Unit 2: Scientific practices

Question 1

What is hindsight bias?

Answer 1

The “I knew it all along phenomena”

The tendency to believe or successfully predict the outcome of something after the fact.

Ex.: Saying “I knew they would win the game!” after the game is over.

Question 2

What is critical thinking?

Answer 2

Do not blindly accept arguments and conclusions.

Question 3

What is a theory?

Answer 3

Explains behaviors or events by offering ideas that organize what we have observed

Question 4

What is a hypotheses?

Answer 4

A testable prediction often implied by a theory

Question 5

What are operational definitions?

Answer 5

Exactly defined variables or procedures used in a research study

These definitions will allow others to replicate the research.

Question 6

What is a case study?

Answer 6

One individual or group is studied in hope of revealing a truth relevant to all of us.

Question 7

What is naturalistic observation?

Answer 7

Observing and recording behavior in a naturally occurring environment without trying to manipulate and control the situation.

Question 8

What is a survey?

Answer 8

Able to test a large amount of people, researchers do surveys when they want an estimate, random sample of people

Question 9

What is sampling bias?

Answer 9

A flawed sampling process that produces and unrepresentative sample

Ex.: Asking a group of 9th graders what they think the speed limit should be on a highway

Question 10

What is a population?

Answer 10

All those in a group being studied, which samples can be drawn.

Question 11

What is a random sample?

Answer 11

A sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance at inclusion/participating.

Question 12

What is a correlation coefficient?

Answer 12

A statistical measure that helps us conclude how closely two things vary together and how well either one predicts the other.

Measured from -1.0 to +1.0

Question 13

What is an illusory correlation?

Answer 13

The perception of a relationship where none exists

Ex.: A person who was robbed on the west side of town assumes all people from the west side of town are thieves

Question 14

What is an experiment?

Answer 14

Allow researchers to manipulate or isolate the effects of variable and control, or hold constant, other variables.

Random assignment of participants

Question 15

What is the experimental group?

Answer 15

The group exposed to the treatment

Question 16

What is the control group?

Answer 16

The group that does not receive treatment

Question 17

What is random assignment?

Answer 17

Researchers assign participants to experimental and control groups by chance to minimize the preexisting differences between the different groups

Question 18

What is a double blind procedure?

Answer 18

Both the researchers and participants are blind to who gets treatment

Question 19

What is the placebo effect?

Answer 19

When you think you are getting the treatment but you actually aren’t, affects behavior

Question 20

What is the independent variable?

Answer 20

The variable that is being manipulated

The variable I change

Question 21

What is the confounding variable?

Answer 21

A factor other than the independent variable that can produce an effect on the experiment.

Question 22

What is the dependent variable?

Answer 22

The outcome factor

The result of the independent variable

Question 23

What is validity?

Answer 23

To see if a test actually measures or predicts what it promises.

Question 24

What are the three different research methods?

Answer 24

Descriptive- to observe and record behavior

Correlational- to detect naturally occurring relationships, assessing how well one variable predicts the other

Experimental- to explore cause & effect

Question 25

Scatterplots help us to see what?

Answer 25

Correlation

Question 26

Random assignment helps to reduce _________ __________.

Answer 26

Confounding variables

Question 27

There are three measures of central tendency; What is mean, median, and mode?

Answer 27

Mean- the average

median- the number in the middle when put in order

mode- the most occurring number

Question 28

Measures of variation tell us how diverse our data is; What is range and standard deviation?

Answer 28

Range- the gap between the highest and the lowest score

Standard Deviation- How scores vary compared to the mean/average

Question 29

What are 3 things that can ensure we generalize an observed difference to other populations?

Answer 29

-the sample studied was representative of the larger population being studied
-there was low variability
-the difference was statistically significant

Question 30

What is statistical significance?

Answer 30

The likelihood if a result was achieved by chance

Question 31

What is the difference between descriptive statistics and inferential statistics?

Answer 31

descriptive- use numerical data, describe & measure characteristics of a group, includes measures of central tendency and measures of variation

inferential- use numerical data, allows one to generalize, see if it is applicable to a larger population.

Question 32

What is informed consent?

Answer 32

An ethical principle where participants must be informed enough about the research to help them decide whether to participate or not.

Question 33

What does debrief mean?

Answer 33

Post-experimental explanation of the study (explain the research afterwards)