#1
What is the purpose of a pilot study in experimental research?
To refine the research procedures
ExplanationPreliminary study to test and improve experimental procedures.
#2
What is the term for a researcher's unintentional influence on the results of a study?
Experimenter bias
ExplanationSystematic error in research process due to researcher's expectations or beliefs.
#3
What is the purpose of a control group in experimental research?
To provide a comparison for the experimental group
ExplanationGroup in an experiment that does not receive the treatment or intervention being studied, used as a baseline for comparison.
#4
Which of the following is NOT a type of experimental design?
Correlational design
ExplanationInvestigative design aiming to establish relationships between variables without manipulation.
#5
Which of the following is NOT a potential threat to internal validity in an experimental design?
Regression to the mean
ExplanationStatistical phenomenon where extreme scores tend to move closer to the mean upon retesting.
#6
In a within-subjects design, each participant experiences:
All levels of the independent variable
ExplanationParticipants are exposed to all treatment conditions.
#7
Which type of validity is concerned with the degree to which results can be generalized to other populations or settings?
External validity
ExplanationExtent to which findings can be applied to other contexts or populations.
#8
Which of the following is an example of a demand characteristic?
Participant's suspicion about the study's purpose
ExplanationCues that lead participants to infer the researcher's hypothesis and adjust behavior accordingly.
#9
A researcher wants to study the effect of caffeine on memory. She randomly assigns participants to either a caffeine or placebo condition and measures their memory performance. What is the independent variable in this study?
Caffeine
ExplanationVariable manipulated by the researcher (caffeine intake) to observe its effect on another variable (memory performance).
#10
Which of the following is a potential disadvantage of using a convenience sample?
It may introduce sampling bias
ExplanationRisk of systematic error due to non-random selection of participants.
#11
Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of a true experiment?
Naturalistic observation
ExplanationObservation method where subjects are observed in their natural environment without manipulation.
#12
In a counterbalanced design, what is the purpose of counterbalancing?
To prevent order effects in repeated measures designs
ExplanationTechnique to control for the effects of order of presentation of treatments or tasks.