Week 2 - Notes

Question 1

Placebo Effect

Answer 1

a beneficial effect produced by a placebo drug or treatment, which cannot be attributed to the properties of the placebo itself, and must therefore be due to the patient’s belief in that treatment. “orthodox doctors dismiss the positive results as a result of the placebo effect”

Question 2

Double-Blinded Study

Answer 2

A medical study in which both the subjects participating and the researchers are unaware of when the experimental medication or procedure has been given. Double-blinded studies are often used when initial studies shows particular promise.

Question 3

Randomized Block Experiment

Answer 3

when 1-2 characteristics divide your population and influence to the experiment.

Question 4

What is the following an example of?

“Think of a drug, would man and woman react differently? Smokers versus non-smokers? 18-35 year old versus 36-64 year old? So we have our sample divided along the blocks, and we apply for each block the experiment with the two groups… Man with drug A, man with nothing, woman with drug A, woman with nothing… “

Answer 4

Randomized Block Experiment

Question 5

_____ is collecting data in a way that does not modify the environment or the response of what is measured, no controlled influence, you just “observe”.

Answer 5

Observation

Question 6

A ____ is where the environment is modified for a group of individuals to observe a response to this controlled modification of one or many parameters.

Answer 6

Study

Question 7

Underrepresentation

Answer 7

describes a subset of a population that holds a smaller percentage within a significant subgroup than the subset holds in the general population. Specific characteristics of an underrepresented group vary depending on the subgroup being considered.

Question 8

Replication

Answer 8

is the repetition of an experimental condition so that the variability associated with the phenomenon can be estimated.