Deck 5: How Do We Misinterpret

Question 1

One of the pairs of terms below consists of two very similar threats to validity.Which pair?

A)history and maturation
B)history and regression toward the mean
C)experimenter bias and experimental mortality
D)selection bias and testing effects

Answer 1

history and maturation

Question 2

Regression toward the mean occurs because:

A)measurement is almost always biased in one way or another
B)measurements are usually a mixture of true scores and error
C)no two measurements are ever exactly the same
D)the act of taking a test usually influences people's future scores on the test

Answer 2

measurements are usually a mixture of true scores and error

Question 3

In an experimental study of cooperation,the experimenter makes people in the experimental condition feel like they have no choice but to cooperate with a confederate.Kermit was assigned to this condition of the study and felt that he was being treated like a puppet.As a result,he actively tried to disconfirm the experimenter's hypothesis by refusing to cooperate.This is an example of:

A)participant expectancies
B)demand characteristics
C)participant reactance
D)evaluation apprehension

Answer 3

participant reactance

Question 4

The Implicit Association Test (IAT)assesses people's unconscious associations about objects.The IAT would be used in an instance when the experimenter is trying to:

A)conduct a double-blind experiment
B)reduce experimenter bias
C)introduce confounds
D)minimize participant reaction bias

Question 5

In their research on the door-in-the-face technique and blood donation,Cialdini and Ascani (1976)were concerned about the possibility of experimenter bias.What steps did they take to eliminate or reduce this methodological problem?

A)They kept the experimenter blind to participants' conditions.
B)They made use of a double-blind procedure.
C)They deceived the participants.
D)They deceived the experimenters.

Question 6

The most common threat to the internal validity of research designs is probably:

A)experimenter bias
B)confounds
C)participant expectancies
D)regression toward the mean

Question 7

During the first quarter of his freshman year in high school,Dinky received a very low score on a vocabulary test.Three months later Dinky took test again,and he scored much higher on the test.Dinky's improvement can be explained by:

A)maturation
B)regression toward the mean
C)testing effects
D)all of the above (all are good explanations)

Question 8

The tendency for people to change their behaviors just because they have been asked what they intend to do in the future is known as:

A)retroactive interference
B)the Hawthorne effect
C)the mere measurement effect
D)causation

Question 9

Experimenter bias and _______ can become very similar in some experiments.

A)regression toward the mean
B)maturation
C)participant expectancies
D)attrition

Question 10

Demand characteristics refer to:

A)pressure participants feel to finish a study even when they feel uncomfortable
B)pressure to give socially desirable answers to survey questions
C)cues for authority that encourage research participants to respond honestly
D)subtle cues in an experiment that suggest to participants how they should behave

Question 11

The Literary Digest error concerning the outcome of the 1936 U.S.Presidential election was apparently caused by:

A)selection bias
B)nonresponse bias
C)both selection bias and nonresponse bias
D)both selection bias and regression toward the mean

Question 12

Whereas confounds threat____,artifacts threat____.

A)validity;reliability
B)reliability;validity
C)internal validity;external validity
D)external validity;internal validity

Question 13

Which of the following threats to validity could often be thought of as a form of attitude polarization?

A)the Hawthorne effect
B)testing effects
C)regression toward the mean
D)participant expectancies

Question 14

A research design in which someone tests a claim about a variable by exposing a person to the variable and showing that the person thought,felt,or behaved as expected is referred to as:

A)a pseudo-experiment
B)a quasi-experiment
C)a clinical trial
D)an experiment

Question 15

Rosenthal and Fode's study of "maze-bright" and "maze-dull" rats provides an excellent example of:

A)experimenter bias
B)demand characteristics
C)Heisenberg effects
D)participant mortality

Question 16

Madeline plans to stand outside of a BMW dealership and ask the people she sees who they think will win the 2012 presidential election.Her study will most likely suffer from which of the following methodological problems?

A)selection bias
B)history
C)maturation
D)the Hawthorne effect

Question 17

Which of the following represents the most serious threat to internal validity?

A)selection bias
B)nonresponse bias
C)heterogenous attrition
D)homogeneous attrition

Question 18

Which of the following threats to validity CANNOT be corrected by simply adding a control group to a researcher's design?

A)history
B)regression toward the mean
C)testing effects
D)participant reaction bias

Question 19

Which of the following procedures or techniques requires little or no active deception?

A)the use of a cover story
B)the use of a confederate
C)the use of unobtrusive observations
D)the use of a bogus pipeline

Question 20

Both testing effects and:

A)regression toward the mean lead to increases in people's scores
B)history can lead to either increases or decreases in people's scores
C)experimenter bias are based on laboratory experimenters' behavior toward participants
D)Hawthorne effects are ways in which studying people changes people

Question 21

Lincoln conducted a successful experiment on modeling (i.e. ,social learning or copying)and helping behavior among American high school students.He then replicated this same experiment (using exactly the same independent and dependent variables)in a sample of Japanese senior citizens.Lincoln probably hoped that his replication study would reduce concerns about:

A)artifacts
B)linguistic biases
C)confounds
D)demand characteristics

Question 22

By replicating an experiment while using a different specific way of manipulating the independent variable,a researcher can often reduce concerns about:

A)archetypes
B)belief perseverance
C)confounds
D)demand characteristics