Questions:
1. Surveys are used in _______ research studies.
A. communication
B. observation
C. monitoring
D. behavioral observation
2. A communication approach to data collection involves
A. data mining.
B. linguistic behavior analysis.
C. observing behavior.
D. surveying people.
3. Which of the following is a controlled experiment conducted in a carefully chosen marketplace to
measure and predict sales or profitability of a product?
A. Simulation
B. Pretest-posttest control group
C. Replication
D. Test market
4. Maria is conducting research to better understand how consumers respond to the atmosphere and
environment in restaurants. She visits several restaurant locations and observes characteristics of the
environment and all of the behaviors
of the patrons. Which classification best fits Maria's observation study?
A. Unstructured/laboratory
B. Structured/laboratory
C. Structured/natural
D. Unstructured/natural
5. Which of the following is a condition in which observation is an appropriate method for data collection?
A. A natural setting is imperative.
B. An extensive amount of information is needed.
C. The respondents are widely dispersed.
D. Anonymity is desired.
6. What characteristic distinguishes the pretest-posttest control group design from the nonequivalent control
group design?
A. Membership in the experimental and control groups is naturally assembled in the pretest-posttest
control group design.
B. Random assignment is impossible in the nonequivalent control group.
C. No pretest is used in the nonequivalent control group design.
D. One can't determine which group was exposed to the treatment in the nonequivalent control group
design.
7. Which of the following attributes must be identified using inferential observation?
A. Length of sales meeting
B. Selling points presented
C. Salesperson credibility
D. Customer purchase decision
8. Which of the following is true of studies conducted under laboratory conditions?
A. They simulate environmental conditions.
B. The dependent variable occurs naturally.
C. They occur under actual environmental conditions.
D. They facilitate measurement of the variables of interest.
9. David's Bridal is conducting a survey of the trends in dress preferences among women who will marry
sometime in the next year. Surveys were mailed to 100,000 women but only 1,000 responded, resulting in
a response rate of 1 percent. This study is threatened by _______ error.
A. coverage
B. nonresponse
C. sampling
D. measurement
10. Which of the following statements is true of telephone surveys?
A. They're one of the least reliable survey techniques.
B. They always involve the use of a human interviewer.
C. There's no computer-assisted method of interviewing.
D. They're one of the most popular survey techniques.
11. Under ________ sampling, the researcher must choose among a time-point sample, continuous realtime
measurement, or a time-interval sample.
A. time
B. event
C. systematically inverted
D. multidimensional
12. An interesting application of _______ compared self-reported beer consumption with the number of
discarded beer containers in the trash.
A. data mining
B. process analysis
C. erosion measures
D. accretion measures
13. Exploratory research is finished in all of the following situations except when
A. hypotheses are developed.
B. the major dimensions of the research task are established.
C. additional research is necessary.
D. the range and scope of management decisions are established.
14. Which of the following types of research is designed to address complex, practical problems using
brainstorming, followed by sequential trial-and-error attempts until the desired results are achieved?
A. Case history
B. Grounded theory
C. Causal research
D. Action research
15. Jason is developing a research design for a study of wine drinkers. The target population is widely
dispersed. Jason needs
to collect data on past consumption behavior and intentions for future behavior. Which type of data
collection method is most appropriate for Jason's project?
A. Communication
B. Observation
C. Experimental
D. Monitoring
16. The primary concern with using qualitative techniques is that qualitative data are too
A. expensive.
B. subjective.
C. objective.
D. structured.
17. Jane is conducting interviews to develop a customer profile for her client. She customizes each
interview to each participant and doesn't ask specific questions. What type of interview format is Jane
using?
A. Unstructured
B. Semistructured
C. Structured
D. Closed-ended
18. Rachel is conducting telephone interviews for Chevrolet on perceptions of its new models. When she
interviews Chevrolet customers, she asks the question, "How loyal are you to the Chevrolet brand?" But
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when she interviews Ford customers who have bought Chevrolets, she changes the question to, "So you
aren't loyal to the Chevrolet brand, are you?" Which of the following sources of error in communication
research is present in this example?
A. Participant
B. Observer
C. Interviewer
D. Measurement question
19. Which of the following terms is used to describe combining several qualitative methods, or
combining
qualitative with quantitative methods?
A. Inter-rater reliability
B. Projection
C. Triangulation
D. Component sorts
20. HarrisInteractive surveys members of its KidZone, a group of consumers ages 12-17. These
participants report consumption data on a variety of products and respond to various promotional methods
over time. The KidZone members are part of a
A. longitudinal panel.
B. monitoring study.
C. cohort study.
D. cross-sectional study.
21. Which type of rater error occurs when a participant consistently chooses the extreme position at one end
of the scale?
A. Halo effect
B. Error of central tendency
C. Error of leniency
D. Demand effect
22. Choosing between the questions "Do you think the distribution of soft drinks is adequate?" (Incorrect)
and "Do you think soft drinks are readily available when you want to buy them?" (Correct) is an example
of
A. presuming knowledge.
B. avoiding leading questions.
C. avoiding biased words.
D. ensuring the right frame of reference.
23. Which of the following statements is true of multiple-choice questions?
A. They require participants to position responses on a companion scale that may be verbal, numeric, or graphic.
B. They're appropriate when there are more than two alternatives.
C. They cover sociological-demographic variables for later grouping and study of revealed patterns.
D. They can introduce significant error, as these questions imply that one response is favored over another.
24. Which of the following statements is true concerning the applicability of attitudes in understanding
behavior?
A. Behavior is affected equally by those attitudes formed via social learning and those formed via behavioral learning.
B. General attitudes are the best predictors of behavior.
C. A single, global measure of attitude is necessary to predict behavior.
D. Cognitive attitudes influence behavior better than affective-based attitudes.
25. The ordinal measurement scale
A. includes an indication of order or sequence.
B. includes a fixed or equal interval.
C. can be grouped into two or more categories that are mutually exclusive and
collectively exhaustive.
D. provides for an absolute zero or origin.
26. Every time a NetFlix customer returns a DVD, NetFlix asks the customer to evaluate the DVD on a
scale of one to five. A five means that the customer thoroughly enjoyed the DVD while a one means that
the customer hated the DVD. NetFlix is using a _______ question to learn customer preferences.
A. ranking
B. semantic differential
C. rating
D. checklist
27. Hilton Hotels wishes to conduct a study on the determinants of brand loyalty among Hilton Hotel
customers. The Hilton organization estimates that 10 percent of its 2,600,000 Hilton Honors club members
are loyal to the Hilton brand wherever they travel. However, the remaining members may choose other
hotel brands at times. The organization wants to understand how to increase loyalty among the other 90
percent of club members. The Hilton Honors membership list represents the
A. sample.
B. sampling frame.
C. target population.
D. population.
28. A lakefront resort is planning for its summer busy season. It wishes to estimate with 95 percent
confidence the average number of nights each guest will stay in a consecutive visit. Using a sample of
guests who stayed last year, the average number of nights per guest is calculated at 5 nights. The standard
deviation of the sample is 1.5 nights. The size of the sample used is 120 guests and the resort desires a
precision of plus or minus .5 nights. What is the standard error of the mean?
A. 0.96
B. 1.96
C. 0.5
D. 0.065
29. In a survey of football fans, each respondent is asked to indicate whether he or she has ever attended an
NFL game. This question can be categorized as a/an _______ scale.
A. ordinal
B. ratio
C. interval
D. nominal
30. _______ sampling selects every kth element, using a random starting point.
A. Proportional stratified
B. Systematic
C. Stratified
D. Area
31. A survey of preferences among frequent air travelers will be conducted at airports nationwide. Prior to
asking target questions regarding respondent preferences, which of the following should occur?
A. Free-response questions should be asked to determine participants' likely answers.
B. Questions about travelers' socioeconomic status should be asked.
C. Branching questions can distinguish between frequent air travelers and less frequent travelers.
D. Screen questions should ensure that participants are frequent air travelers.
32. The New York Times dining section rates the restaurants it reviews using a system such that one star
means good, two stars means very good, three stars means excellent, and four stars means extraordinary.
Which of the following characteristics are exhibited by this rating scheme?
A. Classification only
B. Classification, order, and distance
C. Classification and order
D. Classification, order, distance, and origin
33. Brittany is developing a sampling plan for a study of alcohol consumption among college students at
MetroUniversity. She wants to ensure that students from each class level are represented. She also wants
to be able to compare students who are members of Greek organizations to non-Greeks. Finally, she wants
to consider patterns by gender. Brittany plans to cross-reference MetroUniversity's student directory with
membership lists from each Greek organization on campus to develop a sampling frame. What type of
sampling method should Brittany use?
A. Simple random
B. Systematic
C. Cluster
D. Stratified
34. What is the basis of the attitude reflected in the statement, "It's so annoying when people use their cell
phones in restaurants"?
A. Conative
B. Affective
C. Cognitive
D. Behavioral
35. In a study of grocery shopping behavior, one of the questions asked was, "Why do you shop at this
grocery store?" The question was a multiple-choice, closed-ended question and offered the following
response options: (a) it is near my home, (b) it is on my way home from work, (c) the prices are
reasonable, (d) it offers a good selection, and (e) it stocks the items I like to buy. This question should be
redesigned because
A. the response options aren't mutually exclusive.
B. it requests sensitive information that people might not answer.
C. it's too general.
D. it's double-barreled.
36. An attitude scale that correctly forecasts the outcome of a purchase decision has _______ validity.
A. concurrent
B. discriminant
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C. predictive
D. content
37. U.S. News and World Report is assessing the reliability of its measure of academic reputation used in its
annual ranking of colleges and universities. To do so, it administers the same questions on academic
reputation to its sample of academic administrators in March and again in June. Academic reputation is
measured with five questions about each university.
Which test will assess the extent to which those five items reflect academic reputation?
A. Split-half
B. Test-retest
C. Cronbach's alpha
D. KR20
38. Which of the following statements about the number of scale points is false?
A. Validity decreases as the number of scale points increase.
B. Larger numbers of scale points provide the ability to extract more variance.
C. Reliability increases as the number of scale points increase.
D. Additional scale points increase measurement sensitivity.
39. "The adoption rate of cellular telephones continues to accelerate rapidly." This statement is an example
of
a/an _______ attitude.
A. conative
B. behavioral
C. affective
D. cognitive
40. Jason is designing a survey to measure the extent to which college students who own iPods will
recommend that others should also buy an iPod. He has created the following measures:
• Question 1: Have you ever recommended an iPod to anyone? (Response options: Yes or no)
• Question 2: If yes, to whom did you recommend an iPod? Check all that apply. (Response options:
friends, family members,
teachers, other)
• Question 3: How likely are you to recommend an iPod to someone in the future? (Response options:
Not at all likely, somewhat
unlikely, neither likely nor unlikely, somewhat likely, very likely)
What type of scale is used in Question 3?
A. Dichotomous
B. Forced-choice
C. Multiple-choice, multiple-response
D. Multiple-choice, single-response
41. Which of the following hypotheses is best examined with a correlation analysis?
A. Clothing expenditures are higher in Northern states and lower in Southern and Southwestern states.
B. Income, geographic location, and gender are predictive of yearly clothing expenditures.
C. Men differ from women on average yearly clothing expenditures.
D. Income level is related to average yearly clothing expenditures.
42. Which of the following is a null hypothesis?
A. Grocery bills vary according to the number of meals eaten outside the home.
B. The mean age in a household is predictive of the amount of money spent on food each month.
C. There's no difference in the monthly grocery bills of families with one child and families with two children.
D. Families with two children have significantly higher grocery bills than families with just one child.
43. Consider the following array of values found in a stem-and-leaf display:
5 | 4 6 7 8 8 9 9 9 9
Which of the following statements best reflects the meaning of this line?
A. The values in the display are 95, 85, 75, 65, and 45; 95 appears four times and 85 appears twice.
B. There are nine items in the data set, whose first digit is five.
C. The variance in the data set is 5.
D. The numbers in the data set range from 4 to 9.
44. Which of the following best explains how the F ratio examines differences among groups?
A. The critical F is compared to the critical t.
B. The variability attributable to a treatment is compared to the variability arising from random error.
C. The probability of making a Type I error is compared to the probability of making a Type II error.
D. The standard deviation for each group is subtracted from the mean of all groups.
45. Which of the following tests is most appropriate for examining differences in the average number of
hours spent viewing television among four different age groups?
A. t-test
B. Z test
C. ANOVA
D. McNemar test
46. Allison is editing a data set and finds that a response of 7 has been entered for a question that requests a
response
between 1 and 5. What should Allison do?
A. Enter the mode for the question
B. Enter a response of "unknown"
C. Enter a "3" as a neutral response
D. Enter a response randomly between 1 and 5
47. Which of the following is false with respect to cross-tabulation?
A. Row and column totals, called marginals, appear at the bottom and right margins of the table.
B. Each cell contains a count of the cases of the joint classification and also the row, column, and total percentage.
C. Cross-tabulation is a technique for comparing data from two or more categorical variables.
D. When constructed for statistical testing, these tables are called stem-and-leaf tables.
48. Which of the following best expresses the value of using percentages in data presentation?
A. Provides for the calculation of marginals
B. Allows for mathematical manipulation of the values
C. Focuses on the count of cases
D. Allows for relative comparisons
49. Which of the following can be determined using a frequency distribution?
A. How close a sample comes to the null hypothesis
B. The shape of the variable's distribution
C. The systematic variance associated with the sample
D. Whether a systematic association exist between two variables
50. The primary benefit of exploratory data analysis is its ability to be
A. discriminatory.
B. conclusive.
C. flexible.
D. exclusive.
51. Which of the following is most appropriately displayed with a frequency table?
A. Is advertising more effective in newspapers or magazines?
B. How much explanatory value comes from the study's variables?
C. What is the relationship between gender and brand preference?
D. What percentage of people prefer Hunt's brand ketchup?
52. Which of the following is true of relationships among nominal measures?
A. When there's no relationship at all, the coefficient should be 0.
B. When there's complete dependency, the coefficient should be positive.
C. When there's no relationship at all, the coefficient should be 1.
D. When there's complete dependency, the coefficient should be negative.
53. Which of the following is a false statement?
A. The failure to correctly reject the null hypothesis is referred to as a Type I error (α).
B. Whether using a one-tailed test or a two-tailed test, a region of rejection, a region of acceptance, and, therefore, critical
values may be developed.
C. The failure to correctly reject the alternative hypothesis is referred to as a Type II error (β).
D. The level of significance is quantitatively defined as α and the statistical power of a test is quantitatively defined as 1 - α.
54. In what section are complex tables, statistical tests, and supporting documents placed?
A. Introduction
B. Appendix
C. Methodology
D. Findings
55. Which of the following requires at least the ordinal level of data?
A. Chi-square
B. Kruskal's tau
C. Cramer's V
D. Nonparametric tests
56. Which of the following statistical techniques identifies patterns underlying combinations of the original
variables capable of summarizing the original set?
A. Multivariate analysis of variance
B. Factor analysis
C. Discriminant analysis
D. Cluster analysis
57. A/an _______ is written for an audience of researchers.
A. technical report
B. management report
C. executive summary
D. letter of transmittal
58. Which of the following techniques to control pace is thought to create a positive psychological effect on
the reader?
A. Use of ample white space
B. Use of well-known vocabulary terms
C. Use of visual aids
D. Use of headings
59. The creation of _______ lies at the heart of multidimensional scaling.
A. covariance matrices
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B. perceptual maps
C. pair-wise tables
D. part-worth functions
60. Which of the following is a dependency technique?
A. MANOVA
B. Multidimensional scaling (MIDS)
C. Factor analysis
D. Cluster analysis