Exam 2: Reading and Evaluating Scientific Research

Why it is a bad idea to draw conclusions from anecdotal evidence?

A researcher tests the hypothesis that students who study in the room where they take their tests will perform better on the tests than students who study in other rooms.She requires one group to study in the classroom where the exam is given and another group to study in the library.All students take the test in the classroom,and their test performance is compared.In this example,where students study is the:

One of the main reasons for using a laboratory for psychological research is to:

The most important factor to ensure that one's results apply to other people in other settings is to use

In an experiment,four groups of college students used different memorizing strategies to learn the material in one chapter of a textbook.Then each group was given the same multiple-choice test on the material.What was the dependent variable in this study?

Standard deviation is a measure of ______________.

When people report feeling better after taking medication even though it hasn't had time to be effective,they are experiencing _________________.

In a single-blind study,who is "blind" to the treatment?

A researcher is interested in determining how frequently bullying behavior occurs in real-life settings.This researcher would best be advised to use the _________________.

What effect does the planned use of deception have on the approval of a study?

The purpose of an experiment is to discover whether there is a relationship between the ___________ and the ___________.

A researcher wants to see whether she can make the typical administrative assistant job more motivating at Acme,Inc.To experimentally investigate this possibility,she randomly assigns administrative assistants to one of the following conditions: doing the job as it has always been done,having a computer performance monitoring device installed,receiving feedback about their performance on a weekly basis,or being given a say in how one's workload is structured and done.Which of the preceding conditions is an example of a control group?

Before research findings can be published they go through ________________,which is a process in which papers submitted to publication in scholarly journals are read and critiqued by experts in the specific field of study.

Appeals to authority do not qualify as good evidence because:

_______________ designs are the only research method that can provide strong evidence for cause-and-effect relationships.

The process of establishing causal relationships is associated most with:

The peer review process is designed to:

In an experiment on the effects of level of motivation on the performance of typists,the researcher randomly assigned one third of her subjects to each of three levels of motivation (and then induced different levels of motivation in the three groups).She measured the average words typed per minute by each group,and found that performance was highest under medium motivation,average under low motivation,and worst under high motivation.What was the independent variable in this experiment?

If explanation of the causes of thoughts,feelings,and behavior is a psychologist's goal,then the __________ method of research should be used.

Why is it important to make sure that different participant groups are roughly equivalent in terms of personal characteristics (e.g.,age,gender)before any independent variable is introduced?