nice person. To confirm this, she asks all her friends whether she is a nice person; they all agree that she is. Sasha concludes that she is a nice person and says she has evidence of it. However, she does not ask any of her enemies whether they think she is a nice person. This is an example of which of the following?