1. Sean is interested in how climate influences exercise habits. He believes that, on average, people who live in cold climates exercise less than those in warm climates because they cannot exercise outdoors. To investigate his __________ Sean uses the average yearly temperature as a(n) __________ of climate.
a. theory; variable
b. hypothesis; variable
c. hypothesis; operational definition
d. theory; operational definition
2. When researchers document that a phenomenon is real by repeating a study done by another scientist, they are:
a. engaging in replication.
b. performing a meta-analysis.
c. testing internal validity.
d. testing variability.
3. George is looking for a research project. In doing so, he could formulate and draw on a theory because:
a. theories are shown to be true, so subsequent research is successful
b. one of the benefits of theories is that they lead to testable hypotheses
c. a theory can be successfully replicated by researchers
d. theories are likely to result in serendipity, which leads to successful research
4. Vanna administers a survey about people's romantic relationships. The highest possible score is 20 points. If her participants obtain a score of 15 or higher, she classifies them as "in love." Achieving a score of 15 or above is Vanna's __________ for "in love."
a. hypothesis
b. independent variable
c. theory
d. operational definition
5. Dr. Vasquez studied the effects of sleep deprivation on physical coordination. Half of the participants in his study did not sleep for 48 hours while the other half got a normal amount of sleep. At the end of 48 hours, participants completed a series of coordination tasks. This is an example of a(n) __________ study.
a. correlational
b. experimental
c. case
d. observational
6. Dr. Xiong thinks that people who drive red cars often violate the rules of the road. He sets up a hidden camera at a four-way stop sign to see what cars fail to make complete stops. Dr. Xiong is using the __________ method of research.
a. experimental
b. naturalistic observation
c. case study
d. correlational study
7. In order to test whether caffeine intake affects the number of hours a person sleeps, Sophie recruited 120 subjects and randomly assigned them into one of three conditions: Group 1) no caffeine intake, Group 2) 30 mg of caffeine, and Group 3) 50 mg of caffeine. She then asked the subjects to report on how many hours they slept that night. Sophie's independent variable is __________, and her dependent variable is __________.
a. hours of sleep; the amount of caffeine intake
b. the number of control groups; the number of experimental groups
c. the amount of caffeine intake; hours of sleep
d. the number of experimental groups; the number of control groups
8. Antony conducts a correlational study and finds that students who work more hours in part-time jobs have higher grades. What Antony doesn't know is that both of these phenomenon are caused by students' motivation levels. This is an example of:
a. the third variable problem.
b. the directionality problem.
c. the experimenter expectancy effect.
d. observer bias.
9. Elaine conducts a psychology honors project to test the hypothesis that having greater social support is associated with greater academic success. She asks everyone living in her dormitory to fill out a questionnaire. Elaine should be aware that her data may not be representative of all college students because her research was based on:
a. a convenience sample.
b. the population.
c. a random sample.
d. random assignment.
10. Dr. Shin is researching the hypothesis that when people with schizophrenia stop taking a particular medication they experience more disturbed thoughts. Dr. Shin tests her hypothesis by placing each schizophrenic patient in one of two groups. People who stop taking the drug are in the __________ group and the people who continue taking the drug are in the __________ group.
a. dependent; independent
b. independent; dependent
c. control; experimental
d. experimental; control
11. Sarah is conducting research on the function of part of the brain. For each participant she first gets a detailed image of the brain's structure using a(n) __________. Based on the image, she locates the area she is interested in and then she uses a strong magnet to temporarily interrupt brain activity in the area by using a(n) __________.
a. MRI; TMS
b. MRI; fMRI
c. PET; TMS
d. PET; fMRI
12. Jordain measures how long it takes each participant to identify when an arrow on a computer screen changes color. He is measuring the participant's __________, which is often measured when using the __________method.
a. reaction time; response performance
b. reactivity; response performance
c. reaction time; self-report
d. reactivity; self-report
13. Dr. Smith is conducting research on the abilities of a man who experiences visual sensations while hearing sounds. Which data collection method should she use?
a. cross-sectional research
b. case study
c. participant observation
d. meta-analysis
14. When people are aware of being observed, they might change their behaviors. This phenomenon is known as:
a. variability.
b. observer bias.
c. socially desirable responding.
d. reactivity.
15. Evgenia wants to conduct an experiment but before she can begin she needs to get approval from the __________ at her university.
a. Institutional Review Board
b. Association for Psychological Science
c. American Psychological Association
d. National Science Foundation
16. The most powerful imaging technique that measures the amount of energy released from brain tissue is:
a. fMRI
b. MRI
c. psychophysiological assessment
d. EEG recording
17. Dina conducts an experiment to test the hypothesis that eating chocolate causes an increase in positive mood. Which statistic should Dina use?
a. inferential
b. descriptive
c. correlation
d. meta-analysis
18. Zhenghan notices a strong correlation between whether a person is a freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior in college and the number of credit hours that a student has registered for. As students' years in college increase, they tend to register for fewer credit hours. Based on this information, the correlation coefficient between years in college and number of credit hours is closest to:
a. + 0.2.
b. - 0.2.
c. + 0.7.
d. - 0.7.
19. Hansel wants to know how much soda he typically drinks per day. Last week, he recorded the following numbers: 3, 3, 4, 3, 22, 3, 3. Hansel should AVOID using the __________ as a measure of central tendency of his typical soda consumption, because this measure will be heavily skewed by the day in which he drank 22 cups.
a. range
b. median
c. mean
d. standard deviation
20. Professor Miller is computing the statistics of his students' exam grades. He has 11 students and they earned the following grades: 48, 65, 65, 66, 72, 79, 83, 83, 83, 91, 94. Professor Miller finds that the mode of the exam is __________ and the median of the exam is __________.
a. 79; 83
b. 83; 79
c. 79; 75
d. 83; 75
21. Peter is conducting a survey asking how often students use the Internet and the average number of hours they sleep. He found a negative correlation between those two. According to your text, Peter can conclude that when students go online frequently, this:
a. causes students to sleep less.
b. is related to students sleeping less.
c. causes students to sleep more.
d. is related to students sleeping more.
22. Dr. Binet thinks that children from France are more intelligent than children from England. He gives children from each country the same test and finds that the children from France get higher scores. He repeats the experiment several times and finds the same result, therefore his experiment is __________. However, since the test was in French and the English children only speak English his experiment did not have__________.
a. reliable; internal validity
b. reliable; reliability
c. an example of external validity; internal validity
d. an example of external validity; reliability
23. If a researcher wants to test hypotheses about differences between populations by using a smaller sample, she would use:
a. correlation coefficients
b. measures of central tendency
c. inferential statistics
d. meta-analysis