Deck 4: Basic Concepts in Measurement and Statistics

Question 1

A test which yields consistent scores when a person takes two alternate forms of the test is __________.

A) unreliable
B) valid
C) reliable
D) inconsistent

Answer 1

C

Question 2

If an increase on one variable is associated with an increase on another variable, the variables are

A) positively correlated
B) highly correlated
C) negatively correlated
D) not correlated

Answer 2

A

Question 3

_________ assesses the question, "Does the test adequately measure what it purports to measure?"

A) reliability
B) validity
C) level of measurement
D) the correlation coefficient

Answer 3

B

Question 4

The cornerstone of psychological measurement is that

A) individuals do not differ
B) individuals are consistent
C) groups are homogeneous
D) individuals differ

Question 5

The process of assigning numbers to persons in such a way that some attributes of the persons being measured are faithfully reflected by some properties of the numbers is

A) measurement
B) psychological measurement
C) assessment
D) psychological assessment

Question 6

Correlations are often illustrated by using

A) matrix plots
B) coordinate plots
C) frequency plots
D) scatter plots

Question 7

The average score on a test is

A) the mode
B) the range
C) the median
D) the mean

Question 8

Ratio scales are rare in psychological measurement because

A) ratio scales provide little useful information
B) it is hard to define a true zero point
C) interval scales provide more information
D) zero points are identifiable only in tangible assessments

Question 9

Psychological tests attempt to measure

A) some specific attribute of a person
B) some general attributes of a person
C) some general attributes of a group
D) all of the above

Question 10

In order to understand fully which attributes are being measured by a test, one must examine the ________ of the test.

A) consistency
B) reliability
C) validity
D) measurement error

Question 11

Co-variance is the concept that is most important when dealing with

A) correlation
B) modality
C) variability
D) both a and b

Question 12

The most basic, yet most central, statistical concept for psychological measurement is

A) correlation
B) prediction
C) variability
D) factor analysis

Question 13

If the variance on a test is small, we know that

A) people had similar scores on the test
B) people had scores close to the mean score
C) the standard deviation will be small
D) all of the above

Question 14

The ________ scale of measurement has a fixed, real zero point.

A) nominal
B) ordinal
C) interval
D) ratio

Question 15

A measurement scale which indicates relative sizes of differences (e.g., a thermometer) is an example of a(n) _______ level of measurement.

A) nominal
B) ordinal
C) interval
D) ratio

Question 16

Soccer players wearing different uniforms are an example of a(n) _______ level of measurement.

A) nominal
B) ordinal
C) interval
D) ratio

Question 17

The zero point on an interval scale is

A) absolute
B) meaningless
C) interval
D) arbitrary

Question 18

The average of the squared deviation scores is

A) the mean
B) the standard deviation
C) the variance
D) the range

Question 19

If a score on an agility scale identifies the person being rated, rank-orders agility, and indicates relative differences in agility, the scale exhibits a(n) _______ level of
Measurement.

A) nominal
B) ordinal
C) interval
D) all of the above

Question 20

Measurement whose basic property is a rank order of individuals is a(n) _________ level of measurement.

A) nominal
B) ordinal
C) interval
D) ratio

Question 21

An attempt to identify the basic underlying variables which account for the correlations between actual test scores is done statistically through

A) multiple regression
B) linear modeling
C) factor analysis
D) the correlation coefficient

Question 22

If a large increase on one variable is associated with a large decrease on another variable

A) the variables are highly positively correlated
B) the correlation coefficient will be large and positive
C) the correlation coefficient will be large and negative
D) the correlation coefficient will be small and negative

Question 23

In a(n) ______ factor analysis, factors are defined in terms of the specific hypothesis being tested.

A) exploratory
B) confirmatory
C) "seat of the pants"
D) none of the above

Question 24

If students at Lincoln High School receive Verbal Aptitude Test (VAT) scores with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 7.6, while students at Washington High School receive VAT scores with a mean of 120 and a standard deviation of 2.8, we know that

A) students at Washington High School are smarter than students at Lincoln High School
B) individual students at Lincoln High School had more similar VAT scores than did individual students at Washington High School
C) the test may be unfair because of the large difference between scores of Lincoln High School students and Washington High School students
D) there was less variability on the scores received by students at Washington High School