Exam 2: How Psychologists Do Research

In a laboratory, smokers are asked to "drive" using a computerized driving simulator equipped with a stick shift and a gas pedal. The object is to maximize the distance covered by driving as fast as possible on a winding road while avoiding rear-end collisions. Some of the subjects smoke a real cigarette immediately before climbing into the driver's seat. Others smoke a fake cigarette without nicotine. You are interested in comparing how many collisions the two groups have. In this study, the independent variable is:

A psycholinguist wants to know whether children who speak their first words at an earlier age than average also learn to read earlier than other children. Should she conduct a cross-sectional study or a longitudinal study? Explain your answer.

An association between increases in one variable and decreases in the other variable is called a positive correlation.

In the 1970s, Genie's difficulty acquiring words, grammar, and pronunciation led researchers to conclude that:

Assessment instruments that are designed to tap unconscious feelings or motives are called:

Which of the following statements is true?

Hannah has always been drawn to the saying "Absence makes the heart grow fonder," and she decides to incorporate this saying into her research project. Hannah is trying to define "absence" in a way that can be empirically tested. She is attempting to find an appropriate:

Match these descriptions with the appropriate term. -An experiment in which subjects do not know whether they are in an experimental or a control group.

A disadvantage of the naturalistic observation is that it allows the researcher little or no control of the situation.

The advantage of a psychological test, assuming it is well constructed, rests on the fact that:

Match these definitions with the terms they define. -An inactive substance or fake treatment used as a control in an experiment or given by a medical practitioner to a patient.

Scientists are expected to submit their results to professional journals, which send the findings to experts for evaluation before publication. This process is called:

Match these descriptions with the appropriate term. -A procedure for putting people in the experimental and control groups in which each individual has the same probability as any other of being put into a given group.

The arithmetic mean is an average that is calculated by adding up a set of quantities and dividing the sum by the total number of quantities in the set.

A representative sample is a:

In Chapter 2 you read about the controversy surrounding the reliability and validity of some widely used psychological tests. How does the example of using the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) to determine admission to university for non-native English speakers illustrate the importance of the critical thinking guideline "Don't Oversimplify," discussed in Chapter 1?

Match these definitions with the terms they define. -The ability of a test to measure what it was designed to measure.

Match these descriptions with the appropriate term. -A variable that an experimenter predicts will be affected by the manipulation of another variable.

Which of the following is NOT a possible operational definition of intelligence?

The hotter the weather, the more muggings tend to occur. This means that: