Unit 2: Scientific practices Flashcards
What is hindsight bias?
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.
What is critical thinking?
Do not blindly accept arguments and conclusions.
What is a theory?
Explains behaviors or events by offering ideas that organize what we have observed
What is a hypotheses?
A testable prediction often implied by a theory
What are operational definitions?
Exactly defined variables or procedures used in a research study
These definitions will allow others to replicate the research.
What is a case study?
One individual or group is studied in hope of revealing a truth relevant to all of us.
What is naturalistic observation?
Observing and recording behavior in a naturally occurring environment without trying to manipulate and control the situation.
What is a survey?
Able to test a large amount of people, researchers do surveys when they want an estimate, random sample of people
What is sampling bias?
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
What is a population?
All those in a group being studied, which samples can be drawn.
What is a random sample?
A sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance at inclusion/participating.
What is a correlation coefficient?
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
What is an illusory correlation?
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
What is an experiment?
Allow researchers to manipulate or isolate the effects of variable and control, or hold constant, other variables.
Random assignment of participants
What is the experimental group?
The group exposed to the treatment
What is the control group?
The group that does not receive treatment
What is random assignment?
Researchers assign participants to experimental and control groups by chance to minimize the preexisting differences between the different groups
What is a double blind procedure?
Both the researchers and participants are blind to who gets treatment
What is the placebo effect?
When you think you are getting the treatment but you actually aren’t, affects behavior
What is the independent variable?
The variable that is being manipulated
The variable I change
What is the confounding variable?
A factor other than the independent variable that can produce an effect on the experiment.
What is the dependent variable?
The outcome factor
The result of the independent variable
What is validity?
To see if a test actually measures or predicts what it promises.
What are the three different research methods?
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
Scatterplots help us to see what?
Correlation
Random assignment helps to reduce _________ __________.
Confounding variables
There are three measures of central tendency; What is mean, median, and mode?
Mean- the average
median- the number in the middle when put in order
mode- the most occurring number
Measures of variation tell us how diverse our data is; What is range and standard deviation?
Range- the gap between the highest and the lowest score
Standard Deviation- How scores vary compared to the mean/average
What are 3 things that can ensure we generalize an observed difference to other populations?
-the sample studied was representative of the larger population being studied
-there was low variability
-the difference was statistically significant
What is statistical significance?
The likelihood if a result was achieved by chance
What is the difference between descriptive statistics and inferential statistics?
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.
What is informed consent?
An ethical principle where participants must be informed enough about the research to help them decide whether to participate or not.
What does debrief mean?
Post-experimental explanation of the study (explain the research afterwards)
