lec 2 research strategies and stats Flashcards
what is the term called when you believe someone in authority
authority heuristic
what is hindsight bias
easy to believe you could predict the outcome once you know the answer
post diction
explain overconfidence error
too certain in judgement
overestimate
eyewitness testimony
explain why people overuse intuition
hindsight bias
things seem common once explained
people trust it more
explain how gamblers think
putting order to random events
pattern where the odds are still the same
why is scientific research important
avoids hindsight bias
facts and truths
what is the difference between a theory and a hypothesis
theory - set of principles, explains some phenomenon and predicts its future behaviour
hypothesis testable predication with our theory
what do you need to do to replicate research
explain terms and measurements used, source of error
be able to explain or draw scientific diagram
what are 4 goals of research
desciption, explanation, prediction,change
what are the 3 key research methods
experimental
descriptive
correlational
what is the purpose and disadvatage of correlational research
identify relationships and how well 1 variable predicts the other
can’t find cause and effect
what is the purpose of descriptive research
define certain behaviors or traits that are observed
what are the advantages and disadvantages of descriptive research
adv - min artificiality
easier to collect data
allows description of behaviour as it occurs
dis - little or no control over variables
can’t find cause and effect
researcher and participant bias
what is experimental research?
controlled scientific procedure that manipulates variable to determine cause+effect
what type of research has precise control over variables
experimental
what are some disadvatages of experimental research
ethical concerns
practical limits
artificial or lab conditions
uncontrolled variables may compound results
what are some examples of descriptive research
case study
survey
observation
be able to draw positive correlation, negative correlation and zero correlation
what is correlation coeffiecient and what is the score for stonger/weaker relationships?
statistical measure of relationship between 2 variables
closer to 1 stronger
closer to 0 weaker
what is important to remember with regards to correlation and causation?
correlation is NOT causation
correlations NEVER prove cause+effect
what is a confounding variable?
variable which is uncontrolled/unaccouted for, and which may influence the result of a research study
what are the 4 key features of experimental research? what do they mean?
independant variable - factor manipulated
dependant variable -factor measured (outcome)
experimental group- receives treatment
control group- no treatment
what is random assignment?
every participant having an equal chance of being in either the experimental group or the control group
from the researcher’s perspective, what are 2 possible problems and solutions that may occur in experiments?
- problem: experimental bias
solution: blind observers, single/double-blind studies, placebos
- problem: ethnocentrism (belief 1 culture reps. all cultures/ppl)
solution: cross-cultural sampling
what are 2 problems and solutions that can occur in experiments from the participant’s perspective?
- problem: sample bias
solution: random + representitive sampling, random assignment - problem: participant bias
solution: anonimity, confidentiality, deception, single/double-blind studies, placebo
what is the purpose of statistics?
tells us if data we found differs significantly
(if I.V had impact or not)
what are the 3 measures of central tendency ?
mode(most frequent), mean (avg), median (middle in rank distribution)
what is variability? what does it measure?
describes spread/variation of scores in a distribution
how similar/different the people of distribution are
what is skewed distribution? what does it affect, and what is the pro?
when most scores are clustered which a few outliers
affects the mean, mean very effective
is low or high variability better? why?
low, easier to make predictions
what is range?
diff b/w highest and lowest scores (high-low)
what is standard deviation?
average distance of scores from mean
if there are outliers, what does this indicate?
Large standard deviation
what is a bell curve? what are outliers?
mean in middle, 3 SD above, 3 SD below
scores that fall outside this range
when does statistical significance occur?
probability of observed findings being due to chance is very low
