Question 1

The text highlights an intriguing study that demonstrates how the presence of cell phones can decrease closeness,trust,empathy,and overall conversation quality among strangers.Design a follow-up experiment to examine whether the presence of cell phones has the same impact on the conversation quality between friends.In your answer,be sure to operationally define both your independent and dependent variables,as well as specify what will happen to your participants in both the experimental and control conditions.

Accepted Answer

The study design can take many shapes,but the answer should include both the independent variable,which is the presence or absence of the cell phone,and the dependent variable,which would be ratings of conversational quality (which could be self-reported by participants or scored by observers of the conversation).A complete answer should also specify that in the experimental condition a cell phone was physically present,whereas in the control condition the cell phone was not present.

Question 2

To promote safe driving,phone companies have recently designed apps that disable the text messaging capabilities of a cell phone when traveling more than 10 MPH.As a psychologist,you are aware of the research that shows thought suppression can lead to a rebound effect,whereby people think of the forbidden item more.You are curious whether these safe driving apps have the unanticipated effect of creating greater distraction and ultimately leading to impaired driving.How would you design an experiment to test whether these types of apps promote or inhibit safe driving? Be sure to clearly identify your independent and dependent variables,as well as what happens in your experimental and control conditions.

Accepted Answer

This question asks students to apply knowledge from the restrictive phone study described in the text to the novel context of driving.Although answers will vary,they should demonstrate students' ability to design an experimental study.Answers should note that the dependent variable is the measured safety of the driving behavior,whereas the independent variable is the use of a safe driver (i.e. ,restrictive)cell phone app.A suitable study may involve randomly assigning participants to a restricted (experimental)and unrestricted (control)condition while having participants drive in a driving simulator.The experimenter could then measure and compare the number of driving errors made in each condition.

Question 3

Name at least three required elements of a true experiment.

Accepted Answer

The answer should include at least three of the following: (1)covariation - when changes in one variable are associated with changes in another variable; (2)temporal precedence - when changes in the suspected cause occur before changes in the effect; (3)control of extraneous variables - ability to rule out variables that could serve as an alternative explanation for the observed changes in the dependent variable;and (4)random assignment - dividing participants into control and experimental conditions based on random chance,such as flipping a coin,to ensure that the experimental and control conditions are similar in every way except for the manipulation of the independent variable.

Question 4

Dr.Perez is a new teacher who is interested in creating the most conducive learning environment for her students.After great consideration,she has decided to ban the use of laptops for note-taking in her classroom.Instead,students are only allowed to take notes using pencil and paper.At the end of the semester,she assesses her students by examining their overall course grade [on a scale from 0 (lowest possible grade)to 100 (highest possible grade)] and their feelings toward the laptop policy [on a scale from 1 (unfavorable)to 7 (favorable)].Finally,she compares her data with those of a colleague who does not restrict laptop use.Results reveal: Student performance: t(251)= 5.18,p = .03,d = .46 (M_restricted = 79,M_unrestricted = 75) Feelings toward policy: t(251)= 6.29,p = .02,d = .51 (M_restricted = 3.69,M_unrestricted = 5.87) Please interpret these results to explain whether Dr.Perez's laptop policy helped to create a more conducive learning environment,noting specifically what her results reveal about each test variable.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Dr.Perez is a new teacher who is...

Question 5

Imagine that you were recently in an airport waiting to pick up a friend when you noticed some interesting behaviors.For instance,you saw some people experience great distress when saying good-bye to their loved ones,while others seemed to show no concern at all.Similarly,some of the people arriving were greeted enthusiastically by their family and friends while others received much more casual greetings.As someone interested in human behavior you propose the hypothesis that individuals higher in relationship satisfaction experience the observed anguish at separation and delight at reunion.To fully investigate this topic,design both correlational and experimental studies to explore this hypothesis.In your answer,please be sure to describe the key differences between these two research designs,specifically addressing both advantages and disadvantages of each.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Imagine that you were recently in an...

Question 6

You are interested in studying health behaviors,particularly why some patients comply with their doctors' order to take the full course of a prescribed medication,whereas others stop taking the medication once they begin to feel better.You run an experiment to test whether people who write down their own dosing instructions are more compliant than those who have the doctor do it for them.Results reveal that having patients write their own dosing instructions has a significant impact on compliance.However,a colleague disputes your claim saying perhaps the severity of illness is what is affecting compliance behavior.Use your understanding of random assignment to respond to this concern.

Accepted Answer

The answer of You are interested in studying health behaviors,particularly...

Exam 8: A: Two-Group Design: Texting: I Cant Get You Out of My Mind

Name at least three required elements of a true experiment.