Chapter 1: Scientific method

Question 1

What is a literature review?

Answer 1

It is a survey of material that has been written about the subject of the investigation. (Books, Journals, Web, private documents)

Question 2

Why do a literature review?

Answer 2

4 reasons;-
-Defining the problem
-Find out what is known about the problem
-Assess research methods of others
Relate potential findings to what’s already known.

Question 3

Name some examples of invstigations

Answer 3

Case study, longitudinal study, survey, trial and error, observation, Controlled experiments

Question 4

Ethics needed in Biological research

Answer 4

4:
No chance of harm(physical, mental)
Confientiality
Informed consent
Voluntary paticipation

Question 5

What are sceintific variables and their meaning?

Answer 5

Variable: any factor that may change during an experiment.

• Indepedent variable: Factor being investigated, alters the dependent variable.Controlled via researcher.
• Dependent variable: Is the results; It’s what is measured and depends upon the Independent variable.
• Controlled variables: factors kept the same for both experimental and control groups.

Question 6

Repetition vs replication(reliability)

Answer 6

Repetition: repeating the experiment multiple times; 3 at least for reliability in results.
replication: Having a large # of identical experiments running consequitively or doing the experiment on a large sample.

Question 7

Quantative data vs Qualitative

Answer 7

Quan = numbers, facts and figures. Easy to graph and tabulate, but no info behind why that number/figure was chosen. Can be manipulated via central tendency scores.
Qualitative= descriptive data, usually gathered via speaking...can be subjective, very descriptive but hard to analyse.

Question 8

Graph examples

Answer 8

Line graphs, histograms(frequencies, grouped data), column/bar graph(rectangles)

Question 9

How to plan an operational hypothesis

Answer 9

OH IPOD:
Operational Hypothesis
Independent variable
Population
Operational dependent variable