Research Design & Statistics: Foundation for Clinical Science

Question 1

levels of measurement

Answer 1

nominal,
ordinal,
interval,
ratio scales

Question 2

statistics defined

Answer 2

the field of study involved with data organization, summary, & analysis,
based on the theory of probability

Question 3

external validity threats

Answer 3

limit the degree to which internally valid results can be generalized:
the hawthorne effect
(participants knowledge),
multiple-treatment interference,
reactive or interactive effects of pretesting

Question 4

internal validity threats

Answer 4

result in failure to establish cause-effect relationship: 
instrumentation, 
history, 
statistical regression, 
maturation, 
attrition, 
testing, 
subject selection biases, 
interaction of factors

Question 5

external validity

Answer 5

refers to generalizability,

to what settings, populations, treatment variables, & measurement variables the effect can be generalized

Question 6

internal validity

Answer 6

degree to which data reflects a true cause-effect relationship

Question 7

pretest-posttest design

Answer 7

prototype of experimental design groups,
similar experimental & control groups,
differ only after experimental group receives treatment,
allows evaluation of the effect of the independent variable on the behavior of the experimental group

Question 8

ABAB reversal design

Answer 8

target behavior is base-rated (A), 
taught to the subject (B), 
reduced by teaching its counterpart or incompatible behavior (A), 
then taught again (B) 
to show the treatment was effective

Question 9

confounding variable

Answer 9

the influence of extraneous variables

that may also affect the disorder or the skill

Question 10

sample

Answer 10

in the exact middle of a distribution,

an equal # of scores fall above & below it

Question 11

median score

Answer 11

small # of subjects drawn from the population,
should be randomly selected
& representative of the population

Question 12

ABAB withdrawal design

Answer 12

target skills base-rated w/o treatment (A),
new treatment offered (B),
treatment withdrawn (A),
same treatment reinstated (B)

Question 13

ordinal scale

Answer 13

represented by #s that can be arranged according to rank orders or levels,
intervals between #s are unknown & probably not equal

Question 14

correlational relationships

Answer 14

0. 00 indicates no relationship,

- 1.0 to +1.0 range

Question 15

ex post facto research

Answer 15

involves the effect of independent variables that have occurred in the past
& investigator is making retrospective search for causes of events

Question 16

single-subject design

Answer 16

experimental design demonstrating cause-effect relationships, 
involving anywhere from 1-6 subjects, 
& recording individual performance, 
ABA & ABAB designs are commonplace, 
A phase = no treatment or baseline, 
B phase = treatment, 
multiple baseline designs also common

Question 17

descriptive research

Answer 17

no demonstration of cause-effect relationships: 
ex post facto 
(case study or retrospective design), 
survey, 
comparative or standard-group comparison, 
developmental or normative, 
correlational, 
ethnographic

Question 18

independent variable

Answer 18

directly manipulated by the experimenter to cause changes in the dependent variable being studied

Question 19

dependent variable

Answer 19

affected by the manipulation of the independent variable,

the effect

Question 20

reliability

Answer 20

has scores that are consistent across repeated testing or measurement,
greater when closer to 1.00

Question 21

concurrent validity

Answer 21

new test that correlates well with other established similar tests