Question 1

Which of the following is not a weakness of interview and self-report methods of data collection?

Accepted Answer

Surveys are generally considered to be cost-effective and relatively quick to administer compared to other data collection methods, making option B not a weakness.

Question 2

Which physiological methods record electrical activity in the brain in response to certain events but are not good at localizing brain activity?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Which physiological methods record electrical activity in...

Question 3

Which physiological methods offer excellent spatial localization but are not as precise in determining temporal resolution?

Accepted Answer

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) offers excellent spatial localization, allowing researchers to pinpoint areas of the brain involved in specific functions. However, its temporal resolution is not as precise as methods like EEGs or ERPs, meaning it is less effective at determining the exact timing of brain activity.

Question 4

What is the term used for the brain-imaging technique that depends on the transparency of biological tissue to light that is near the infrared part of the spectrum?

Accepted Answer

Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) is the technique that utilizes the transparency of biological tissue to near-infrared light to monitor brain activity.

Question 5

The strongest study designs use what type of data collection?

Accepted Answer

The strongest study designs often incorporate a combination of several types of data collection methods, including self-report, observation, and physiological techniques, to provide a comprehensive understanding of the research question and to offset the limitations of any single method.

Question 6

Every day when I get on my scale it reports the same weight. My scale is:

Accepted Answer

Your scale is reliable because it consistently gives you the same result every time you use it, indicating that it has the ability to produce stable and consistent results over time. Validity would require the scale to measure what it is supposed to measure accurately, which is not indicated by the information given.

Question 7

Dr. Smith designed a scale to measure children's creative thinking. Children read a story and then wrote an alternate ending. It was found that children with better reading and writing skills scored higher on this scale. This scale has problems with:

Accepted Answer

The scale may not be accurately measuring creative thinking as intended (validity issue) because the scores could be influenced more by children's reading and writing skills rather than their creative thinking abilities.

Question 8

A research design that collects information about participants without making any attempts to alter their circumstances is known as:

Accepted Answer

Correlational research design involves collecting data to determine whether, and to what degree, a relationship exists between two or more quantifiable variables without manipulating any variables, thus not altering participants' circumstances.

Question 9

A researcher is testing the association between parental warmth and school achievement. She measures parents' warmth in everyday interactions with children and the children's grades in school. This design is:

Accepted Answer

This design is correlational because it involves measuring two variables (parental warmth and school achievement) to see if there is a relationship between them, without manipulating any variables.

Question 10

The strength of a correlation is measured by the:

Accepted Answer

The strength of a correlation is measured by the correlation coefficient, which quantifies the degree to which two variables are related. The coefficient's value ranges from -1 to 1, where values closer to -1 or 1 indicate a stronger relationship, and values near 0 indicate a weaker relationship.

Question 11

A study with a correlation design found a strong positive association between viewing violent television and preschool aggressive behaviors. The researchers can conclude that:

Accepted Answer

The correct answer is D because a strong positive association indicates that as one variable increases, so does the other. In this case, as the amount of violent television watched increases, aggressive behaviors in preschoolers also increase. This does not imply causation, only a correlation between the two variables.

Question 12

Researchers found that as the number of minutes per day parents spent reading to their children increased, their children's score on a reading readiness scale increased as well. This is an example of:

Accepted Answer

This is an example of a positive correlation because as the time spent reading increases, the reading readiness score also increases, indicating that both variables move in the same direction.

Question 13

Researchers found that as parental warmth increases, children's behavior problems decrease. This is an example of:

Accepted Answer

This is an example of a negative correlation because as one variable (parental warmth) increases, the other variable (children's behavior problems) decreases.

Question 14

In what type of study design do researchers manipulate one of the variables to test its impact on other variables?

Accepted Answer

Experimental studies involve the manipulation of one variable to test its impact on other variables, distinguishing them from observational studies where variables are not manipulated by the researcher.

Question 15

A researcher tested the effect of sleep deprivation on attention. She assigned participants to groups which determined how much sleep they got. She compared these groups' scores on attention tasks. This is an example of what type of study design?

Accepted Answer

This is an example of an experimental study design because the researcher manipulates an independent variable (amount of sleep) to observe its effect on a dependent variable (scores on attention tasks).

Question 16

In a study of the effect of preschool on school readiness in a group of children at risk for school failure, whether children attend preschool or not is the:

Accepted Answer

The independent variable is the factor that is manipulated or varied by the researcher to examine its impact on the dependent variable. In this case, whether children attend preschool or not is the variable being manipulated to study its effect on school readiness, making it the independent variable.

Question 17

In a study of the effect of antidepressants on the behavior problems of children, the number of behavior problems in the research participants is the:

Accepted Answer

The number of behavior problems in the research participants is the dependent variable because it is what the researchers are measuring to see if it changes in response to the antidepressants (the independent variable).

Question 18

It is essential to the experimental design that a study includes random assignment, which means:

Accepted Answer

Random assignment refers to the process of placing study participants into different groups in a way that is free from bias, ensuring that each participant has an equal chance of being assigned to any group. This method is crucial for controlling for confounding variables and establishing causality in experimental designs.

Question 19

A researcher was interested in the effect of a literature curriculum on children's reading abilities. He put the students with high English grades in the group to receive the curriculum and the children with lower grades in the group that will not receive the curriculum. This design has problems with:

Accepted Answer

The problem described is with random assignment, not random sampling, reliability, or negative correlations. Random assignment involves allocating participants to different groups in a study in such a way that each participant has an equal chance of being placed in any group. By placing students with high English grades in one group and those with lower grades in another based on their grades, the researcher did not randomly assign participants to groups, potentially introducing bias and affecting the study's internal validity.

Question 20

Longitudinal designs are particularly useful for studying child development because of the ability to measure:

Accepted Answer

Longitudinal designs allow researchers to observe how individuals change over time, making them ideal for studying developmental processes such as those seen in children.

Quiz 1: Introduction to Child Development Basic Concepts and Issues