Question 1

What is the advantage of a double-blind experimental design?

Accepted Answer

Double-blind experimental designs help in minimizing bias by ensuring that neither the participants nor the experimenters know who is receiving a particular treatment. This approach helps in eliminating the possibility that the experimenter unintentionally influences the participants with their expectations about the outcomes of the experiment.

Question 2

Which of the following extraneous variables can NOT be corrected using random assignment?

Accepted Answer

Random assignment can help control for participant effects by evenly distributing them across groups, but it cannot control for experimenter effects, which require other methods like double-blind procedures.

Question 3

In some experiments, demand characteristics are controlled by making sure neither the participant nor the experimenter knows what conditions) the participant experienced until the data are collected and analyzed. This is called an) ______procedure.

Accepted Answer

This is called a double-blind procedure, where both the participants and the experimenters are unaware of which conditions the participants are assigned to, in order to prevent bias in the results.

Question 4

By using intragroup incomplete counterbalancing, you can control for all of the following EXCEPT

Accepted Answer

Intragroup incomplete counterbalancing is designed to control for linear order effects, nonlinear order effects, and linear carryover effects by varying the order of conditions for participants within a group. However, it does not specifically address differential carryover effects, which occur when the effect of a previous condition disproportionately influences performance in subsequent conditions in a way that varies across different conditions.

Question 5

occur when a treatment condition may affect participants' performance in a later condition in one way and in a different way when followed by a different condition.

Accepted Answer

Differential carryover effects occur when the effects of a prior treatment condition influence participants' responses in subsequent conditions in varying ways, depending on the sequence of the conditions. This can complicate the interpretation of experimental results because the effect is not consistent across all sequences of treatment.

Question 6

Incomplete counterbalancing means that

Accepted Answer

Incomplete counterbalancing refers to a situation where not all possible orders of treatments are used in an experiment. This approach is often used to reduce the number of treatment sequences needed when there are several treatments, making the research design more manageable.

Question 7

In what counterbalancing technique would you present experimental treatments to participants in one order, and then in the reverse order?

Accepted Answer

Intrasubject counterbalancing involves presenting experimental treatments to the same participants in different orders, including in reverse order, to control for order effects within subjects.

Question 8

In the context of experimental design, "double blind" refers to the situation in which

Accepted Answer

Double-blind experiments are designed to eliminate bias by ensuring that neither the participants nor the experimenters know who is receiving a particular treatment. This helps in maintaining the objectivity of the research findings.

Question 9

Participants in a memory experiment are asked to learn a list of high-imagery words and then to learn a list of low-imagery words. Using the same participants in each condition could cause it to be confounded by

Accepted Answer

Carryover and/or order effects could confound the results because the experience of learning high-imagery words first might affect how participants learn and remember the low-imagery words, or vice versa. This is due to the influence of the first task on performance in the second task, rather than the inherent difference in word types.

Question 10

If an experiment had four conditions A, B, C, and D) and each participant is to be measured under each condition, intragroup incomplete counterbalancing might be the best method to use. Which of the following describes this method?

Accepted Answer

Intragroup incomplete counterbalancing involves creating multiple groups of participants and exposing each group to a different order of conditions. In this case, each group is exposed to all four conditions, but the order in which they are presented varies across groups. This helps to control for order effects and ensures that any differences between conditions are not due to the order in which they were presented.

Question 11

One way to be sure that all "groups" in an experiment are equivalent except for their experience with the independent variables) is to use the same participants in all experimental conditions. However, this approach carries the danger of confounding in that

Accepted Answer

The sequence in which participants experience the conditions (known as order effects or sequence effects) can influence their performance, leading to confounding variables. This is because their responses in later conditions might be affected by their experiences in earlier ones.

Question 12

How many possible sequences would be needed for complete counterbalancing with three treatment conditions?

Accepted Answer

Complete counterbalancing with three treatment conditions requires all possible sequences of those conditions. With three conditions, there are 3! (3 factorial) possible sequences, which is 3 x 2 x 1 = 6.

Question 13

Which of the following describes intrasubject counterbalancing in an experiment with two experimental conditions, A and B?

Accepted Answer

Intrasubject counterbalancing involves each participant experiencing all conditions in a specific sequence to control for order effects, such as ABBA.

Question 14

Two middle school teachers want to find which of three new violence prevention programs would be most effective in their school. From September through November, program #1 is in effect. It is then replaced by program #2 from December through February, and then program #3 runs from March through May. In June the teachers examined fight reports for the school year and find that there were 14 fights in the fall, 10 fights in the winter, and 6 fights in the spring. They conclude that program #3 is most effective is stopping violence. Which of the following is a plausible rival hypothesis to their interpretation?

Accepted Answer

The decrease in fights could be due to seasonal changes, carryover effects from the first two programs, or simply because any program implemented third might inherently be associated with fewer fights, making all the provided alternatives plausible explanations.

Question 15

The main disadvantage of intrasubject counterbalancing is

Accepted Answer

Intrasubject counterbalancing involves having each participant experience all conditions, which can be time-consuming and demanding if there are many conditions to test.

Question 16

must be used with repeated measures designs.

Accepted Answer

Counterbalancing is used in repeated measures designs to control for the effects of the order in which treatments are received, ensuring that these effects do not bias the results.

Question 17

In within participants experimental designs, participants are tested under more than one condition. A carryover effect may confound the results if

Accepted Answer

Carryover effects occur when the effects of a previous condition influence performance in subsequent conditions, which can confound results in within-participants designs.

Question 18

In a study designed to examine the effects of caffeine on reaction time, four caffeine conditions 100, 200, 300, and 400 mg of caffeine) are used. If the experimenter decides to use complete counterbalancing and assuming that one subject will be tested in each of the sequences used, how many people will be needed to complete the study?

Accepted Answer

Complete counterbalancing requires testing all possible sequences of conditions. With four conditions, there are 4! (4 factorial) sequences, which equals 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 24. Therefore, 24 people are needed to test each sequence once.

Question 19

Dr. James is conducting a repeated measures study in which the IV has three levels. Dr. James randomly assigns one of the six possible sequences of levels to each participant. This type of counterbalancing is called

Accepted Answer

Randomized counterbalancing is a type of counterbalancing in which the order of the levels of the IV is randomized for each participant. This type of counterbalancing is used to control for order effects, which are the effects of the order of the levels of the IV on the DV.

Question 20

Sometimes, the treatment received in one condition of an experiment can influence behavior under the next condition. This in known as an) effect.

Accepted Answer

This is known as a carryover effect, where the effects of a previous treatment condition continue to influence participant behavior or outcomes in subsequent conditions.

Quiz 7: Control Techniques in Experimental Research