1.05 Flashcards
Experiment
A deliberate manipulation of a variable to see if corresponding changes in behavior results, allowing the determination of cause-and-effect relationships
Testing if a plant can grow faster if it is in the sunlight.
Operational definition
Definition of a variable of interest that allows it to be measured.
Independent variable: measured in hours
Dependent variable: measured in centimeters.
Independent variable
Variable in an experiment that is manipulated by the experimenter.
How much sunlight the plant gets
Dependent variable
Variable in an experiment that represents the measureable response to behavior of the subjects in the experiment.
How much the plant grows.
Hawthorne Effect
Altered behavior of experiment participants caused by being a part of the experiment or study itself.
People act differently when there being watched.
Experimental group
Subjects in an experiments who are subjected to the independent variable.
Plants who receive sunlight.
Control group
Subjects in an experiment who are not subjected to the independent variable and who may receive a placebo treatment.
Plants who don’t receive sunlight.
Random assignment
Process of assigning subjects to the experimental or control groups randomly, so that each subject has an equal chance of being in either group.
Eni meni minee mo with the seeds.
Hypothesis
A testable prediction, often implied by a theory.
“If you put the plants in the sunlight, then they will grow.”
Inter-observer reliability
A measure of the extent of agreement of multiple raters when observing the same behaviors or rating the same item or event
Multiple opinions on one thing. I call a painting happy, and so does two other people. Therefor we agree.
Mean
A measure of central tendency commonly known as an “average”; equal to the arithmetic average of the scores.
Adding up all the prices of ice cream to find the average.
Outliers
Extreme scores can skew data, misrepresenting the mean as either too high or too low.
At an arcade Johnny gets 130 tickets, Rachel get 245 tickets, and I get 1,530 tickets. If you try to average that, it would seem higher, then it should be.
Median
A measurement of central tendency that is defined as the midpoint in an array of numbers.
“Monkey in the Middle”
Mode
A measure of central tendency which is defined by the most common number in an array.
The flower that occurs the most in the bouquet.
Bimodal
When statistically analyzing data, the observation of two scores that occur most frequently.
On a graph, these would be the two highest spikes. For example, if you did ice cream flavors chocolate and vanilla would most likely be the two highest.
