Deck 14: Data Exploration, Part 1: Graphic and Descriptive Techniques

Question 1

The coding guide lists

A) the columns in which variables can be found
B) the names of all variables
C) acceptable values of all variables
D) All of these are true.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

The initial data sheet should contain all of the following except

A) The date
B) The condition in a coded form
C) The participant's name
D) The researcher's name

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Before inferential statistics are performed, you should

A) Calculate descriptive statistics
B) Represent the data in a table
C) Represent the data in a graph
D) All of the above

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Which of the following is a display of numerical data in rows and columns of a matrix?

A) graph
B) figure
C) histogram
D) table

Question 5

The most common score in a frequency distribution is called

A) Mean
B) Mode
C) Median
D) Standard deviation

Question 6

The range

A) Is an inferential statistic
B) Is highly stable
C) Depends completely on the two extreme scores
D) Measures central tendency

Question 7

The main advantage of the mean is

A) That it uses all of the information in the distribution
B) It is not influenced at all by the other scores in the distribution
C) It is only influenced by how many scores fall above it or below it
D) That it is sensitive to the values of extreme scores

Question 8

Which measure of variability is probably best when the data is skewed?

A) Variance
B) Range
C) Standard deviation
D) Interquartile range

Question 9

The 50^th percentile is

A) The score below which 50% of the cases fall
B) The score above which 50% of the cases fall
C) The 75^th percentile minus the 25^th percentile
D) The first quartile

Question 10

Which of the following steps should you carry out first in data handling?

A) Perform inferential statistics
B) Describe the data numerically, with descriptive statistics
C) Describe the data graphically
D) Check for invalid data

Question 11

Which one of the following terms least belongs with the others?

A) X-axis
B) Y-axis
C) independent variable values
D) horizontal

Question 12

The middlemost score in a distribution is called

A) Mean
B) Mode
C) Median
D) Standard deviation

Question 13

The semi-interquartile range is

A) The score below which 50% of the cases fall
B) Half of the cases in a distribution
C) The 75^th percentile minus the 25^th percentile
D) Half of the interquartile range

Question 14

The variance is

A) Based on the median
B) Based on the mode
C) Based on the mean
D) The square root of the standard deviation

Question 15

You should decide how to handle the data from an experiment

A) Before you see your first subject
B) After the data has been collected
C) When you have all of the data sheets
D) When you have finished data reduction

Question 16

Data reduction is

A) recording data onto individual data sheets
B) transcribing data from individual data sheets to a summary form
C) performing statistical analysis
D) All of these are true.

Question 17

A disadvantage of the variance is

A) That it is related to a number of other statistical procedures
B) That it is not scaled in the same units as the original scores
C) That it is unaffected by the interquartile range
D) That it is unrelated to ANOVA

Question 18

The most common descriptive statistics concern

A) Measures of central tendency
B) Measures of validity
C) Measures of variability
D) Both a and c

Question 19

Which of the following is a representation of data by spatial relationships in a diagram?

A) graph
B) figure
C) histogram
D) table

Question 20

In data reduction

A) Raw data are put into a form that is useful for statistical analysis
B) The descriptive statistics are calculated
C) An analysis is performed on the data to manage excessive data
D) Data is recorded onto data sheets

Question 21

Which one of the following distributions is probably negatively skewed?

A) family income in dollars per year
B) scores on a very difficult test
C) scores on a moderately difficult test
D) scores on a very easy test

Question 22

Which one of the following would be best for conveying the shape of the frequency distribution of 250 test scores?

A) histogram
B) rank-order distribution
C) cumulative frequency distribution
D) ungrouped frequency distribution

Question 23

A curve that never changes direction is called an) ________ curve.

A) monotonic
B) nonmonotonic
C) U-shaped
D) inverted

Question 24

In a frequency table, the rows indicate

A) possible scores
B) information about the possible scores
C) frequency of the possible scores
D) a tally of the possible scores

Question 25

A frequency distribution shows an) _____ on the y-axis and an) _______ on the x-axis.

A) dependent variable, independent variable
B) frequency, independent variable
C) frequency, dependent variable
D) independent variable, frequency

Question 26

The bars of a frequency distribution should

A) be touching each other unless there is a category with zero frequency)
B) be centered on the score value
C) extend horizontally from the lower real limit of the score value to the upper real limit
D) all of these are true

Question 27

Scattergrams represent data commonly analyzed by which statistic?

A) t-test
B) Chi square
C) correlation coefficient
D) analysis of variance

Question 28

A graphic that uses a dot to represent the frequency of each score and connects those points with a straight line is called a

A) histogram
B) scattergram
C) frequency polygon
D) skewed distribution

Question 29

A bell-shaped curve that happens to describe many frequency distributions that occur in nature is called a:

A) scattergram
B) bar graph
C) skewed distribution
D) normal curve

Question 30

Percentiles can be determined directly from a________

A) scattergram
B) bar graph
C) frequency distribution
D) cumulative frequency distribution

Question 31

Which one of the following terms least belongs with the others?

A) dependent variaible
B) Y-axis
C) vertical
D) X-axis

Question 32

A scientist placed some bacteria in a sterile dish of agar. He counted the number of live bacteria at regular intervals afterward. He observed that at first the bacteria grew slowly at first, and then they increased very rapidly in number. Finally, the count leveled off and then declined rapidly as the food supply was used up. A graph of this relationship would be.

A) U-shaped
B) linear
C) monotonic
D) nonmonotonic

Question 33

Predicting the value of one variable from another is called a

A) Correlation
B) Regression
C) Chi-square
D) t-test

Question 34

Each data point on a scattergram represents

A) an individual's score on the dependent variable
B) an individual's score on two variables
C) the relationship between a dependent an independent variable
D) None of these are true.

Question 35

A ___________ shows the same information as a frequency table in a graphical format.

A) scattergram
B) frequency distribution
C) ungrouped frequency distribution
D) rank-order distribution

Question 36

The proportion of the variability in y that is accounted for by x is found by squaring the ___

A) Correlation coefficient
B) Regression slope
C) Chi-square result
D) t-test value

Question 37

Which is not true of a cumulative frequency distribution?

A) It may be nonmonotonic.
B) It begins at zero frequency.
C) It indicates skewness of the distribution.
D) The data points lie at the upper real limit of each interval.

Question 38

Which two terms typically go together?

A) x-axis and dependent
B) x-axis and independent
C) y-axis and independent
D) both a and c go together

Question 39

A frequency distribution that has a longer tail on one end or the other is called a:

A) scattergram
B) bar graph
C) skewed distribution
D) normal curve

Question 40

Which one of the following graphs would be used as a preliminary step in correlational analysis?

A) bar graph
B) scattergram
C) line graph
D) frequency distribution graph

Question 41

The x-axis represents ____________ in a time-series graph

A) dependent variable
B) independent variable
C) the passage of time
D) frequency

Question 42

Line graphs should not be used to describe____________ data.

A) categorical
B) continuous
C) quantitative
D) frequency

Question 43

A frequency distribution differs from other graphs in that the y-axis represents _____, rather than the value of a ________

A) frequency, dependent variable
B) frequency, independent variable
C) dependent variable, frequency
D) independent variable, frequency

Question 44

NY State's new Governor is worried about the IQ of the people on his staff. He has his Lt. Governor administer a 10-item IQ test to his closest staff members. The scores were 9,9,8,8,5,5,3,1,1,1. Make a frequency table from the data that Lt. Governor collected from the staff members.

Question 45

A bar graph is used for ______ data

A) categorical
B) quantitative
C) continuous
D) None of these. Bar graphs are never used in psychology.

Question 46

Vertical lines that indicate plus or minus 1 standard deviation of the data on a graph are

A) Error bars
B) Skewed distributions
C) Median splits
D) part of Box and Whisker plots

Question 47

Box and Whisker plots are particularly useful in describing data that are

A) normally distributed
B) described by mean and standard deviation
C) symmetrical
D) None of these are true.

Question 48

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of having error bars on a graph.

Question 49

When making a graph to show the relationship between quantitative variables, such as dependent variable as a function of an independent variable, you should use a

A) Line graph
B) Scattergram
C) Median split
D) Frequency Table

Question 50

Error bars can be misleading when

A) data are normally distributed
B) data are skewed
C) different groups have different amounts of variability
D) Both a and c are true.

Question 51

If the independent variable in an experiment is gender, it would be appropriate to use a _____ to represent the data

A) scattergram
B) bar graph
C) cumulative record
D) line graph

Question 52

Invalid data are

A) data that don't fit your theory
B) values that are impossible
C) outliers
D) missing data

Question 53

The slope of a cumulative record shows

A) number of responses
B) rate of responding
C) changes in response rate
D) All of these are true

Question 54

Outliers are

A) impossible values
B) extreme but not impossible values
C) data that don't fit your theory
D) any of these

Question 55

A bar graph should be used when the

A) independent variable is a discrete variable
B) independent variable is a continuous variable
C) dependent variable is a discrete variable
D) depend variable is a continuous variable

Question 56

You should connect the data points with straight lines, instead of a smooth curve, unless

A) the data points describe a curvilinear relationship
B) you could write the mathematical equation for the curve
C) the line would be nonmonotonic
D) None of these. You should always connect the data points with straight lines.

Question 57

List some of the relevant information that might be found in a coding guide for an experiment that investigated the effects of attractiveness on jurors' guilty verdicts.

Question 58

Discuss the normal distribution in relation to measures of central tendency mean, median, and mode). How does it differ from a skewed distribution?

Question 59

In a certain box-and-whisker plot, the left hand or lower) whisker is longer than the right hand or upper) whisker. Therefore, the distribution is probably

A) bimodal
B) normal
C) positively skewed
D) negatively skewed