MCAT Psychology (Princeton)

Question 1

Experimental Design

Answer 1

a technical term for a specific type of research

Question 2

Independent variable

Answer 2

variable manipulated by the research team

Question 3

Dependent variable

Answer 3

variable that is measured.

Question 4

Reproducibility

Answer 4

other researchers may want to verify the results or adapt some aspect of the experiment

Question 5

Operational definition

Answer 5

a specification of precisely what they mean by each variable.

Question 6

quantitative

Answer 6

numerical

Question 7

qualitative

Answer 7

descriptive

Question 8

Experimental group

Answer 8

group of participants that receive the treatment

Question 9

Control Group

Answer 9

group of participants that act as a point of reference and comparison

Question 10

A control group must be ____________.

Answer 10

homogenous

Question 11

homogenous

Answer 11

same throughout, and as similar as possible to the experimental group except for the variable of interest - the treatment

Question 12

Extraneous (or confounding) variables

Answer 12

variables other than the treatment that could potentially explain an experimental result.

Question 13

Placebo Effect

Answer 13

the well-known fact that just believing the treatment is being administered can lead to a measurable result.

Question 14

Double Blind

Answer 14

neither the person administering treatment nor the participants truly know if they are assigned to the treatment or control groups.

Question 15

sampling bias

Answer 15

not equally likely for all members of a population to be sampled.

Question 16

Meta-analysis

Answer 16

a big picture analysis of many studies to look for trends in the data.

Question 17

Attrition

Answer 17

participants dropping out of the study. If the reason that participants are dropping out is non-random, this might introduce an extraneous variable.

Question 18

Randomized block technique

Answer 18

researchers evaluate where participants fall along the variables they wish to equalize across experimental and control groups. Then they randomly assign individuals from these groups so that the treatment and control groups are similar along the variables of interest.

Question 20

construct validity

Answer 20

measure what they’re supposed to

Question 21

Psychometrics

Answer 21

study of how to measure psychological variables through testing