Question 1

A researcher who first measures a characteristic and then balances group membership on that characteristic, has used

Accepted Answer

A)  counterbalancing. 
B)  matched random assignment. 
C)  random selection. 
D)  simple random assignment.

Question 2

In an experimental design, the control condition

Accepted Answer

A)  is used to create nonspecific treatment effects for the independent variable. 
B)  consists of an experience or treatment that the researcher thinks will affect participants' behavior. 
C)  establishes a baseline against which the researcher can assess the effects of a treatment. 
D)  creates error variance which is offset by the experimental condition.

Question 3

You conduct a study in which introverts and extroverts are randomly assigned to work on a task while either facing a mirror or facing a blank wall. You find that that extroverts performed better than introverts and that both introverts and extroverts performed better while facing a mirror than when facing a blank wall. Which conclusion is accurate?

Accepted Answer

A)  both personality type and the mirror/wall manipulation caused an improvement in performance. 
B)  the mirror/wall manipulation caused an improvement in performance, but whether personality type caused an improvement cannot be determined. 
C)  personality caused an improvement in performance, but whether the mirror/wall manipulation caused an improvement cannot be determined. 
D)  neither personality type nor the mirror/wall manipulation caused an improvement in performance.

Question 4

A manipulation is reliable when

Accepted Answer

A)  the conditions of the independent variable are found to differentially affect behavior. 
B)  the manipulation is sufficiently clear that participants notice it. 
C)  every participant in a given condition experiences the condition in essentially the same way. 
D)  the content of the manipulation is an accurate reflection of the hypothetical construct being manipulated.

Question 5

Describe four possible reasons why an experimental manipulation might fail.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Describe four possible reasons why an experimental...

Question 6

Which of the following pairs of terms is correctly matched?

Accepted Answer

A)  within-subjects design; independent groups design 
B)  within-subjects design; repeated measures design 
C)  both a and b 
D)  neither a nor b

Question 7

Satisficing occurs when participants

Accepted Answer

A)  give the response they think the experimenter is looking for. 
B)  choose the first reasonable response, rather than the best response, to a stimulus. 
C)  fail the manipulation check because they are not paying attention. 
D)  follow the directive given in an instructional manipulation check.

Question 8

The term blocking refers to

Accepted Answer

A)  using a Latin squares design to control order effects in a within-subjects experiment. 
B)  including an extraneous variable as an independent variable in a factorial design in order to reduce error variance. 
C)  including both manipulated and correlational independent variables in a factorial design. 
D)  including both between-subjects and within-subjects independent variables in a factorial design.

Question 9

A researcher wanted to determine if the presence of blue light, such as that emitted from a cell phone, interrupted sleep. Participants were asked either to sleep with their cell phone nearby or to sleep with their cell phone in another room. A device recorded their sleep cycles for one week. Results showed sleep quality was poorer in the cell phone present group. What design change needs to be made to rule out alterative explanations for the result?

Accepted Answer

A)  use a within-subjects design rather than a between-subjects design. 
B)  measure sleep quality for longer than one week. 
C)  add a condition where blue light is emitted from a device other than a cell phone. 
D)  Any of the above can rule out alternative explanations

Question 10

You hypothesize that women will give into conformity pressure more often than men, but only for topics about which men generally know more than women. You do not expect to find gender differences on topics about which men and women have the same level of knowledge. The best way to test your hypothesis would be with

Accepted Answer

A)  a factorial design with gender of participant and topic as independent variables. 
B)  two experiments with topic as the independent variable, one with men as participants and the other with women as participants. 
C)  a factorial experiment with topic as the independent variable and with only women assigned to the experimental group and only men assigned to the control group. 
D)  one experiment with gender of participant as the independent variable, with men getting a female-knowledge topic and women getting a male-knowledge topic.

Question 11

Which of the following statements about matched random assignment of participants to conditions of a between-subjects experiment is FALSE?

Accepted Answer

A)  A major drawback of using matched random assignment is the cost, in time, money, and resources, of pretesting. 
B)  Assigning participants alternately to the experimental and control conditions as they come to the laboratory is equivalent to matched random assignment to conditions. 
C)  The pretesting required for matched random assignment might induce a testing confound. 
D)  Matched random assignment is normally used only when the variable being controlled is known to have a strong effect on the dependent variable.

Question 12

What is extraneous variance? Describe two ways it can be reduced in a true experiment.

Accepted Answer

The answer of What is extraneous variance? Describe two ways...

Question 13

A main effect in a factorial design is

Accepted Answer

A)  the most important outcome of the study. 
B)  an effect that has been hypothesized in advance, in contrast to an unanticipated effect that emerges from the study. 
C)  an outcome that occurs when two or more independent variables combine to produce an effect over and above their independent effects. 
D)  the effect that one independent variable has independently of the effect of the other independent variable.

Question 14

Describe a study, based on your own interests, that uses a good experimental manipulation. What factors does your manipulation have that suggest it would be effective?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Describe a study, based on your own...

Question 15

Which of the following statements about using multiple stimuli to represent a condition of an independent variable is FALSE?

Accepted Answer

A)  The use of multiple stimuli can increase the validity of a manipulation. 
B)  Many hypothetical constructs can be represented by more than one stimulus. 
C)  Although the use of multiple stimuli is desirable in theory, it is impossible to carry out in practice. 
D)  If a construct could be represented by multiple stimuli but only one stimulus is used, there is no way to tell whether participants are responding to the construct the stimulus represents or to the characteristics of that particular stimulus.

Question 16

Which of the following statements about interaction effects is TRUE?

Accepted Answer

A)  An interaction effect is simply the sum of two main effects. 
B)  If you get both a main effect and an interaction, the main effect for one independent variable may apply only to one condition of the other independent variable, not to both conditions. 
C)  There cannot be an interaction effect if there is a main effect. 
D)  If you get an interaction effect, you do not have to conduct any follow-up tests.

Question 17

A manipulation check might fail because

Accepted Answer

A)  the manipulation is not valid as an operational definition of the independent variable. 
B)  the manipulation was valid but not strong enough to affect participants' behavior. 
C)  participants were not paying attention to the manipulation. 
D)  of any of the above.

Question 18

When conducting a true experiment, how can you ensure that all participants are equivalent with respect to the dependent variable before they take part in the study?

Accepted Answer

The answer of When conducting a true experiment, how can...

Question 19

A researcher wants to know whether wearing sunglasses improves driving performance. In a properly designed WITHIN-subjects experiment, presence or absence of sunglasses would be varied by

Accepted Answer

A)  randomly assigning half the drivers to a sunglasses condition and half to a no-sunglasses condition. 
B)  having all drivers first drive without sunglasses and then with sunglasses. 
C)  having half the drivers first drive without sunglasses and then with sunglasses and having the other half first drive with sunglasses and then without sunglasses. 
D)  having all drivers first drive with sunglasses and then without sunglasses.

Exam 9: True Experiments