Deck 14: Quasi-Experimental Research Designs

Question 1

In a single-group before-after research design, changes that occur in the participants over time but which are not related to the independent variable are known as which of the following?

A) History
B) Maturation
C) Attrition
D) Selection

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Which of the following is NOT a quasi-experimental research design?

A) Single group
B) Comparison group
C) Matched-participant
D) Comparison-group before after

Answer 2

C

Question 3

A researcher studies the cognitive development of a single group of children by measuring them in kindergarten, fourth grade, and seventh grade. Which type of design is being used?

A) Longitudinal
B) Cross-sectional
C) Participatory
D) Developmental

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Researchers compared college students who reported they had smoked marijuana at least fifteen days a month with similar students who said they smoked five days a month at most. A day after going without marijuana, the heavy users performed significantly worse on tasks that involved sustaining and shifting attention. The research design is

A) single-group.
B) time-series.
C) before-after.
D) comparison-group.

Question 5

Quasi-experimental research designs are so named because

A) they are only partially scientific.
B) the independent variable involves a grouping.
C) they are not correlational studies.
D) they involve comparing an indefinite number of groups.

Question 6

Longitudinal designs are to cross-sectional designs as

A) participant variable designs are to time-series designs.
B) before-after designs are to comparison-group designs.
C) comparison-group designs are to before-after designs.
D) historical designs are to current designs.

Question 7

An experimenter is interested in the influence of taking a one-semester-long test preparation course on performance on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). She contacts high school students who have and who have not taken the course and compares their scores on the SAT exam. She finds that the students who have taken the course score significantly higher on the test. Which of the following represents the principal threat to the internal validity of this experiment?

A) Regression to the mean
B) Maturation
C) Selection
D) Attrition

Question 8

Which of the following represents the greatest limitation to drawing conclusions from a single group design?

A) The variables may not be adequately measured.
B) The data are frequently too artificial.
C) They cannot be used to draw conclusions about the how the experience influenced the participants.
D) They are likely to be influenced by retesting.

Question 9

A researcher tests the effects of a skills enhancement program by measuring the change in social adjustment of a group of handicapped children before and after they have completed the program against a change in adjustment over the same time period for an equivalent group of children who had not participated in any therapy. The children who went through the program showed significantly greater increase in social adjustment functioning over time. The research design is

A) comparison-group before-after.
B) single-group before-after.
C) comparison-group.
D) experimental.

Question 10

Research designed to study intervention programs with the goal of determining whether the programs are effective in helping the people who make use of them is called

A) clinical intervention research.
B) care programs research.
C) quasi-experimental research.
D) program evaluation research.

Question 11

Which of the following are threats to internal validity of the single-group before after design?

A) Retesting threats
B) Attrition threats
C) Maturation threats
D) All of the above are threats in this design.

Question 12

A student who is participating in a long term research project decides to stop participating and does not inform the experimenter of his decision. This is an example of which of the following threats to validity?

A) Selection
B) History
C) Maturation
D) Attrition

Question 13

In research that is conducted over a period of time, the participants naturally get older. If the researcher is not interested in the effects of age on the dependent variable, then the changes in age pose which of the following threats to the validity of the research?

A) Attrition
B) Maturation
C) History
D) Selection

Question 14

An experimenter is interested in the influence of taking a one-semester-long test preparation course on performance on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). She contacts high school students who have and who have not taken the course and compares their scores on the SAT exam. She finds that the students who have taken the course score significantly higher on the test. The research design is

A) comparison-group before-after.
B) single-group before-after.
C) comparison-group.
D) experimental.

Question 15

Research that uses two groups of individuals, one of which has had and one of which has not had the experience, is known as which of the following?

A) A comparison-group design
B) A before-after design
C) An A B group design
D) A selection-group design

Question 16

An experimenter decided to test the effects of a new training program by comparing the motivation of twenty employees who had participated in the program against an equivalent group of twenty employees who had not gone through any training at all. The employees were measured when they had completed the program and it was found that those who had gone through the program had much greater on-the-job motivation than those who had not. It was concluded that the difference in motivation was due to the content of the training program. The research design is

A) comparison-group before-after.
B) single-group before-after.
C) comparison-group.
D) experimental.

Question 17

Threats to internal validity that occur due to the potential influence of changes in the social climate during the course of a study are called

A) attrition threats.
B) demand characteristics.
C) history threats.
D) mortality threats.

Question 18

Which of the following statements is true about quasi-experimental designs?

A) Because the independent variable is manipulated, they are best considered as true experiments.
B) Because they involve the creation of initial equivalence, they are best considered as true experiments.
C) Because they are not usually analyzed as scientifically as experimental research, they are best considered as descriptive research.
D) Because the independent variable is measured, not manipulated, they are best considered as correlational research.

Question 19

Quasi experimental designs are usually analyzed using

A) ANOVA.
B) multiple regression.
C) chi square.
D) descriptive statistics.

Question 20

An experimenter is interested in the influence of taking a one-semester-long test preparation course on performance on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). She contacts high school students who have and who have not taken the course and compares their scores on the SAT exam. She finds that the students who have taken the course score significantly higher on the test. The appropriate statistical test is

A) descriptive statistics.
B) Pearson correlation.
C) chi-square.
D) one-way ANOVA.

Question 21

In comparison to the single-group before-after design, the comparison-group before-after design

A) is less likely to be threatened by regression to the mean.
B) is more likely to be threatened by maturation.
C) helps control for threats caused by history.
D) requires fewer participants.

Question 22

Which of the following represents an example of regression to the mean?

A) Each year a baseball player hits more home runs than the previous year.
B) After ten trials of a correlational design, the standard deviation increases.
C) After winning an Oscar, an actress has trouble finding jobs in feature films.
D) Furniture from famous people tends to sell at similar prices to those from non-famous people.

Question 23

A researcher studies the cognitive development of children by measuring kindergarten, fourth grade, and seventh grade children. Which type of design is being used?

A) Longitudinal
B) Cross-sectional
C) Participatory
D) Developmental

Question 24

A limitation of program evaluation research is its

A) inability to include large numbers of participants.
B) lack of random assignment to conditions.
C) inability to study events while they are taking place.
D) inability to determine program effectiveness.

Question 25

Which of the following is true regarding the participant-variable design?

A) The independent variables used in the design are always demographic variables.
B) The independent variables always involve pre-existing personality characteristics of the participants.
C) Because the participant variable is measured, causal conclusions about the effect of the participant variable on the dependent variable are difficult to draw.
D) Because the participant variable can be manipulated, causal conclusions can frequently be made.

Question 26

A design in which behavior is initially measured during a baseline period, measured again after the intervention of interest begins, and then measured once more after the intervention is removed is called a

A) reversal design.
B) time-series design.
C) cross-sectional design.
D) before-after design.

Question 27

A design in which behavior is initially measured during a baseline period, and then measured again after the intervention of interest begins, is called a

A) reversal design.
B) time-series design.
C) cross-sectional design.
D) single group before-after design.

Question 28

Which of the following could not represent a participant variable?

A) Parenting style
B) Manipulated mood state
C) Years of education
D) Spatial ability

Question 29

It is most accurate to say that

A) because they are correlational in nature, valid conclusions can never be drawn from quasi-experimental research designs.
B) quasi-experimental research will generally have higher internal validity in comparison to true experiments.
C) although they will generally have some threats to internal validity, quasi-experiments can sometimes be used to draw inferences about the causal relationships among variables.
D) quasi-experiments are less scientific than other types of research designs.

Question 30

A flight instructor notices a particularly unusual phenomenon. Every time one of her students has a particularly excellent flight, she praises them for it. And she notices that the next time the student flies, he or she ends up doing worse. On the other hand, every time one of her students has a particularly poor flight, she criticizes them, and the next time they do better. What phenomenon might the instructor be seeing?

A) Regression to the mean
B) Maturation
C) Selection
D) Attrition

Question 31

An advantage of a single-participant design is that

A) confounding is reduced.
B) behavior changes can be observed over time.
C) demand characteristics are reduced.
D) alpha levels can be higher than in experimental designs.

Question 32

An experimental design in which the dependent measure is assessed for one or more groups of individuals more than twice, at regular intervals, both before and after the experience of interest occurs is called a

A) a comparison-group design.
B) time-series design.
C) participants-variable design.
D) before-after design.

Question 33

A study that assesses how a patient with a leg fracture responds to a new physical therapy program is an example of a

A) participant-variable design.
B) time-series design.
C) single-participant design.
D) cross-sectional design.

Question 34

Regression to the mean causes interpretive difficulties when

A) attrition is likely.
B) there is not initial equivalence between the groups.
C) history influences one group more than the other.
D) retesting cannot be controlled.

Question 35

Which of the following is an example of a single-group research design?

A) A group of depressed patients is compared to a group of non-depressed patients.
B) A group of depressed patients is assessed before they enter a mental health facility and after they leave the facility.
C) The head of a mental health facility that specializes in depression is interviewed.
D) A group of patients who are spending time in a mental health facility are interviewed.

Question 36

A researcher is unable to retest some of his participants in a before-after design because they have dropped out of the program. This is an example of a(n) ________threat.

A) attrition
B) retesting
C) maturation
D) confounding

Question 37

A study of parenting styles across generations samples groups of participants at ages five, fifteen, and twenty at the same time. Which of the following terms best describes this design?

A) Longitudinal
B) Sequential cohort
C) Control
D) Cross-sectional

Question 38

Time-series designs

A) include multiple control groups.
B) measure events that take place a long time after an initial event.
C) include repeated measurements.
D) generally use large sample sizes.

Question 39

A student gets a 99 out of 100 on her first quiz in a psychology class, but gets only a 91 on the next quiz. This is a likely example of which of the following?

A) Selection
B) Regression to the mean
C) Maturation
D) Attrition

Question 40

Which of the following is least likely to be a threat to validity in a single-group before-after design?

A) Attrition
B) Maturation
C) Retesting
D) Selection

Question 41

Buchanan, Tranel, and Kirchbaum (2009) studied three groups of participants, one of which had damage to the hippocampus, one that had similar brain damage but not to the hippocampus, and a control group of participants. The researchers assessed responses to the three groups both before and after they were exposed to stress. The hippocampus group showed a decrease in cortisol response to stress, whereas the other two groups shoed increases. Which of the following statistical tests was used to test the hypothesis?

A) A main effect..
B) A multiple regression.
C) An interaction. d . A correlation.

Question 42

Buchanan, Tranel, and Kirschbaum (2009) compared three groups of participants, one of which had damage to the hippocampus, one that had similar brain damage but not to the hippocampus, and a control group of participants. The researchers assessed responses to the three groups both before and after they were exposed to stress. The hippocampus group showed less change in cortisol response to stress than the other two groups. What research design was used in this research?

A) Between-participants experimental.
B) Within-participants experimental.
C) Comparison group before-after.
D) Time series..