Chapter 8

Question 1

A technique used to control the impact of extraneous variables by distributing their effects equally across treatment conditions.

Answer 1

Balancing

Question 2

A control procedure used to avoid confounding; keeping all aspects of the treatment conditions identical except for the independent variable that is being manipulated.

Answer 2

Constancy of conditions

Question 3

Extraneous variable stemming from procedures created by the environment, or context, of the research setting.

Answer 3

Context variable

Question 4

A plausible but false explanation of the procedures in an experiment told to disguise the actual research hypothesis so that subjects will not guess what it is.

Answer 4

Cover story

Question 5

The aspects of the experimental situation itself that demand or elicit particular behaviors; can lead to distorted data by compelling subjects to produce responses that conform to what subjects believe is expected of them in the experiment.

Answer 5

Demand characteristics

Question 6

An experiment in which neither the experimenter nor the subjects know which treatment condition the subjects are in; used to control experimenter bias.

Answer 6

Double-blind experiment

Question 7

A technique to control extraneous variables by removing them from an experiment.

Answer 7

Elimination

Question 8

Any behavior of the experimenter that can create confounding in an experiment.

Answer 8

Experimenter bias

Question 9

The personal characteristics that an experimenter or volunteer subject brings to the experimental setting.

Answer 9

Personality variables

Question 10

Aspects of the testing conditions that need to be controlled.

Answer 10

Physical variables

Question 11

The result of giving subjects a pill, injection, or other treatment that actually contains none of the independent variable; the treatment elicits a change in subjects’ behavior simply because subjects expect an effect to occur.

Answer 11

Placebo effect

Question 12

The phenomenon of experimenters treating subjects differently depending on what they expect from the subjects.

Answer 12

Rosenthal effect or Pygmalion effect

Question 13

An experiment in which subjects are not told which of the treatment conditions they are in; a procedure used to control demand characteristics.

Answer 13

Single-blind experiment

Question 14

The qualities of the relationships between subjects and experimenters that can influence the results of an experiment.

Answer 14

Social variable