Exam 8: Experimental Design

Good experimental design requires eliminating possible _____ variables that could result in alternative explanations.

_____ is a process for controlling order effects with all possible order conditions.

A _____ effect is associated with the deterioration of performance with the passage of time.

Jeanne wants to know whether wearing sunglasses improves driving performance. If an independent groups design is used, the researcher would manipulate the variable by:

Participants in a concept learning study solve several anagram puzzles in a period of 30 minutes. Although the puzzles were known to be of equal difficulty, the participants solved the puzzles in lesser and lesser time with the progression of the 30-minute period. This is likely the result of a _____ effect.

Which of the following does NOT increase the likelihood of internal validity?

A researcher can claim that the independent variable caused the results only by:

Gerard conducts a study to examine the effectiveness of an exercise program on obese people. The participants must exercise for one hour every day for six months. By the end of the fourth month, Gerard finds that 75 percent of the participants dropped out of the study. What kind of problem has Gerard encountered in his study?

Toby wants to see whether packaging information affects the way people rate breakfast cereal. The same cereal is put in three kinds of packages: a brown box that says "To start your day off with a smile"; a yellow box that says "For extra energy all day"; and a white box that says "Fortified with B complex and iron." In this study, the:

In the context of the repeated measures design, when the sequence of presenting the treatments determines the participants' responses in part, the researcher is dealing with _____.

_____ occurs when the effects of the independent variable and an uncontrolled variable are intertwined, so one cannot determine which of the variables is responsible for the observed effect.

A(n) _____ variable is a variable that varies along with the independent variable.

Natasha wants to know whether wearing sunglasses helps while driving. In a counterbalanced repeated measures design, presence or absence of sunglasses would be varied by:

A confounding variable is problematic for an experimental design because it:

Dante would like to conduct a study in which participants taste five different brands of honey and decide which one they like best. To control for order effects, Dante should use _____.

Hector measures participants based on a variable of interest and rank orders them according to their scores. He then places them in pairs in which each member has approximately the same score as the other member in the pair. The members of each pair are then randomly assigned to the conditions in the experiment. Hector's method of participant assignment is an example of a(n) _____ design.

To control order effects in a repeated measures design, one should use a(n) _____

A design that has two conditions with the same participants in each condition is a(n) _____ design.

Kalim wants to study the effectiveness of a new teaching method. He includes two teachers of a class in the experiment. One teacher uses the new method of teaching, and the other teacher uses the old method. At the end of the semester, he finds that students who were taught in the new way had higher grades than students taught in the old way. What is the confounding variable?

A matched pairs design involves: