Experimental Psychology
Midterm Exam
Course Introduction
Experimental Psychology is a course designed to introduce students to the scientific methods used to investigate human behavior and mental processes. The course emphasizes the formulation of research questions, experimental design, data collection, and statistical analysis. Students will explore classic and contemporary experiments across areas such as perception, learning, memory, cognition, and social behavior, gaining hands-on experience in conducting their own studies. Ethical considerations in psychological research and the communication of findings through scientific writing are also key components, preparing students for advanced study and professional practice 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) A good hypothesis should make a positive statement about the existence of a relationship,a difference,or a treatment effect.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) Finding the address and phone number of a restaurant by "googling" the name of the restaurant is and example of using the
A)method of empiricism.
B)rational method.
C)method of authority.
D)scientific method.
Answer: C
Q3) Seeking answers by reading a chapter in a college textbook is an example of using the
A)method of empiricism.
B)rational method.
C)method of authority.
D)scientific method.
Answer: C
Page 3
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Chapter 2: Research Ideas
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Q1) Which section of a research article is most likely to provide a complete list of all the publications cited in the article?
A)bibliography
B)citation list
C)reference
D)discussion
Answer: C
Q2) Research studies that are intended to provide new knowledge would be classified as A)basic.
B)applied.
C)systematic.
D)necessary.
Answer: A
Q3) The results section of a research article typically
A)provides interpretation of the findings.
B)describes the overall purpose and rationale of the research.
C)includes the outcome of statistical analyses.
D)provides the details of the methodology used in the study.
Answer: C
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Page 4
Chapter 3: Defining and Measuring Variables
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Q1) The textbook describes a study by McClelland (1958)in which the need-for-achievement test was administered to a group of children and then the children were observed while they played a ring-toss game.The purpose of this study was to establish _______ validity for the test.
A)face
B)concurrent
C)predictive
D)convergent
Answer: C
Q2) Cues given to the participants about how they are expected to behave is the definition of
A)experimenter bias.
B)volunteer bias.
C)reactivity.
D)demand characteristics.
Answer: D
Q3) A ratio scale has an arbitrary zero point.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Chapter 4: Ethics in Research
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Q1) According to the principle of clinical equipoise,it is unacceptable to conduct a study comparing two treatments
A)when the treatments are known to be equally effective.
B)when there is no information about the effectiveness of either treatment.
C)when one treatment is known to be more effective than the other.
D)when experts disagree about the effectiveness of the treatments.
Q2) The Nuremberg Code outlines basic ethical guidelines for
A)the treatment of human participants.
B)the treatment of nonhuman subjects.
C)the treatment of both human and nonhumans.
D)the reporting of research results.
Q3) The Tuskegee study involved
A)injecting unsuspecting patients with live cancer cells.
B)failing to provide treatment for men with syphilis.
C)appearing to administer severe shocks to participants.
D)exposing participants to extremes of freezing temperature.
Q4) Describe the factors that influence a debriefing's effectiveness.
Q5) Describe the two basic categories of ethical responsibility that a researcher has.
Q6) Explain the role of the IRB.
Page 6
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Chapter 5: Selecting Research Participants
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Q1) A researcher asks students to sign up for a research study and then selects the first 15 males and 15 females who sign up.The researcher is using
A)cluster sampling.
B)quota sampling.
C)simple random sampling.
D)convenience sampling.
Q2) There is a strong possibility that a convenience sample will be biased.
A)True
B)False
Q3) When a sample has the same characteristics as the target population,the sample is said to be a(n)_______.
A)representative sample
B)biased sample
C)target sample
D)accessible sample
Q4) Describe the basic distinction between probability sampling and nonprobability and explain why most psychology research uses nonprobability methods.
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7
Chapter 6: Research Strategies and Validity
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Q1) Of all the research strategies that investigate relationships between variables,the correlational strategy is the only one that does not involve comparing groups of scores.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The purpose of the correlational research strategy is to describe the relationship between two variables and measure its strength.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Results from a research study suggest that a stop-smoking program is very successful.However,the participants who volunteered for the study were all highly motivated to quit smoking and the researcher is concerned that the same results may not be obtained for smokers who are not as motivated.This study has a problem with A)internal validity.
B)external validity.
C)experimental validity.
D)validity of measurement.
Q4) Describe the kind of question that each of the five research strategies intends to answer.
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8
Chapter 7: The Experimental Research Strategy
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Q1) In an experiment,any variable that varies systematically with the treatment conditions and might influence the participants' scores is called a _____________ variable.
A)independent
B)dependent
C)extraneous
D)confounding
Q2) A researcher has observed that children who eat more sugar tend to show a higher level of activity than children who eat less sugar.However,the researcher suspects that the apparent relationship may be explained by the fact that some children have a higher rate of metabolism which causes them to eat more and to be more active compared to children with a lower rate of metabolism who eat less and are less active.This is an example of A)the directionality problem.
B)the third-variable problem.
C)the extraneous variable problem. D)the manipulation check problem.
Q3) Explain why control of extraneous variables is a necessary component of an experiment.
Q4) Describe and differentiate the three methods to control extraneous variables.
Page 9
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Chapter 8: Experimental Designs: Between-Subjects Design
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Q1) In a between-subjects experiment,participants are assigned to treatments using random assignment.Why is random assignment used?
A)It allows the experimenter to manipulate participant variables.
B)It is an attempt to control participant variables so they don't become confounding variables.
C)It gives the experimenter an opportunity to measure participant variables that might influence the outcome of the experiment.
D)It helps to ensure that the participants in the study are representative of the general population.
Q2) Describe why the assignment of subjects to the conditions of an experiment in a between-subjects design is such a critical issue.
Q3) Create an example of a between-subjects experiment.Identify the independent and dependent variables and briefly describe the experiment.Indicate the number of levels of the independent variable and identify them.
Q4) Describe the basic characteristics of a between-subjects experiment.
Q5) Describe the advantages and disadvantages of holding a participant characteristic constant in a between-subjects experiment.
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Page 10
Chapter 9: Experimental Designs: Within-Subjects Design
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Q1) A way to control for order effects in a within-subjects experiment is to use
A)matching.
B)randomization.
C)holding order constant.
D)counterbalancing.
Q2) Order effects include
A)history and instrumentation effects.
B)carryover and progressive error effects.
C)maturation and regression effects.
D)assignment bias and selection bias.
Q3) For an experiment that compares two treatment conditions with ten scores in each treatment,which design would require fewer subjects?
A)between-subjects
B)within-subjects
C)matched-subjects
D)all would require the same number of subjects.
Q4) Give an example of order effects in a within-subjects research study and explain why order effects are a concern for researchers.
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) Describe the fundamental flaw that prevents a nonequivalent group design from being a true experiment? (That is,why can't these designs produce an unambiguous cause-and-effect explanation?)Explain how the pretest scores in a pretest-posttest nonequivalent control group design help reduce this problem.
Q2) Differential history effects are a threat to internal validity for which of the following designs?
A)differential research design
B)one-group pretest-posttest design
C)pretest-posttest nonequivalent control group design
D)the other three choices are all designs threatened by differential history effects.
Q3) In a typical pre-post study
A)two groups are measured before and after a treatment.
B)two groups are measured after a treatment.
C)one group is measured after a treatment.
D)one group is measured before and after a treatment.
Q4) Describe the similarities and differences between experiments and nonexperiments or quasi-experiments.
12
Q5) Distinguish nonexperimental designs from quasi-experimental designs.
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Chapter 11: Factorial Designs
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Q1) In a 2 x 2 between-subjects factorial experiment,there are a total of _______ treatment conditions in the experiment,and each participant serves in _______ condition(s).
A)2,1
B)4,1
C)2,2
D)4,2
Q2) 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.
Q3) In a two-factor study,it is possible to have one experimental factor and one nonexperimental factor.
A)True
B)False
Q4) There are three treatment conditions in a 2*2*2 factorial design.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Describe two situations in which factorial designs are commonly used.
Page 13
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Chapter 12: The Correlational Research Strategy
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Q1) Describe the differences between a correlational study and differential research.
Q2) A Pearson correlation of r = ?1.00 means that all the data points fit perfectly on a straight line.
A)True
B)False
Q3) A statistically significant correlation means that
A)the correlation is large.
B)the correlation is small.
C)there is no relationship between the variables.
D)None of the other options is correct about a statistically significant correlation.
Q4) Which of the following pairs of variables should produce a negative relationship?
A)model year (2003,2004,etc.)and price for a used Honda
B) driving distance from college and weekly cost of gas for a group of commuting college students
C)number of hours studying and number of errors on a math exam
D)IQ and weight for a group of third-grade students
Q5) Describe how correlational studies can be used.
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14
Chapter 13: Descriptive Research Strategy
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Q1) Which observational research design has the greatest risk that the observer will influence the behaviors being observed?
A)naturalistic observation
B)participant observation
C)contrived observation
D)nonparticipant observation
Q2) An advantage of the case study design (compared with group designs)is
A)it can be used to study rare phenomena.
B)it can demonstrate a counterexample to a general principle.
C)it can be emotionally powerful and convincing.
D)the other three choices are all advantages of the case study design.
Q3) A limitation of descriptive studies is that they cannot assess the causal relationship between variables.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Counting how many times a child exhibits disruptive behavior during a 30-minute observation period is an example of measuring behavior using the duration method.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 14: Single-Subject Research Designs
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Q1) A multiple-baseline across subjects design consists of ____ baseline phase(s)and ___ treatment phase(s)for each participant.
A)1,1
B)1,2
C)2,1
D)2,2
Q2) In the notation for single-subject designs (e.g.ABAB),the letter A represents the baseline phase.
A)True
B)False
Q3) A stable level within a phase is defined as
A)a set of observations that cluster around a horizontal line when graphed.
B)a set of observations that cluster around a line sloping up to the right when graphed.
C)a set of observations that cluster around a line sloping down to the right when graphed.
D)a series of observations that all have exactly the same magnitude.
Q4) Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using visual inspection of graphs rather than statistics to evaluate the significance of the results.
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Page 16
Chapter 15: Statistical Evaluation of Data
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Q1) The most commonly used descriptive statistics for a set of numerical scores are
A)the mean and the variance.
B)the mean and the standard deviation.
C)the mean and the mode.
D)the mean and the median.
Q2) A researcher is interested in the sleeping habits of students at the local state college.The average number of hours spent sleeping each night for the entire set of students enrolled at the college is an example of a A)statistic.
B)parameter.
C)sample.
D)population.
Q3) Of the following research statistics,which one is not designed to correct problems with the calculation of split-half reliability?
A)Cohen's kappa
B)Cronbach's alpha
C)Kuder-Richardson formula 20
D)Spearman-Brown formula
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17
Chapter 16: Writing a Research Report
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Q1) In the materials subsection of an APA-style methods section,you tell the reader
A)what equipment was used in the study.
B)who participated in the study.
C)what questionnaires were used in the study.
D)the preliminary results of the study.
Q2) When reporting statistical significance of inferential statistics,what items should be included?
Q3) The running head
A)is the first two to three words of the title.
B)appears on every page.
C)is the first two to three words of the title and appears on every page.
D)appears only on the title page.
Q4) The discussion section of an APA-style research report often contains suggestions for future research.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Describe the two subsections typically contained in a methods section of an APA-style research report.
Q6) What is the purpose of a research report?
Q7) What is the purpose of a research proposal?
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