Deck 9: Conducting Marketing Experiments

Question 1

A confound in an experiment means that there is a spurious relationship between the independent and dependent variables.

Answer 1

True
A confound in an experiment means that there is an alternative explanation beyond the experimental variables for any observed differences in the dependent variable,which was described as a spurious relationship in a previous chapter.

Question 2

Participants in experimental research are typically referred to as respondents.

Answer 2

False
Participants in experimental research are referred to as subjects rather than respondents.

Question 3

One way to reduce demand characteristics is to tell subjects the purpose of the experiment so they will be more willing to participate honestly.

Answer 3

False
One way of reducing demand characteristics is to use an experimental disguise.

Question 4

In an experiment,the researcher manipulates the dependent variable and measures its effect on the independent variable.

Question 5

Experiments in which an individual subject is exposed to more than one level of an experimental treatment are referred to as multidimensional designs.

Question 6

In an experiment,collinearity is the characteristic of experiments that allow hypotheses to be tested.

Question 7

The most common procedure to try to ensure that experimental and control groups do not differ from each other in important ways at the beginning of a research study is random assignment of subjects to treatment and control groups.

Question 8

The people administering an experiment must be aware of the experimental hypotheses.

Question 9

Systematic error can occur in experiments.

Question 10

Often,the term cell is used to refer to a treatment combination within an experiment.

Question 11

Covariates are categorical variables like a subject's gender or ethnicity.

Question 12

Experimental research attempts to find causal relationships among variables.

Question 13

A confound is an experimental deception involving a false treatment.

Question 14

An experimental treatment is the term referring to the way an experimental variable is manipulated.

Question 15

Products are the most common test units in most marketing experiments.

Question 16

John correctly guessed that the purpose of an experiment he was participating in was to examine the effect of including brands in television programming on his attitude and intention to purchase that brand,which creates a confound known as a bias effect.

Question 17

An experimental construct refers to one of the possible levels of an experimental variable manipulation.

Question 18

In experimental research,independent variables are simply measured.

Question 19

An experiment can have only one experimental variable.

Question 20

A control group is one in which an experimental treatment is administered.

Question 21

One disadvantage of test-marketing is that the results are usually difficult to communicate to management.

Question 22

When a test market is conducted in five retail stores in Erie,Pennsylvania,this is an example of an external experiment.

Question 23

Field experiments tend to have less external validity than laboratory experiments.

Question 24

Between-subjects designs involve repeated measures because with each treatment the same subject is measured.

Question 25

Intentional attempts to disrupt the results of a test-market being conducted by another firm is called test-market sabotage.

Question 26

Test marketing allows an organization to conduct a "trial run" of the product in the marketplace.

Question 27

Competitors can sometimes benefit from another company's test market.

Question 28

When a new product fails in a test market,this means that the test market for this product was a failure.

Question 29

A test market study is the most common type of field experiment.

Question 30

A researcher is conducting an experiment in which one group of people is exposed to an advertisement and another group is exposed to another advertisement.He is examining the effect of headline font sizes on consumers' attitude toward the brand advertised.The participants in this experimental research are referred to as _____.

A) respondents
B) elements
C) factorials
D) subjects

Question 31

As a rule of thumb,tests markets should run for at least six months.

Question 32

The sampling units in experiments are referred to as ____.

A) conditions
B) effects
C) subjects
D) parameters

Question 33

As long as the researcher debriefs subjects,any experimental deception is acceptable.

Question 34

A cohort effect in an experiment is a function of time and the naturally occurring events that coincide with growth and experience.

Question 35

Test-marketing is one of the least expensive tools used in marketing research.

Question 36

The question as to whether the experimental treatment was the "sole cause" of the changes in the dependent variable is the basic issue in internal validity.

Question 37

Experiments are widely used in which type of research designs?

A) causal
B) descriptive
C) exploratory
D) nonspurious

Question 38

A(n)_____ refers to one of the possible values for each independent variable in an experiment.

A) experimental condition
B) experimental variable
C) experimental block
D) experimental subject

Question 39

Factorial experimental designs are the least sophisticated type of experimental design.

Question 40

"Does package size affect consumption rates in snack products?" is a typical question in what type of research design?

A) descriptive research
B) time-series research
C) experimental research
D) phone surveys

Question 41

Experimental results that show that consumers purchased more when a store had a blue color with bright lights than they did when a store was orange with bright lights but no difference when the lighting was low is an example of which type of effect?

A) main
B) interaction
C) confound
D) synergistic

Question 42

If the level of advertising expenditures is compared to the number of units sold at the end of a four-month period,the independent variable is ______ while the dependent variable is ______.

A) advertising expenditure level; units sold
B) customer satisfaction; advertising expenditure level
C) units sold; advertising expenditure level
D) none of these choices

Question 43

Kim and Mary are both participating in an experiment examining the effect of adding graphic warning labels on cigarette packages to the written warning labels that are already required by law.Kim saw a package in which half of the package had a picture of diseased lungs included with the written warning label,whereas Mary only saw the written warning label without a picture on the package the researcher showed her.Kim was part of which group in the experiment?

A) primary group
B) covariate group
C) experimental group
D) control group

Question 44

Variables like a subject's gender or ethnicity that are included in an experimental analysis are known as which type of variable?

A) blocking variables
B) covariates
C) main variables
D) confounds

Question 45

The experimental difference in means between the different levels of any single experimental variable is referred to as a(n)_____.

A) interaction effect
B) primary effect
C) main effect
D) confound

Question 46

The group receiving an experimental treatment is called the _____.

A) primary group
B) experimental group
C) control group
D) experimental unit

Question 47

A group of subjects to whom no experimental treatment is administered is called a _____ group.

A) control
B) secondary
C) blocking
D) statistical

Question 48

A marketing researcher is manipulating exposing subjects to one of two price levels--$1.99 or $2.49--for a tube of chapstick and measures behavioral intentions.The two price levels are known as experimental_____ in the study.

A) confounds
B) conditions
C) cells
D) covariates

Question 49

The way an experimental variable is manipulated is referred to as an experimental _____.

A) treatment
B) cell
C) confound
D) dose

Question 50

Which of the following is the term used to refer to a treatment combination within an experiment?

A) level
B) link
C) cell
D) unit

Question 51

Which type of variable is a continuous variable included in a statistical analysis as a way of statistically controlling for variance due to that variable?

A) blocking
B) independent
C) main
D) covariate

Question 52

A researcher manipulating the types of message a subject is exposed to in a Internet banner advertisement believes that a subject's age might show a statistical relationship with the dependent variable,so he includes ages in the statistical analysis.Age is an example of which type of variable?

A) independent
B) blocking
C) covariate
D) mediating

Question 53

Differences in dependent variable means due to a specific combination of independent variables are called _____ effects.

A) main
B) conditional
C) interaction
D) valid

Question 54

Kamal is assigned to a group in an experiment examining the effectiveness of zinc on diminishing the symptoms of a cold.He didn't know it,but the capsule he received didn't contain any zinc in it.In fact,it was just a sugar pill.The other group of subjects received the true zinc supplements,and researchers compared the number of days subjects felt cold symptoms.Kamal was assigned to which group in the experiment?

A) primary
B) experimental
C) control
D) blocking

Question 55

Categorical variables included in the statistical analysis of experimental data as a way of statistically controlling or accounting for variance due to that variable are called _____ variables.

A) independent
B) dependent
C) blocking
D) covariate

Question 56

A company was interested in learning if training expenditures will enhance its salesforce productivity,so they hired a researcher to conduct an experiment in which one group of salespeople received training and the other didn't.The average sales for salespeople who received training was significantly higher than for those who did not.This difference in means between the two groups is known as a(n)_____ effect.

A) placebo
B) main
C) covariate
D) interactive

Question 57

A researcher is examining the impact of pictures in advertisements and whether including instructions to imagine impact subjects' mental imagery.She manipulated three treatment levels of pictures: concrete picture,abstract picture,or no picture.Instructions to imagine were either present or not present.How many cells are there in this experiment?

A) 2
B) 3
C) 5
D) 6

Question 58

All of the following are experimental design issues EXCEPT _____.

A) selection and assignment of subjects to treatments
B) control over extraneous variables
C) manipulation of the independent variable
D) manipulation of the dependent variable

Question 59

What is the difference between a blocking variable and a covariate?

A) Blocking variables result in main effects whereas covariates do not.
B) Blocking variables are manipulated variables, but covariates are simply measured.
C) Blocking variables are categorical variables and covariates are continuous variables.
D) Blocking variables are used to statistically control for variance due to that variable, whereas covariates represent multiple independent variables and are the focus of the main effects in an experiment.

Question 60

_____ are the subjects or entities whose responses to the experimental treatment are measured.

A) Test units
B) Focal units
C) Covariates
D) Independent units

Question 61

If a soft-drink company performs an experiment with a new type of soft drink in which experimental subjects always taste this new product first and then taste a competitor's product second,the study has an error in design termed a(n)_____.

A) history effect
B) maturation effect
C) order of presentation effect
D) guinea pig effect

Question 62

A psychology professor is conducting an experiment in which subjects perform memory tasks.There are four groups,each participating in different buildings on campus.During the time of the experiment one group was in a building near a dumpster that was being emptied by a big,noisy trash truck.The other groups weren't close enough to hear the noise.Which type of error does this introduce into the research?

A) systematic error
B) sampling error
C) testing error
D) interference error

Question 63

Which experimental design involves manipulating a single independent variable to observe its effect on a single dependent variable?

A) primary experimental design
B) basic experimental design
C) factorial experimental design
D) counterbalanced experimental design

Question 64

Which term refers to an experimental design element that unintentionally provides subjects with hints about the research hypothesis.

A) demand characteristic
B) Hawthorne effect
C) testing effect
D) confounding effect

Question 65

Which of the following is a way for a researcher to equally distribute the effects of extraneous variables to all conditions in an experiment?

A) confounding
B) split sampling
C) repeated measures
D) randomization

Question 66

Monica is conducting an experiment where all subjects see all of the ads she is testing.This type of experiment in which an individual subject is exposed to more than one level of an experimental treatment is called _____.

A) between-subjects
B) repeated measures
C) redundant manipulation
D) randomization

Question 67

In which type of experiment does the research have more complete control over the research setting and extraneous variables?

A) factorial
B) controlled
C) field
D) laboratory

Question 68

All of the following are ways to reduce demand characteristics EXCEPT _____.

A) use an experimental disguise
B) administer multiple experimental treatment levels to each subject
C) use a "blind" experimental administrator
D) isolate experimental subjects

Question 69

Caroline is participating in an experimental study in which she is taking an herbal supplement and the researcher measures her perceived energy levels for several weeks.Although she doesn't know it,the supplement she is given in the study does not contain any of the herb of interest in the study.However,Caroline feels as though she has more energy than before,and she attributes it to the herbal supplement.This effect due to the psychological impact that goes along with knowledge that a treatment has been administered is called a(n)_____.

A) maturation effect
B) false positive
C) counterbalancing effect
D) placebo effect

Question 70

An experiment examining the interaction effects of the presence of police cars and the presence of speeding cameras on the number of speeding tickets issued is an example of which type of experimental design?

A) basic experimental design
B) legitimate experimental design
C) obtuse experimental design
D) factorial experimental design

Question 71

Which of the following means that there is an alternative explanation beyond the experimental variables for any observed differences in the dependent variables?

A) confound
B) interaction
C) randomization
D) repeated measures

Question 72

Which of the following are possible test units in a marketing research study?

A) people
B) sales territories
C) retail stores
D) all of these choices

Question 73

When an experiment is conducted on the premises of a marketing research organization,this is an example of a _____.

A) static group design
B) laboratory experiment
C) field experiment
D) controlled store test

Question 74

Which type of experimental design allows for an investigation of the interaction of two or more independent variables?

A) basic experimental designs
B) factorial experimental designs
C) hierarchical experimental designs
D) instrumental experimental designs

Question 75

Demand characteristics,such as subjects' knowledge of the experimental hypotheses,create which type of effect?

A) covariate
B) maturation
C) history
D) demand

Question 76

An experiment is conducted in which music played in a store is manipulated to examine the impact on sales.What type of experimental design is this?

A) factorial experimental design
B) primary experimental design
C) basic experimental design
D) univariate experimental design

Question 77

When a food company tests a new product by having one group of experimental subjects taste this product first and then taste a competitor's product second,while a second group of experimental subjects tastes these two products in the reverse order,the experimental design has been _____.

A) counterbalanced
B) reversed
C) confounded
D) validated

Question 78

When subjects in all experimental groups are exposed to identical conditions except for the differing experimental treatments,this is called _____.

A) the Hawthorne effect
B) confounding
C) constancy of conditions
D) compounding

Question 79

Which of the following is present when the person administering experimental procedures influences the subjects' behavior or sways them to slant their answers to cooperate with him or her?

A) experimenter bias
B) response bias
C) Type I error
D) Type II error

Question 80

Which of the following occurs if the sampling units in an experimental cell are somehow different than the units in another cell,and this difference affects the dependent variable?

A) systematic or nonsampling error
B) sampling error
C) experimental bias
D) subject bias