Exam 7: Randomized Experiments and Causal Inference

Experimental designs that expose subjects to more than one treatment condition each are referred to as

Describe three reasons why one should use random assignment of subjects to treatment conditions.

A researcher used an expectancy control design in her study of the effectiveness of a new teaching method. Students were randomly assigned to conditions, and the following group means were found (where higher means reflect better performance): Assuming that all of the differences are statistically significant, what can the researcher conclude?

Notions of causality based on the substance or substances necessary for the movement or coming into being of the effect are referred to as __________ causes.

Ruling out plausible rival hypotheses is central to satisfying which criteria for establishing efficient causality?

What is the difference between within-subjects and between-subjects research designs? Give an example of each type of design.

Which of the following evidence is particularly difficult to obtain when one is trying to determine efficient causality based on relational research?

One strategy that researchers can use to identify potential demand characteristics in their experiment is to employ the use of

Notions of causality that refer to the objective or end purpose of an event are referred to as __________ causes.

Randomized experiments are experimental designs that involve

One way of minimizing the experimenter expectancy effect is to employ the use of __________ experimenters.

While participating in a timed experiment, the participants in the experimental group had to leave the room because of a fire drill. Which potential threat to internal validity would this example illustrate according to Campbell and his colleagues?

Mill's method of agreement implies that X is a(n) __________ condition of Y.

Describe the three criteria for establishing efficient causation.

What is the good subject effect? How can this effect be minimized in a study?

While conducting a year-long study on friendship patterns in the sixth grade, a researcher discovers that some of the students had reached puberty during that year while others had not. Which potential threat to internal validity would this example illustrate according to Campbell and his colleagues?

Because he is limited in the number of subjects he can recruit, Tom decides to test his hypothesis that studying to music improves test performance by comparing individuals' test performance after studying to music to their test performance after studying in silence. This is an example of which type of design?

By establishing that the independent variable and dependent variable are correlated with each other, one has satisfied which criteria for establishing efficient causality?

A researcher becomes aware that the judges he is using to make observations are becoming more proficient at their task. This improvement among the judges might suggest that __________ represents a potential threat to the internal validity of the study.

In order to avoid bias in how subjects are assigned to the different treatment conditions, experimenters should use