Deck 3: Asking Questions: What Do You Want to Know

Question 1

The process of discovering things you want to know begins with

A) deciding which research design to use
B) determining exactly what questions you are trying to answer
C) measuring a working definition of a target behavior
D) analyzing results to disseminate to others

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Whether developed by a researcher or a practitioner, perhaps the most important fact about experimental questions is that they are:

A) verbal behavior
B) designed to examine socially significant behaviors
C) methodologically sound
D) based on previous experimental findings

Answer 2

A

Question 3

What is the main purpose of the experimental question?

A) To prove if a hypothesis is correct
B) To guide methodological decisions
C) To describe what is unknown about behavior
D) To determine if clinical interventions are effective

Answer 3

B

Question 4

One of the main differences between researchers and practitioners regarding methodological choices is that

A) researchers are often under pressure to make progress without delay
B) practitioners are able to take their time to make careful decisions no matter the delay
C) researchers can second guess decisions and make changes throughout their investigations
D) practitioners have an unlimited array of behaviors to choose from to investigate

Question 5

Which of the following settings may experimental questions about behavior arise?

A) A graduate course about the experimental analysis of behavior
B) A clinical case with an interesting problem behavior
C) A published study that raises additional questions
D) All of the above

Question 6

What are research contingencies?

A) Another way to describe research questions
B) Antecedents prior to research development
C) Behaviors of the investigator that exert influence on how questions are framed
D) Factors that affect the details of a study indirectly

Question 7

Linda is a behavior analyst researcher and she has established a well-known research program that has resulted in her earning many grants, awards, promotion, and tenure at her university. These contingencies of her researching behaviors are considered

A) experimental, they are primary reasons anyone conducts research
B) extra-experimental, they are extra factors that directly affect details of a study
C) experimental, they are only provided for people conducting experiments
D) extra-experimental, they go beyond scientific contingencies and do not directly affect details of a study or its role in the literature

Question 8

What is a potential problem with relying solely on existing literature for developing research questions?

A) The literature gives too many ideas and will be hard to narrow down
B) Existing literature may not adequately represent all research needed by the field
C) Previous literature only includes what is already known and not helpful for new knowledge
D) All questions in the literature can be answered leaving nothing else to study

Question 9

Which of the following questions was most likely developed by a practitioner delivering ABA services?

A) What are the relations between demand fading and elopement behavior
B) What will happen if demand fading is applied to elopement behavior of a child in a classroom
C) What makes demand fading procedures effective at treating escape-maintained behavior
D) How do varying levels of demands affect responding

Question 10

What is the main challenge for investigators when developing and posing experimental questions?

A) Developing a question whose subsequent experiment will generate data more revealing and useful than what might be produced by any other approach to the topic
B) Establishing a research program that will generate a series of studies that can be published
C) Developing an interesting and novel question that will receive a large amount of external funding
D) Produce an experiment that supports the investigator's original hypothesis

Question 11

What makes one experimental question better than the other?

A) When more questions are brought forward and findings are ambiguous
B) When results help fill in gaps of existing knowledge
C) When experimenters get accepted to present their work at conferences
D) When the focus is practical in nature versus experimental

Question 12

Jon is a practitioner interested in learning more about environmental factors that are affecting his client's engagement of aggression toward others. How will an experimental question help Jon?

A) It will help him create hypotheses about environmental factors
B) It will guide his choice of methods to help answer his curiosities and improve his client's behavior
C) It will not help, as a practitioner Jon doesn't need an experimental question
D) It will allow him to create a complicated research design to implement

Question 13

Perhaps the most important role for any behavior that will serve as the dependent variable is:

A) to be sensitive to the independent variable
B) to already be a part of the participant's behavioral repertoire
C) to be sensitive to extraneous variables
D) to be a novel behavior

Question 14

How does the experimental question guide the selection of participants?

A) It should suggest certain participant characteristics that will help reveal effects on behavior
B) It should suggest how participants will need to behave to react meaningfully to the treatment and control conditions
C) It should suggest the type of learning histories the participants should share
D) All of the above

Question 15

In terms of measurement, information from the experimental question should help decisions regarding _________.

A) what type of measurement procedures to use
B) how long and how often periods of measurement should occur
C) how accurate measurements will be
D) how often observers are trained to measure the target behavior

Question 16

The most important decision guided by the experimental question is _________.

A) how to ensure accurate measurement of behavior
B) who will participate in the study
C) the selection of the independent variable
D) how often to measure behavior

Question 17

Why are extraneous variables problematic?

A) They are extra to the study and reinforce personal interests
B) They provide alternative explanations for treatment effects
C) They make studies null and void
D) They allow extra participants to join the study after completion

Question 18

What two conditions are required at a minimum to be able to make meaningful interpretations about the experimental question?

A) Two baseline conditions
B) One baseline, one treatment condition
C) Two treatment conditions
D) One baseline, only one condition needed

Question 19

Which of the following is one of the functions that data analysis procedures serve?

A) Discover relations in data that confirm a hypothesis
B) Discover relations in data that reject a hypothesis
C) Discover relations in data that were not anticipated and may be interesting
D) Discover relations in data that only replicate previous studies

Question 20

What do research questions reveal about a science?

A) They provide information only about where the field is going not where it has been
B) They guide the direction of the science and reveal where the field is
C) They hinder development of new ideas
D) They increase awareness of only what practical applications are needed

Question 21

How does an investigator begin the process of discovering things?

Question 22

What is the main reason for conducting a research or clinical project?

Question 23

Describe how it may be helpful to "work backwards" to determine an experimental question.

Question 24

Kim is a researcher who is starting a study by crafting her experimental questions. In order to determine the right question to guide her methodological decisions, what does she need to consider?

Question 25

Describe the importance of viewing experimental questions as verbal behavior.

Question 26

List and describe at least three factors that influence where experimental questions come from.

Question 27

Describe how developing experimental questions by only referencing the primary literature can be risky.

Question 28

What are extra-experimental contingencies?

Question 29

What makes an experimental question the "best" type of question for a specific topic?

Question 30

Why is it important for a practitioner or researcher to be careful and use precise wording in writing an experimental question?

Question 31

What decisions regarding measurement procedures depend on what the experimental question is asking?

Question 32

If a researcher wants to create meaningful comparisons between control and experimental conditions, what two things must occur?

Question 33

Describe three important considerations a researcher or practitioner must make when deciding on the target behavior for a study?

Question 34

Describe the benefits of developing an open-ended experimental question (e.g., what are relations between reinforcement and skill acquisition) versus a more specific, narrow question (e.g., will reinforcement increase matching skills)?

Question 35

What effect does an experimental question have on methodological procedures?

Question 36

What are the three functions of data analysis procedures?

Question 37

What does "conclusions are inevitably important to the researcher" mean?

Question 38

Describe how the experimental question can guide the selection of participants for an investigation.

Question 39

Describe what "you can tell a lot about a science from its research questions" means.

Question 40

What is the similarity between developing an experimental question and driving a car?