Deck 2: Sources of Information: Why Research Is Best and How to Find It

Question 1

Which of the following is true of the distinction between scientific journals and popular magazines?

A)Scientific journals are published quarterly; popular magazines are published monthly.
B)Scientific journals are published on specific topics; popular magazines are not published on specific topics like psychology.
C)Scientific journal articles are peer-reviewed; popular magazine articles are not.
D)Scientific journal article findings explain all cases all of the time; popular magazine articles only explain certain cases.

Answer 1

Scientific journal articles are peer-reviewed; popular magazine articles are not.

Question 2

If you are interested in reading an overview of peer-reviewed scientific research within a specific area, which of the following reading sources would you choose?

A)Edited books
B)Popular magazines
C)Scientific journals
D)An expert's dissertation

Answer 2

Edited books

Question 3

Two biases of intuition discussed in the text are:

A)being swayed by a good story and being persuaded by what comes easily to mind.
B)the present/present bias and the confederate bias.
C)probabilistic thinking and nonintuitive thinking.
D)overconfidence bias and oversimplification bias.

Answer 3

being swayed by a good story and being persuaded by what comes easily to mind.

Question 4

James is asked about the best way to study for an exam. He responds that the best way to study is by making flash cards. He easily thinks of all the times he used flash cards and he made As. However, he fails to take into consideration all the times he made As and did not use flash cards and the times he used flash cards and did not do well. His faulty thinking is an example of:

A)cherry-picking evidence.
B)availability heuristic.
C)present/present bias.
D)asking biased questions.

Question 5

Sasha believes that she is a nice person. To confirm this, she asks all her friends whether she is a nice person; they all agree that she is. Sasha concludes that she is a nice person and says she has evidence of it. Sasha would likely draw a different conclusion if she did which of the following?

A)Asked her enemies if she was a nice person
B)Counted up all the times she was nice in the past
C)Asked all her friends the same question again in another six months
D)Considered all the times she was nice to her enemies

Question 6

A psychiatrist is testing a drug that treats depression. He has given the drug to all his patients, and all of them have experienced a decrease in depressive symptoms. Although this is interesting, his experience is limited because he does not have:

A)a reliable way to` measure depressive symptoms.
B)a comparison group that did not receive the drug.
C)a hypothesis.
D)psychotherapy to supplement the drug.

Question 7

In which of the following scenarios should you be skeptical of an authority?

A)When they present all the evidence on a topic
B)When they have a scientific degree
C)When they based their opinions on their intuition
D)When they have conducted scientific research on the topic

Question 8

You and your friends go to see a speaker on campus. The speaker, Dr. Darian, is an "expert" on getting into graduate school. Which of the following should make you less skeptical about his advice?

A)His recommendations are based on techniques that have worked for his students.
B)His recommendations are based on the techniques that helped him get into graduate school.
C)His recommendations are based on research he conducted for his dissertation.
D)His recommendations are similar to what you knew before you came to the talk.

Question 9

Edward believes that there are a lot of differences between men and women on a variety of different dimensions. He believes this because when he thinks about books that have been written on men and women, he can quickly recall only books that say men and women are different (e.g., Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus) and cannot recall any that say men and women are the same. His reliance on what comes to mind is an example of which of the following?

A)The availability heuristic
B)Cherry-picking of evidence
C)Confirmation bias
D)Overconfidence

Question 10

Asking questions to get the answers we want is known as:

A)availability heuristic.
B)cherry-picking of evidence.
C)confirmation bias.
D)overconfidence.

Question 11

Which of the following is a problem presented by the availability heuristic?

A)We do not examine all of the evidence, only what we can quickly think of.
B)We rely on the opinions of others rather than on our own opinions.
C)It keeps us from examining our own experience.
D)We will never be right in our conclusions.

Question 12

Diego is interested in examining the relationship between a person's attachment style and his or her relationship satisfaction. He finds 65 studies that have examined this topic. He combines the results of all these studies and calculates an effect size. His research is most accurately described as:

A)a meta-analysis.
B)a review journal article.
C)a chapter in an edited book.
D)a PsycWiki.

Question 13

RESEARCH STUDY 2.1: Charlotte is studying subliminal messages and weight loss. She is curious whether people will lose more weight if they hear subliminal messages that encourage weight loss ("don't eat that food," "you want to be thin," etc.) in the music on their iPods compared to people who do not have subliminal messages in their music. She studies 40 people and finds the following results:

A change to which of the following cells will result in a different interpretation of the results of subliminal messages?

A)A change in any cell will result in a different interpretation.
B)A change in Cell B only will result in a different interpretation.
C)A change in Cell C only will result in a different interpretation.
D)A change in Cell D only will result in a different interpretation.

Question 14

Ellie is looking for a summary of research on the effect size of childhood abuse on adult depression. Which of the following scientific sources would be an ideal source?

A)A meta-analysis
B)A review journal article
C)A trade book
D)A chapter in an edited book

Question 15

Research studies are superior to personal experience because:

A)they include at least one comparison group.
B)they avoid constants.
C)they use confederates.
D)an authority is involved.

Question 16

What does it mean that behavioral research is probabilistic?

A)Conclusions drawn from behavioral research are probably true.
B)Behavioral research involves probability sampling.
C)Inferences drawn from behavioral research are not expected to explain all cases.
D)Behavioral research requires the calculation of probability estimates.

Question 17

Vanessa claims that she sleeps better when she falls asleep to music. She has a comparison group because she has noticed that she does not listen to music every night, only when she remembers to charge her iPod. She typically remembers to charge her iPod on nights when she is able to finish studying earlier. What problem do you see in Vanessa's reasoning about sleeping better to music?

A)Vanessa may be sleeping better because she is less distracted by studying/going to bed sooner.
B)Vanessa's belief that she sleeps better with music is not falsifiable.
C)Vanessa is biased because she sleeps in the same bed every night.
D)There is no problem with Vanessa's reasoning.

Question 18

Angela reads about a study in which cell phone use is associated with migraine headaches. She says, "Well, that study is not valid because I use a cell phone more than anyone I know and I never get migraines." Based on her comment, Angela may be forgetting which of the following?

A)Science is based on empiricism.
B)The study has been replicated.
C)The study did not properly define cell phone use.
D)Science is probabilistic.

Question 19

RESEARCH STUDY 2.1: Charlotte is studying subliminal messages and weight loss. She is curious whether people will lose more weight if they hear subliminal messages that encourage weight loss ("don't eat that food," "you want to be thin," etc.) in the music on their iPods compared to people who do not have subliminal messages in their music. She studies 40 people and finds the following results:

To understand whether the subliminal messages have an effect, Charlotte needs to consider which of the following cells in the chart?

A)Only Cell A
B)Only Cell B
C)Only Cell C
D)She must consider all of the cells.

Question 20

Sasha believes that she is a nice person. To confirm this, she asks all her friends whether she is a nice person; they all agree that she is. Sasha concludes that she is a nice person and says she has evidence of it. However, she does not ask any of her enemies whether they think she is a nice person. This is an example of which of the following?

A)Confirmation bias
B)Availability heuristic
C)Fourth cell reasoning
D)Overconfidence

Question 21

Which of the following is the correct ordering of the sections of an empirical journal article?

A)Introduction, Results, Discussion, Method, References
B)Introduction, Discussion, Method, Results, Abstract
C)Abstract, References, Introduction, Results, Discussion
D)Abstract, Method, Results, Discussion, References

Question 22

Which of the following is a limitation of Google Scholar compared to PsycINFO?

A)Google Scholar does not provide PDF versions of articles.
B)Google Scholar is not free to use.
C)Google Scholar is not limited to just psychology and related fields.
D)Google Scholar can only be accessed from certain computers.

Question 23

Which of the following is a benefit of using a wiki to review psychological research?

A)The wiki's coverage of a topic is usually comprehensive.
B)The wiki page includes a comprehensive list of references.
C)The wiki page has been peer-reviewed.
D)The wiki page can be corrected quickly.

Question 24

How would you adopt the mindset of a scientific reasoner?

A)Using common sense to understand scientific data
B)Remaining objective as you interpret scientific data
C)Finding evidence that confirms your hypotheses
D)Reminding yourself that because you know about potential biases, you cannot fall prey to them

Question 25

Matthew is reading an empirical journal article and wants to know whether the authors used the Big Five Inventory (BFI-44) or the NEO-PI to measure extraversion. In which section would he find this information?

A)Introduction
B)Method
C)Results
D)Discussion

Question 26

Javier wants his lab partner to tell him if he thinks the article he found for their project is appropriate. Rather than have him read the article, which two parts of the paper could Javier have his lab partner read to get a summary of the article?

A)The abstract and the first paragraph of the introduction
B)The abstract and the first paragraph of the discussion
C)The abstract and the method section
D)The last paragraph of the introduction and the results section

Question 27

What is the problem with being swayed by a good story?

A)A good story is never the true explanation for a scientific finding.
B)Scientific findings never have commonsense explanations.
C)A good story may not be supported by data.
D)Good stories are not falsifiable.

Question 28

When reading an empirical journal article "with a purpose," why should you read the abstract first?

A)Because it is the shortest section
B)Because it provides an overview of the article
C)Because it is written by the journal's editor
D)Because it appears in PsycINFO

Question 29

Compared with doing a generic Internet search, why is PsycINFO a superior way to find scientific sources?

A)It is free.
B)It searches only sources in psychology and related fields.
C)It can be done on any computer.
D)It searches research scientists' websites.

Question 30

Which of the following is NOT a section or subsection commonly found in an empirical journal article?

A)Abstract
B)Outcomes
C)Participants
D)Procedure

Question 31

Looking for which of the following in a trade book will give you a hint as to its scientific rigor?

A)The cost of the book
B)The number of pages
C)The number of references
D)The number of authors

Question 32

Lana is writing her first empirical journal article. Although she thinks she knows why she found the results she did, she also wants to mention some alternative explanations for her findings. In which section will she mention these alternative explanations?

A)Method
B)Results
C)Discussion
D)References

Question 33

Which of the following is the first section of an empirical journal article?

A)Abstract
B)Introduction
C)Results
D)References

Question 34

When reading an empirical journal article "with a purpose," which section should you read first?

A)Abstract
B)Introduction
C)Method
D)Discussion

Question 35

Hannah just finished reading an empirical journal article for a class project. Where should she go if she wants to look for a list of the study's hypotheses or research questions?

A)First page of the article
B)First page of the method section
C)Last paragraph of the results section
D)Last paragraph of the introduction

Question 36

After reading the chapter, Cyril says to himself, "I am sure other people might engage in faulty thinking, but I never would." What is Cyril experiencing?

A)Bias blind spot
B)Confirmation bias
C)Faulty intuition
D)Motivated thinking

Question 37

When reading an empirical journal article "with a purpose," which two questions should you ask yourself as you read?

A)"What is the argument?" and "What is the evidence to support the argument?"
B)"What were the methods?" and "What are the results?"
C)"What is the hypothesis?" and "What are the explanations?"
D)"What research exists on this topic?" and "What research needs to be conducted to answer the question?"

Question 38

Which of the following is the last section of an empirical journal article?

A)Method
B)Results
C)Discussion
D)Introduction

Question 39

Which of the following sources is most likely to contain only information that has been rigorously peer-reviewed?

A)Chapters in edited books
B)Full-length books
C)Review journal articles
D)Wikis

Question 40

Hannah just finished reading an empirical journal article for a class project. What information might she get out of reading the references section of her article?

A)A list of the measures used in the study
B)The name of an article that researched a similar topic
C)An idea for a future study
D)An explanation of the statistical tests used

Question 41

What is the difference between advice from an authority and that from a researcher?

A)Authorities weigh all possible opinions, while researchers rely on their own theories.
B)Authorities interpret the results for you when providing advice, while researchers only present statistics.
C)Authorities often base their advice on intuition, while researchers rely on facts.
D)Authorities always provide advice based on their own research, while researchers base their advice on results from multiple studies.

Question 42

Advice that is based on is most likely to be correct.

A)personal experience
B)research
C)intuition
D)authority's conclusions

Question 43

You read research that found that first-born children tend to have higher IQs than their siblings. However, you typically earn higher grades than your older brother. Scientists might explain this discrepancy by saying that:

A)research is probabilistic.
B)you have cherry-picked information to support your conclusion.
C)you have fallen prey to your blind spot bias.
D)your intuition is better than research.

Question 44

Different factors that could account for significant results are called .

A)hypotheses
B)biases
C)predictions
D)confounds

Question 45

Which of the following is a limitation of PsycINFO compared to Google Scholar?

A)PsycINFO does not provide PDF versions of articles.
B)PsycINFO is not free to use.
C)PsycINFO is not limited to just psychology and related fields.
D)PsycINFO does not allow you to search particular fields.

Question 46

Tim tells you that the best way to make friends is by opening the conversation with a joke. He can easily recall all the friends he met by telling a joke and also the times he opened with chitchat and didn't befriend the person. If you were concerned that Tim was making the blind spot bias, what would you ask him?

A)What about the times you opened with a joke and didn't become friends with the person?
B)Do you think the times you made friends by telling jokes might come more easily to mind?
C)Have you tested this conclusion systematically?
D)Did you go into conversations where you opened with jokes thinking that you would make friends?

Question 47

Name four examples of biases of intuition.

Question 48

Yasmine believes that attractive people make more money because among her four friends who work at a local restaurant, the most attractive of the four makes the most in tips. A study by Judge, Hurst, and Simon (2009) found that attractive people make more money than unattractive people. Provide two reasons why Yasmine should be more convinced about the relationship between attractiveness and income by the Judge, Hurst, and Simon paper than by her personal experience.

Question 49

Describe three ways that scientific journals/journal articles are different from popular magazines/magazine articles.

Question 50

Tim tells you that the best way to make friends is by opening the conversation with a joke. He can easily recall all the friends he met by telling a joke and also the times he opened with chitchat and didn't befriend the person. If you were concerned that Tim was making the present/present bias, what would you ask him?

A)How many people have you met and befriended?
B)Do you think the times you made friends by telling jokes might come more easily to mind?
C)Did you go into conversations where you opened with jokes thinking that you would make friends?
D)What about the times you opened with a joke and didn't become friends with the person?

Question 51

Describe two pros and two cons of reading about scientific research in popular magazines compared with reading about research in scientific journals.

Question 52

Marcella is conducting a PsycINFO search for treatments for autism spectrum disorder by searching "autism treatment." However, her search is returning too many results. If she is interested in getting more specific results, Marcella could search:

A)using the "or" function for all thesaurus synonyms for autism.
B)"autism treatment" and "behavioral" and enter an age range of interest.
C)"autism spectrum disorder" or "treatment" or "symptom improvement."
D)"autis*treatment."

Question 53

How does research overcome the problem of confounds?

A)Research uses intuition to detect potential confounds.
B)Research combines data across diverse individuals.
C)Research focuses on one possible explanation for the results.
D)Research systematically compares multiple conditions.

Question 54

RESEARCH STUDY 2.1: Charlotte is studying subliminal messages and weight loss. She is curious whether people will lose more weight if they hear subliminal messages that encourage weight loss ("don't eat that food," "you want to be thin," etc.) in the music on their iPods than will people who do not have subliminal messages in their music. She studies 40 people and finds the following results:

Explain why the results of Cells B and D are important.

Question 55

Imagine that Dr. Jones publishes a study that claims that drinking while pregnant is dangerous for the health of the unborn baby. He finds that of the 100 women in his study who drank when pregnant, 78 had children who experienced problems with attention. Of the 100 women in his study who did not drink when pregnant, only 29 children experienced problems with attention. Your neighbor says that Dr. Jones is wrong because she drank when pregnant and her child is perfectly healthy. Explain why Dr. Jones is not wrong.

Question 56

RESEARCH STUDY 2.1: Charlotte is studying subliminal messages and weight loss. She is curious whether people will lose more weight if they hear subliminal messages that encourage weight loss ("don't eat that food," "you want to be thin," etc.) in the music on their iPods than will people who do not have subliminal messages in their music. She studies 40 people and finds the following results:

Although Charlotte is concerned with exposure to subliminal messages, she collects data from people not exposed to subliminal messages. What is this group called? Why must this group be included in her study?

Question 57

Explain how conclusions drawn from the confirmation bias are different from those using the theory-data cycle.

Question 58

Why is it important to adopt the mindset of a scientific reasoner?

A)To avoid falling into the pitfalls of personal biases
B)To identify the most intuitive explanations
C)To be able to sway people with a good story
D)To know what evidence people like best

Question 59

Name three ways that the scientific reasoner is different from the intuitive thinker.

Question 60

You are having lunch with your friends, Oliver, Julia, and Richard, and you are discussing the link between homework and exam grades. Oliver says, "I know that doing homework improves exam grades because I always do my homework and I have a 4.0." Julia says, "I know that doing homework improves exam grades because a blog I read on an education website says so." Richard says, "I know that doing homework improves exam grades because that makes sense. Teachers would not assign it if it did not." Provide a response to each friend for why his or her reasoning is unsound.

Question 61

Name the six basic sections of an empirical journal article.

Question 62

Karla is starting her study for her research methods and needs to begin finding some research articles. She tells you that she plans on searching for her sources on Google Scholar. Provide three reasons that you would recommend that she use PsycINFO instead to search for sources.

Question 63

When reading an empirical journal article "with a purpose," which two questions should you ask yourself as you read? To this end, which section should you read first in order to quickly answer these questions?

Question 64

Provide at least three reasons that explain why a wiki is a less-than-ideal source for psychological research.

Question 65

Your friend Samir wants to learn how to be more persuasive. He is a marketing major and thinks that understanding more about persuasion might be helpful. Which type of scientific sources might you recommend to him and why?