Questions and Answers of Research Methods and Statistics

Select a topic of interest to you in psychology, and use Psych Abstracts or PsycINFO to search for articles on this topic. Try to find at least five journal articles relevant to your topic.
Imagine that the following questions represent some of those from the survey described in Exercise 8. Can you identify any problems with these questions?a. Do you believe that capitalist bankers
Complete each of the following ANOVA summary tables. In addition, answer the following questions for each of the ANOVA summary tables:a. What is the factorial notation?b. How many conditions were in
What information does eta-squared (η2) provide?
Identify the statistical procedure that should be used to analyze the data from each of the following studies:a. A study that investigates whether men or women (age 16 to 20) spend more money on
Imagine that the following questions represent some of those from the survey described in Exercise 8. Can you identify any problems with these questions?a. Do you believe that capitalist bankers
The cell means for two experiments appear next. Determine whether there are any effects of factor A, factor B, and A Ã— B for each experiment. In addition, draw a graph representing the
Explain the difference between a two-way ANOVA and a three-way ANOVA.
If you find two significant main effects in a 2 × 6 factorial design, should you compute Tukey’s post hoc comparisons for both main effects?
In a study, a researcher measures the preference of men and women for two brands of frozen pizza (one low-fat and one regular) based on the number of 1-inch pieces of each type of pizza eaten when
Identify some possible confounds in each of the studies you outlined in your answers to exercises 2 and 3.
A researcher is attempting to determine the effects of practice and gender on a timed task. Participants in an experiment are given a computerized search task. They search a computer screen of
What is the difference between a true experimental design and a quasi-experimental design?
A psychology professor is interested in whether implementing weekly quizzes improves student learning. She decides to use the weekly quizzes in one section of her introductory psychology class and
If the psychology professor in exercise 2 had access to only one section of introductory psychology, describe how she might use a single-group design to assess the effectiveness of weekly quizzes.
What are the similarities and differences between cross-sectional, longitudinal, and sequential designs?
Give three reasons a researcher might choose to use a single-case design.
How does a multiple-baseline design differ from a reversal design?
Explain what a reversal design?
When conducting single-case research, why do we look at graphs of data rather than statistically analyze the data as with other designs?
When is it appropriate to use a χ2 test?
A researcher believes that the percentage of people who exercise in California is greater than the national exercise rate. The national rate is 20%. The researcher gathers a random sample of 120
You notice in your introductory psychology class that more women tend to sit up front, and more men sit in the back. To determine whether this difference is significant, you collect data on the
A teacher believes that the percentage of students at her high school who go on to college is higher than the rate in the general population of high school students. The rate in the general
A researcher is interested in comparing the maturity level of students who volunteer for community service versus those who do not. The researcher assumes that those who perform community service
Researchers at a food company are interested in how a new spaghetti sauce made from green tomatoes (and green in color) will compare to their traditional red spaghetti sauce. They are worried that
Imagine that the researchers in exercise 6 want to conduct the same study as a within-subjects design. Participants rate both the green and red sauces by indicating the tastiness on a 10-point scale.
Explain when you would use the Kruskal-Wallis test versus the Wilcoxon rank-sum test.
Identify the grammatical or formatting errors in each of the following statements:a. 50 students participated in the study.b. The F-score was 6.54 with a p-value of .05 and 1 and 12 degrees of
Briefly describe the type of information that should be in an introduction.
What information is contained on the title page of a manuscript?
Imagine that marketing researchers working for a food company want to determine whether children would prefer ketchup of a different color. They develop red, green, and blue ketchups that all taste
Explain when you would use the Friedman test versus the Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks T test.
Which of the following is the best operational definition of depression?a. Depression is defined as that low feeling you get sometimes.b. Depression is defined as what happens when a relationship
How many main effects and interaction effects are possible in a 2 × 6 factorial design?
What is the difference between a cell (condition) mean and the means used to interpret a main effect?
In a study, a researcher manipulated the number of hours that participants studied (either 4, 6, or 8), the type of study technique they used (shallow processing versus deep processing), and whether
How many independent variables are in a 4 × 6 factorial design? How many conditions (cells) are in this design?
What is the advantage of manipulating more than one independent variable in an experiment?
A researcher is interested in whether massed or spaced studying has a greater impact on grades in a course. The researcher has her class study for 6 hours all in one day for one exam (massed study
A researcher has been hired by a pizzeria to determine which type of crust customers prefer. The restaurant offers three types of crust: hand-tossed, thick, and thin. Following are the mean number of
A researcher is interested in the effects of practice on accuracy in a signal-detection task. Subjects are tested with no practice, after 1 hour of practice, and after 2 hours of practice. Each
A researcher conducted an experiment on the effects of a new drug on depression. The researcher had a control group that received nothing, a placebo group, and an experimental group that received the
A researcher interested in the effects of exercise on stress had participants exercise for 30, 60, or 90 minutes per day. The mean stress level on a 100-point stress scale (with 100 indicating high
In a study of the effects of stress on illness, a researcher tallied the number of colds people contracted during a 6-month period as a function of the amount of stress they reported during that same
A researcher conducts a study of the effects of amount of sleep on creativity. The creativity scores for four levels of sleep (2 hours, 4 hours, 6 hours, and 8 hours) for N = 20 subjects are
Why is a repeated measures ANOVA statistically more powerful than a randomized ANOVA?
What information does eta-squared (η2) provide?
When should post hoc comparisons be performed?
If H0 is true, what should the F-ratio equal or be close to? If Ha is supported, should the F-ratio be greater than, less than, or equal to 1?
If a researcher decides to use multiple comparisons in a study with three conditions, what is the probability of a Type I error across these comparisons? Use the Bonferroni adjustment to determine
Explain between-groups variance and within-groups variance.
What is the difference between a randomized ANOVA and a repeated measures ANOVA? What does the term one-way mean with respect to an ANOVA?
What is/are the advantage(s) of conducting a study with three or more levels of the independent variable?
The researcher in exercise 5 in Chapter 9 decides to conduct the same study using a within-subjects design to control for differences in cognitive ability. He selects a random sample of subjects and
A researcher is interested in whether participating in sports positively influences self-esteem in young girls. She identifies a group of girls who have not played sports before but are now planning
What are the similarities and differences between within-subjects and matched-subjects designs?
How does using a Latin square aid a researcher in counterbalancing a study?
A researcher is interested in whether listening to classical music improves spatial ability. She randomly assigns subjects to either a classical music condition or a no-music condition. Is this a
A student is interested in whether students who study with music playing devote as much attention to their studies as do students who study under quiet conditions (he believes that studying under
A college student is interested in whether there is a difference between male and female students in the amount of time they spend studying each week. The student gathers information from a random
What are internal validity and external validity, and why are they so important to researchers?
On the most recent exam in your biology class, every student earned an A. The professor claims that he must really be a good teacher for all of the students to have done so well. Given the confounds
You read in a health magazine about a study in which a new therapy technique for depression was examined. A group of depressed individuals volunteered to participate in the study, which lasted 9
A researcher hypothesizes that individuals who listen to classical music will score differently from the general population on a test of spatial ability. On a standardized test of spatial ability, μ
A researcher hypothesizes that people who listen to music via headphones have greater hearing loss and will thus score lower on a hearing test than those in the general population. On a standard
Henry performed a two-tailed test for an experiment in which N = 24. He could not find his table of t critical values, but he remembered the tcv at df = 13. He decided to compare his tobt with this
Why does tcv change when the sample size changes? What must be computed to determine tcv?
The producers of a new toothpaste claim that it prevents more cavities than other brands of toothpaste. A random sample of 60 people used the new toothpaste for 6 months. The mean number of cavities
A researcher is interested in whether students who attend private high schools have higher average SAT scores than students in the general population. A random sample of 90 students at a private high
How do inferential statistics differ from descriptive statistics?
Assume that each of the following conclusions represents an error in hypothesis testing. Indicate whether each of the statements is a Type I or II error.a. Based on the data, the null hypothesis is
What are the appropriate H0 and Ha for each of the following research studies? In addition, note whether the hypothesis test is one- or two-tailed.a. A study in which researchers want to test whether
A researcher believes that family size has increased in the past decade in comparison to the previous decade—that is, people are now having more children than they were before. What are the null
To test the hypothesis in exercise 8, the admissions counselors select a random sample of freshmen and compare their scores on the SAT with those of the population of upperclassmen. They find that
The admissions counselors at Brainy University believe that the freshman class they have just recruited is the brightest yet. If they want to test this belief (that the freshmen are brighter than the
For the distribution described in exercise 4, what is the probability of selecting someone who is 70 inches or taller followed by someone who is 64 inches or shorter?Data from exercise 4If height is
For the distribution described in exercise 4, what is the probability of selecting someone who is 70 inches or taller or 64 inches or shorter?Data from exercise 4If height is normally distributed
For the distribution described in exercise 4, what is the probability of selecting someone who is 64 inches or shorter?Data from exercise 4If height is normally distributed with a mean of 68 inches
If height is normally distributed with a mean of 68 inches and a standard deviation of 5 inches, what is the probability of selecting someone who is 70 inches or taller?
What is the probability of selecting either a 2 or a 4 (of any suit) from a standard deck of cards?
What is the probability of a couple having children in the following birth order: boy, boy, boy, boy?
Imagine that I have a jar that contains 50 blue marbles and 20 red marbles.a. What is the probability of selecting a red marble from the jar?b. What is the probability of selecting a blue marble from
Assuming that the regression equation for the relationship between IQ score and psychology exam score is Y€² = 9 + 0.274X, what would you expect the psychology exam scores to be for the
Given the following data, determine the correlation between IQ scores and psychology exam scores, between IQ scores and statistics exam scores, and between psychology exam scores and statistics exam
In a study on caffeine and stress, college students indicated how many cups of coffee they drink per day and their stress level on a scale of 1 to 10. The data are provided in the following
We have mentioned several times that there is a fairly strong positive correlation between SAT scores and freshman GPAs. The admissions process for graduate school is based on a similar test, the
Draw a scatterplot indicating a strong negative relationship between the variables of income and mental illness. Be sure to label the axes correctly.
A health club recently conducted a study of its members and found a positive relationship between exercise and health. It was claimed that the correlation coefficient between the variables of
Fill in the missing information in the following table representing performance on an exam that is normally distributed with XÌ… = 72 and S = 9. z-Score Percentile Rank 73 Ken 1.55 Drew
A survey of college students was conducted during final exam week to assess the number of cups of coffee consumed each day. The mean number of cups was 5 with a standard deviation of 1.5 cups. The
The results of a recent survey indicate that the average new car costs $23,000 with a standard deviation of $3,500. The price of cars is normally distributed.a. If someone bought a car for $32,000,
Calculate the range, average deviation, and standard deviation for the following five distributions:a. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9b. 24, 23, 22, 21, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4c. 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90d.
Calculate the mean, median, and mode for the following four distributions (a €“ d): 11
Calculate the mean, median, and mode for the data set in Exercise 1. Is the distribution normal or skewed? If it is skewed, what type of skew is it? Which measure of central tendency is most
Which type of figure should be used to represent the data in Exercise 1€”a bar graph, histogram, or frequency polygon? Why? Draw the appropriate figure for these data. さ s8
Organize the data in Exercise 1 into a class interval frequency distribution using 10 intervals with frequency (f) and relative frequency (rf) columns. さ s8
A student at your school wants to survey students regarding their credit card use. She decides to conduct the survey at the student center during lunch hour by interviewing every fifth person leaving
The following data represent a distribution of speeds (in miles per hour) at which individuals were traveling on a highway.Organize these data into a frequency distribution with frequency (f) and
Why is action research considered an applied form of research?

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