Research Methods Flashcards

1
Q

Paradigm Shift

A

a particularly dramatic change in our way of thinking

Ex: The Earth is not the centre of the Universe

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2
Q

Anecdotal Evidence

A

evidence gathered from others or self experience

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3
Q

experiment

A

scientific tool used to measure the effect of one variable on another

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4
Q

independent variable

A

variable manipulated by the scientist

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5
Q

dependent variable

A

variable being observed by the scientist

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6
Q

experimental group

A

the group that receives the manipulated independent variable

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7
Q

control group

A

the group that does NOT receive the manipulated independent variable

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8
Q

within-subjects design

A

manipulating the independent variable within each participant to minimize the effect of external variables on the dependent measure

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9
Q

practice effect

A

improved performance over the course of an experiment due to becoming more experienced

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10
Q

between subjects design

A

one group acts as the control group while the other is the experimental group

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11
Q

confounding variable

A

a variable other than the independent variable that has an effect on the results

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12
Q

population

A

the general group of people we are trying to learn about

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13
Q

sample

A

the selected members of the population that we actually collect data from

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14
Q

random sample

A

choosing a sample at random from the entire population

it reduces chances of biased groups but is rarely achievable

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15
Q

random assignment

A

assigning subjects to either the experimental or control groups at random to avoid any biases that may cause difference between the groups of subject

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16
Q

placebo effect

A

effect that occurs when an individual exhibits a response to a treatment that has no related therapeutic effect

17
Q

participant bias

A

when a participant’s actions in an experiment influences the results outside of the manipulations of the experimenter

18
Q

experimental bias

A

actions made by the experimenter, intentionally or not, to promote the result they hope to achieve

19
Q

descriptive statistics

A

they present info about data at-a-glance to give you an overall idea of the results of the experiment
ex: histogram, mean, median and mode, stdev

20
Q

frequency distribution

A

type of graph that illustrates the distribution of how frequently values appear in the data set

21
Q

normal distribution

A

a distribution with a characteristic smooth, symmetrical, bell-shaped curve containing a single peak

22
Q

mean

A

the average value of a data set

23
Q

outliers

A

extreme points, distant from others in a data set

24
Q

mode

A

the value that appears most frequently in the set

25
median
the centre value in a data set when the set is arranged numerically
26
standard deviation
a measure of the average distance of each data point from the mean
27
inferential statistics
statistics that allow us to use results from samples to make inferences about overall, underlying populations ex: t-test
28
t-test
a statistical test that considers each data point from both groups to calculate the probability that the two samples were dram from the same population
29
p-value
a value expressing the probability of the t-test
30
statistical significance
when the difference between 2 groups is due to some true difference between the properties of the 2 groups and not simply due to random variation
31
correlation
a measure of the strength of the relationship between 2 variables