Experimental Psychology
Midterm Exam
Course Introduction
Experimental Psychology explores the scientific methods and empirical approaches used to study human behavior and mental processes. The course covers fundamental principles of experimental design, hypothesis formulation, data collection, statistical analysis, and interpretation of results. Students gain hands-on experience in designing and conducting experiments, as well as in critically evaluating research literature. Key topics include perception, learning, memory, cognition, and the ethical considerations associated with psychological research. This course provides a foundation for understanding how experimental methods contribute to our knowledge of psychological phenomena and prepares students for advanced study or research in psychology.
Recommended Textbook Research Methods for the Behavioral Sciences 4th Edition by Frederick J Gravetter
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Introduction, Acquiring Knowledge, and the
Scientific Method
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Q1) Identify the basic steps in the scientific method and describe how the scientific method is used to answer questions such as,"Why are some marriages successful and others are not?"
Answer: After observing that some marriages are successful and some are not (step 1)you would develop a hypothesis to try to explain the phenomenon (step 2).For example,it is possible that good communication within a marriage leads to success whereas poor communication leads to failure.Based on this hypothesis,you would make a specific research prediction (step 3).For example,if you selected 50 married couples and asked each couple to rate their level of communication and the overall quality of their marriage,you should find a strong relationship between the two variables.Next,you would empirically evaluate the hypothesis by actually selecting 50 couples and observing the two variables (step 4).Based on the outcome of the observations in step 4,you could either reject the hypothesis (if it is not communication it could be some other factor)or you could refine the original hypothesis,for example try to determine what factors lead to good (or bad)communication within a marriage (step 5).
Q2) The method of tenacity is a nonscientific way of knowing.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Chapter 2: Research Ideas
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Q1) It is best to let the background literature lead you to a new research idea.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) Finding out why clients diagnosed with schizophrenia do not consistently take their medication,would be an example of
A)basic research.
B)applied research.
C)pseudoresearch.
D)commonsense research.
Answer: B
Q3) A problem with primary sources is that they may provide an incomplete or misinterpreted description of a research study or a research result.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Chapter 3: Defining and Measuring Variables
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Q1) Operational definitions are necessary to convert hypothetical constructs into observable variables.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) If people score high on one measure and also score high on another measure,there is
A)a positive relationship between the two measures.
B)a negative relationship between the two measures.
C)no relationship between the two measures.
D)a cause-and-effect relationship between the two measures.
Answer: A
Q3) A valid measure is one that yields highly similar results across different experimental conditions.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Chapter 4: Ethics in Research
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Q1) Deliberately putting inaccurate information in a research report is an example of fraud.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Milgram's obedience study is ethically questionable because the shocks posed a threat of physical harm.
A)True
B)False
Q3) APA ethical guidelines cover the treatment research subjects and participants,as well as issues of fraud and plagiarism.
A)True
B)False
Q4) One way to detect fraud in research is to
A)look for a ceiling effect.
B)look for a floor effect.
C)replicate the study.
D)verify all the citations and references in the study.
Q5) Describe the common components of consent forms.
Q6) Describe a situation where it may be permissible to dispense with informed consent.
Page 6
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Chapter 5: Selecting Research Participants
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Q1) The group of individuals from which researchers actually select participants for research studies is called
A)the accessible population.
B)the target population.
C)the representative population.
D) the real population.
Q2) It is always necessary to have at least 25-30 participants in a study.
A)True
B)False
Q3) A major goal of research is to ______________ from a small group of participants included in a study to the larger group from which they came.
A)deduce
B)generalize
C)specialize
D)reason
Q4) Explain why you are more likely to obtain a representative sample with proportionate stratified random sampling than with either stratified random sampling or simple random sampling.
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Chapter 6: Research Strategies and Validity
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Q1) In studies with a group of individuals being tested in a series of treatment conditions,factors such as history,instrumentation,and maturation threaten
A)internal validity.
B)external validity.
C)both internal and external validity.
D)neither internal nor external validity.
Q2) What is a confounding variable? How does it affect the validity of your research study? Describe a research study that contains an example of a confounding variable.
Q3) An extraneous variable is any variable that is part of a research study but not directly investigated.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Both correlational and nonexperimental studies intend to examine relationships between variables without trying to explain the relationships.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 7: The Experimental Research Strategy
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Q1) All experiments must have either a no-treatment control group or a placebo control group.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Research results show that participants who shout their favorite curse words over and over can endure a painful stimulus longer than participants who shout a neutral word.For this study,the dependent variable is the amount of time that the pain is endured.
A)True
B)False
Q3) A researcher reports that participants made fewer errors on a simulated air-traffic-control task when quiet background music was playing than when there was no music.For this study,the number of errors is the independent variable.
A)True
B)False
Q4) An experiment comparing a treatment group with a no-treatment control group has no independent variable.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 8: Experimental Designs: Between-Subjects Design
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Q1) Explain the benefit of independent scores in a between-subjects design.
Q2) Between-subjects designs are often called repeated-measures designs.
A)True
B)False
Q3) A between-subjects design differs from a within-subjects design in that in a between-subjects design
A)only one group of participants is used.
B)only variables "between" the participants are examined.
C)there is a different group of participants for each of the different treatment conditions.
D)each participant is exposed to each level of the independent variable.
Q4) In a between-subjects design
A)only one score is obtained for each participant.
B)at least two scores are obtained for each participant.
C)one score is obtained for each treatment condition for each participant.
D)each score represents multiple participants.
Q5) Describe the advantages and disadvantages of matching groups of participants in a between-subjects experiment.
Q6) Describe the basic characteristics of a between-subjects experiment.
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Chapter 9: Experimental Designs: Within-Subjects Design
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Q1) The tendency for extremely high scores on one measurement to be followed by lower scores on a second measurement is called statistical regression.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Identify two time-related factors that can threaten the internal validity of a within-subjects research study.In each case,explain how the factor could be a confounding variable.
Q3) When an outside event occurs during a within-subject study and influences some of the treatment conditions but not others,the results are said to be confounded by A)history effects.
B)instrumentation.
C)maturation.
D)regression toward the mean.
Q4) One advantage of a two-treatment design compared to a multiple-treatment design is that it is easier to counterbalance.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Describe the limitations or problems that can occur with counterbalancing.
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Chapter 10: The Nonexperimental and Quasi-Experimental Strategies: Nonequivalent Group, Pre-Post, and Developmental Designs
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Q1) The time-series design is an example of the quasi-experimental research strategy.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Last year the state increased the speed limit on one section of a highway from 55 to 65 mph.To evaluate the effect of the change,a researcher gathered accident reports for six months before the change and for six months after the change.This is an example of A)a time-series design.
B)an interrupted time-series design.
C)a cross-sectional design.
D)a longitudinal design.
Q3) Some threats to internal validity are related to time and other threats are related to differences between groups.Which of the following is a threat related to time?
A)history effects
B)assignment bias
C)differential history effects
D)the other three choices are all threats related to time.
Q4) Distinguish nonexperimental designs from quasi-experimental designs.
Page 12
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Chapter 11: Factorial Designs
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Q1) A two-factor experimental design evaluates two main effects and one interaction.
A)True
B)False
Q2) In a matrix representing the structure of a factorial design,the differences between the overall row means define the interaction between the factors.
A)True
B)False
Q3) A two-factor study with two levels of factor A and three levels of factor B uses a separate group of n = 5 participants in each treatment condition.How many participants are needed for the entire study?
A) 5
B) 10
C) 25
D) 30
Q4) The pretest-posttest control group design is an example of a
A)between-subjects design.
B)within-subjects design.
C)repeated measures design.
D)mixed design.
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Chapter 12: The Correlational Research Strategy
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Q1) Describe the strengths and weaknesses of the correlational research strategy.
Q2) When students apply to colleges,they usually are required to submit SAT scores along with their applications.College officials know that there is a good relationship between scores on the SAT and success in college.In this situation,success in college is the
A)predictor variable.
B)criterion variable.
C)dependent variable.
D)independent variable.
Q3) A college professor reports that students who finish exams early tend to get better grades than students who hold onto exams until the last possible moment.The correlation between exam score and amount of time spent on the exam is an example of
A)a positive correlation.
B)a negative correlation.
C)a correlation near zero.
D)a correlation near one.
Q4) Explain how the purpose of the correlational research strategy differs from the experimental research strategy.
Q5) Describe how correlational studies can be used.
Page 14
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Chapter 13: Descriptive Research Strategy
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Q1) The multiple-choice questions on this exam are examples of ________ items.
A)open-ended
B)restricted
C)rating scale
D)physiological
Q2) When an observer switches recording from one behavior to another during an observation period,it is known as ________ sampling.
A)time
B)individual
C)event
D)frequency
Q3) A case study typically involves the detailed study of
A)a single disease or psychiatric disorder.
B)a single clinical treatment.
C)a single group such as a fraternity or an athletic team.
D)a single individual.
Q4) Suppose you are interested in performing an observational study of eating behavior of rats in a laboratory.Describe one method to quantify this behavior: that is explain how you could convert the observations into numerical scores.
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Chapter 14: Single-Subject Research Designs
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Q1) The data obtained from a single-subject research study are
A)displayed in a graph.
B)statistically evaluated.
C)displayed in a graph and statistically evaluated.
D)displayed in a graph and visually inspected.
Q2) A stop-smoking program requires participants to monitor their smoking and to control the number of cigarettes they smoke.The program sets a target for the number of cigarettes a participant is allowed each day,and the target number is changed every three days.Although the target moves up and down,it gradually reduces toward a goal of zero smoking after six weeks.If this program were evaluated using a single-subject design,which design would be appropriate?
A)ABAB design
B)multiple-baseline design
C)alternating-treatments design
D)changing-criterion design
Q3) In a single-subject phase change study,it does not matter how long it takes for behavior to change after a phase change as long as there eventually is a large change in behavior.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 15: Statistical Evaluation of Data
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Q1) Because measures of split-half reliability are based on only half the items in the test,they tend to underestimate the true reliability of the whole test.Which of the following is an attempt to correct this problem?
A)the Spearman-Brown formula
B)the Kuder-Richardson formula 20
C)Cronbach's alpha
D)All of the other options are techniques to correct the underestimation problem.
Q2) In a hypothesis test,standard error measures
A)the size of the treatment effect.
B)variability for the sample data.
C)the likelihood of a Type I or Type II error.
D)the amount of difference between the sample and the population that is reasonable to expect just by chance.
Q3) Describe what is measured by the mean and what is measured by the standard deviation for a set of scores.Describe the set of scores in a sample with a mean of M = 40 and a standard deviation of SD = 4.(Where are most of the scores located? Where are they centered? What range of values do they cover?)
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Chapter 16: Writing a Research Report
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Q1) The major subsections of an APA-style method section describing a study conducted with nonhumans are: subjects and procedure.
A)True
B)False
Q2) When reporting statistical significance of inferential statistics,what items should be included?
Q3) The method section is designed to answer what questions?
A)What was the hypothesis of the study?
B)How was the study conducted?
C)How were the data analyzed?
D)What was the purpose of the study?
Q4) Which is the correct order of parts in a research report?
A)abstract,title page,introduction,references,method,results,and discussion
B)title page,introduction,method,results,discussion,abstract,and references
C)title page,abstract,introduction,method,results,discussion,and references
D)abstract,references,title page,introduction,method,results,and discussion
Q5) When citing a source in a research report (in APA format),the author's first name is included.
A)True
B)False
Page 18
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