Research Methods

Question 1

Paradigm Shift

Answer 1

a particularly dramatic change in our way of thinking

Ex: The Earth is not the centre of the Universe

Question 2

Anecdotal Evidence

Answer 2

evidence gathered from others or self experience

Question 3

experiment

Answer 3

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

Question 4

independent variable

Answer 4

variable manipulated by the scientist

Question 5

dependent variable

Answer 5

variable being observed by the scientist

Question 6

experimental group

Answer 6

the group that receives the manipulated independent variable

Question 7

control group

Answer 7

the group that does NOT receive the manipulated independent variable

Question 8

within-subjects design

Answer 8

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

Question 9

practice effect

Answer 9

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

Question 10

between subjects design

Answer 10

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

Question 11

confounding variable

Answer 11

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

Question 12

population

Answer 12

the general group of people we are trying to learn about

Question 13

sample

Answer 13

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

Question 14

random sample

Answer 14

choosing a sample at random from the entire population

it reduces chances of biased groups but is rarely achievable

Question 15

random assignment

Answer 15

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

Question 16

placebo effect

Answer 16

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

Question 17

participant bias

Answer 17

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

Question 18

experimental bias

Answer 18

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

Question 19

descriptive statistics

Answer 19

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

Question 20

frequency distribution

Answer 20

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

Question 21

normal distribution

Answer 21

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

Question 22

mean

Answer 22

the average value of a data set

Question 23

outliers

Answer 23

extreme points, distant from others in a data set

Question 24

mode

Answer 24

the value that appears most frequently in the set

Question 25

median

Answer 25

the centre value in a data set when the set is arranged numerically

Question 26

standard deviation

Answer 26

a measure of the average distance of each data point from the mean

Question 27

inferential statistics

Answer 27

statistics that allow us to use results from samples to make inferences about overall, underlying populations
ex: t-test

Question 28

t-test

Answer 28

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

Question 29

p-value

Answer 29

a value expressing the probability of the t-test

Question 30

statistical significance

Answer 30

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

Question 31

correlation

Answer 31

a measure of the strength of the relationship between 2 variables