Question 1

Concerning subject (participant)pools, the APA recommends all of the following except

Accepted Answer

A) alternative activities must equal research participation in terms of time and effort 
B) students should be aware of the requirement before signing up for the course 
C) students should be encouraged to participate, and be told about alternatives if they ask about them 
D) there must be a clear and simple method for students to complain about any perceived mistreatment

Question 2

Decisions made about how to define the dependent variable most clearly affect the ________ validity of a study.

Accepted Answer

A) internal 
B) construct 
C) external 
D) statistical conclusion

Question 3

A "freshman year" program finds that first year students are more relaxed at the end of their first semester than they were at the beginning. The Dean is excited, but the researcher suspects the change may be due to

Accepted Answer

A) history 
B) regression 
C) maturation 
D) selection

Question 4

Experimental group is to control group as ________ is to _______.

Accepted Answer

A) independent variable; dependent variable 
B) dependent variable; independent variable 
C) untreated; treated 
D) treated; untreated

Question 5

A researcher finds that in a study of direction finding, men are less likely to acknowledge being lost than women. In this study, the independent variable is

Accepted Answer

A) whether or not participants get lost 
B) a willingness to admit being lost 
C) a subject variable 
D) a manipulated variable

Question 6

Sometimes performance differences could be attributed to an independent variable or to some basic difference in the composition of the two groups involved. When this occurs, there is said to be a threat due to

Accepted Answer

A) regression 
B) maturation 
C) attrition 
D) selection

Question 7

After taking the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale, those scoring in the top 25% are assigned to group A and those scoring in the bottom 25% are assigned to group B. Participants in both groups are then given a series of problems to solve in a small (8x8)windowless room. Which of the following is true about anxiety in this study?

Accepted Answer

A) it is a task variable 
B) it is an instructional variable 
C) it is a subject variable 
D) it is a dependent variable

Question 8

Social psychologists might be concerned that conformity experiments using participants from individualist cultures might not be relevant for understanding behavior in collectivist cultures. This concern is about _______ validity.

Accepted Answer

A) internal 
B) external 
C) construct 
D) statistical conclusion

Question 9

Woodworth's 1938 text, Experimental Psychology,

Accepted Answer

A) showed a preference for experimental over correlational research 
B) distinguished between independent and dependent variables 
C) both alternatives a. and b. 
D) none of the above

Question 10

Most researchers would agree that

Accepted Answer

A) every experiment that lasts more than an hour should include a pretest and a posttest 
B) external validity is more important than internal validity 
C) internal validity is more important than external validity 
D) research results have no significant value unless they have ecological validity

Question 11

With ___________ participants complete different tasks, whereas with ___________ participants are told how to do certain tasks.

Accepted Answer

A) instructional variables; task variables 
B) task variables; instructional variables 
C) task variables; situational variables 
D) situational variables; task variables

Question 12

In a study comparing two sets of rankings, a researcher erroneously uses a statistical analysis designed for use with interval or ratio data. This study will have questionable

Accepted Answer

A) internal validity 
B) construct validity 
C) statistical conclusion validity 
D) reliability

Question 13

In the study described in the previous item, what is the dependent variable?

Accepted Answer

A) a measure of room size 
B) the type of maze being used 
C) maze performance 
D) the degree of natural light

Question 14

A researcher is interested in whether memory is better for concrete rather than abstract nouns and designs a study to answer the question. In this study, the independent variable is

Accepted Answer

A) a situational variable 
B) a task variable 
C) an instructional variable 
D) a subject variable

Question 15

For which of these empirical questions would a control group most clearly be needed?

Accepted Answer

A) If institutionalized elderly are given responsibility for meal planning, will it improve their psychological health? 
B) Do laboratory-bred rats learn mazes faster than wild rats? 
C) If participants are trying to solve problems, will they perform better in the morning or the evening? 
D) Will an attractive female defendant be treated more leniently by a jury than an attractive male defendant?

Question 16

Studies of aggression have sometimes been criticized for developing questionable operational definitions of aggression (e.g., horn honking). This is primarily a criticism of _________ validity.

Accepted Answer

A) internal 
B) construct 
C) external 
D) statistical conclusion

Question 17

In order to determine if some experience brought about a change in an individual from one time to another, researchers often use designs that include

Accepted Answer

A) pretests and posttests 
B) control groups 
C) statistics 
D) regression

Question 18

Some subjects try to solve a difficult maze while sitting in a 2x3 ft room. Others try to solve the same maze while sitting in a 10x12 ft room. The purpose of the study is to examine the effect of crowding on maze performance The larger room has natural light because of its two windows. The 2x3 ft room has no windows, so natural light is simulated with a special type of fluorescent light. Which of the following is true?

Accepted Answer

A) the independent variable is the type of maze being used 
B) whether or not windows are present is an uncontrolled extraneous variable 
C) assuming random assignment is used, this study clearly has internal validity 
D) the main variable is a subject variable

Question 19

Research that attempts to study psychological phenomena in settings that reflect daily living (e.g., a memory study about forgetting where we put our keys)is said to have _________ validity.

Accepted Answer

A) construct 
B) ecological 
C) internal 
D) no statistical conclusion

Question 20

When a subject variable is used as an independent variable and differences occur between groups on the dependent measure, what can be concluded?

Accepted Answer

A) the independent variable caused the differences to occur, assuming there are no confounds 
B) the two groups performed differently 
C) in this case, the subject variable must be a dependent variable, not an independent variable 
D) because a subject variable is being used, nothing at all can be concluded

Exam 5: Introduction to Experimental Research

Concerning subject (participant) pools, the APA recommends all of the following except