Chapter 2 to page 25

Question 1

THE MOTIVATION TO CONDUCT SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH COMES FROM A

Answer 1

NATURAL CURIOSITY ABOUT THE WORLD

Question 2

Curiosity is expressed in the form of

Answer 2

questions

Question 3

research question

Answer 3

is the first and most general step in designing and conducting a research investigation

Question 4

A good research question must be specific so that it can be

Answer 4

answered with a research project.

Question 5

hypothesis

Answer 5

is a tentative answer to a research question. It can be thought of as one of the possible answers to a research question

Question 6

Once a hypothesis is proposed, data must be

Answer 6

data must be gathered and evaluated in terms of whether the evidence is consistent or inconsistent with the hypothesis.

Question 7

Once the hypothesis is stated, the researcher can design a study to

Answer 7

test it

Question 8

Once the study is designed, the researcher can make a specific prediction about the

Answer 8

outcome of the study

Question 9

prediction

Answer 9

follows directly from a hypothesis, is directly testable, and includes specific variables and methodologies.

Question 10

If a prediction is confirmed by the results of the study, the hypothesis is supported. If the prediction is not
confirmed, the researcher will either reject the hypothesis or conduct further research using different methods to study the hypothesis.

Answer 10

It is important to note that when the results of a study confirm a prediction, the hypothesis is only supported, not proven. Researchers study the same hypothesis using a variety of methods, and each time this hypothesis is supported by a research study, we become more confident that the hypothesis is correct.

Question 11

In order from general to specific

Answer 11

Research question -> Hypothesis -> Prediction

Question 12

It is not easy to say where good ideas come from. Many people are capable of coming up with worthwhile ideas but find it difficult to

Answer 12

verbalize the process by which they are generated

Question 13

common sense

Answer 13

All of these:

1) the things we all believe to be true
2) One source of ideas/body of knowledge that can be tested

Question 14

Testing a commonsense idea can be valuable because such notions do not always turn out to be correct, or
research may show that the real world is much more

Answer 14

complicated than our commonsense ideas would have it.

Question 15

Conducting research to test commonsense ideas often forces us to go

Answer 15

go beyond a commonsense theory of behavior.

Question 16

Research is also stimulated by practical problems that can have

Answer 16

immediate applications

Question 17

Observations of personal and social events can provide

Answer 17

many ideas for research. The curiosity sparked by your
observations and experiences can lead you to ask questions about all sorts of phenomena. In fact, this type of curiosity is what drives many students to engage in their first research project.

Question 18

Winograd and Soloway’s research demonstrated that people are likely to forget where something is placed
when two conditions are present

Answer 18

1) The location where the object is placed is judged to be highly memorable
2) the location is considered a very unlikely place for the object.
Thus, although it may seem to be a good
idea at the time, storing something in an unusual place is generally not a good idea.

Question 19

five sources of ideas:

Answer 19

common sense, observation of the world around us, theories, past research, and practical problems.

Question 20

theory

Answer 20

A systematic, coherent, and logical set of ideas about a particular topic or phenomenon

Question 21

Theories serve two important functions

Answer 21

1) organize and explain a variety of specific facts or descriptions of behavior. Such facts and
descriptions are not very meaningful by themselves, and so theories are needed to impose a framework on
them. This framework makes the world more comprehensible by providing a few abstract concepts around which we can organize and explain a variety of behaviors.
2) generate new knowledge by focusing our thinking so that we notice new aspects of
behavior—theories guide our observations of the world. The theory generates hypotheses about behavior, and the researcher conducts studies to test the hypotheses. If the studies confirm the hypotheses, the theory is supported. As more and more evidence accumulates that is consistent with the theory, we become more confident that the theory is correct.

Question 22

Sometimes people describe a theory as “just an idea” that may or may not be true. We need to separate this
use of the term—which implies that a theory is essentially the same as a hypothesis—from the scientific meaning of theory. A scientific theory consists of

Answer 22

much more than a simple “idea.” A scientific theory is
grounded in actual data from prior research as well as numerous hypotheses that are consistent with the
theory.