Deck 6: How to Design an Experiment

Question 1

You run a study comparing mathematical ability (percentage correct on a test) between participants who are left handed and participants who are right handed. What is the independent variable (IV) in this experimental design?

A) Being left handed
B) Mathematical ability
C) Handedness
D) Being right handed

Answer 1

C
Explanation: Handedness is the IV as that defines the two groups/conditions that are being compared.

Question 2

You run a study comparing mathematical ability (percentage correct on a test) between participants who are left handed and participants who are right handed. What is the dependent variable (DV) in this experimental design?

A) Being left handed
B) Mathematical ability
C) Handedness
D) Being right handed

Answer 2

B
Explanation: The DV is mathematical ability as it is a continuous score that we expect to differ according to handedness.

Question 3

You run a study comparing mathematical ability (percentage correct on a test) between participants who are left handed and participants who are right handed. This is a __________ with __________ measures.

A) Experimental design, independent
B) Experimental design, repeated
C) Quasi-experimental design, independent
D) Quasi-experimental design, repeated

Answer 3

C
Explanation: It is a quasi-experimental design because participants cannot be randomly allocated to conditions, and it is independent measures because different people will belong to the two different handedness groups.

Question 4

Which of the following is an advantage of an independent measures design?

A) There can be carryover effects, such as practice or fatigue effects.
B) There can be individual differences between groups.
C) The scores of a participant in one condition cannot influence the scores of a participant in another condition.
D) There is reduced random variance in the dataset.

Question 5

Which of the following variable might NOT be appropriate to match participants for in an independent measures design?

A) Unique participant identifying code
B) Age
C) Years of education
D) Marital status

Question 6

Below are four different independent variables (IVs) that could be examined in an experiment. Which of the following IVs would it be possible to randomly allocate participants to the two conditions?

A) Criminal background: no conviction vs. conviction
B) Clinical group: no diagnosis vs. diagnosis
C) Age: younger (15-20 years) vs. older (65-70 years)
D) Mood induction type: positive vs. negative

Question 7

You run a memory study with a repeated measures design, and you develop two separate lists of words (A and B) to be remembered. Half of the participants complete the memory lists in the order or A then B, whereas the other half complete B then A. What type of experimental design feature is this?

A) Counterbalancing
B) Randomising
C) Matching
D) Confounding

Question 8

Left handed participants and right handed participants will perform similarly on a test of mathematical ability. Which type of hypothesis is it?

A) Alternative hypothesis
B) One-tailed hypothesis
C) Two-tailed hypothesis
D) Null hypothesis

Question 9

Which of the following is a two-tailed hypothesis?

A) Left and right handers will differ in their mathematical ability
B) Left handers will do better than right handers on a test of mathematical ability
C) Left handers will do worse than right handers on a test of mathematical ability
D) Left handers and right handers will not differ in their performance on a test of mathematical ability