Question 1

Terman's studies of gifted children have been criticized because
A) the high level of attrition made interpretation impossible or highly speculative at best
B) he used a cross-sectional strategy when he should have used a longitudinal strategy
C) significant cohort effects existed
D) his sample could have been more representative

Accepted Answer

The answer of Terman's studies of gifted children have been...

Question 2

Which of the following is true of Terman's study of gifted children?
A) it illustrated the problem of cohort effects in cross-sectional studies
B) unlike many longitudinal studies, attrition was very low
C) it combined longitudinal and cross-sectional methods into a single design
D) it showed that intellectually gifted children have serious problems with social skills

Accepted Answer

According to the passage, Terman's study had very low attrition rates, meaning that the participants who were selected to be part of the study remained involved over a long period of time. None of the other answer choices are mentioned in the passage.

Question 3

In a balanced Latin square,
A) each possible sequence of conditions is used
B) each condition appears equally often in each sequential position
C) participants are tested more than once per condition
D) block randomization must be used

Accepted Answer

In a balanced Latin square, each condition appears equally often in each sequential position, which ensures balance and equal representation of each condition. The other options do not accurately describe a balanced Latin square design.

Question 4

Terman's studies of gifted children
A) showed clear evidence of a detrimental cohort effect
B) was flawed by problems with attrition
C) used a longitudinal design
D) used a cross-sectional design

Accepted Answer

Terman's studies of gifted children used a longitudinal design, following the same group of individuals over an extended period of time. This allowed researchers to track developmental changes and assess long-term outcomes. While the studies did experience some attrition, this is not considered a major flaw as it is common in longitudinal studies. There is also no evidence of a detrimental cohort effect, which refers to differences between generations rather than changes over time within a group.

Question 5

Experimenter expectancies can be reduced by using
A) trained experimenters instead of machines
B) a placebo control group
C) a double-blind procedure
D) a between-subjects rather than a within-subjects design

Accepted Answer

A double-blind procedure involves neither the participant nor the experimenter knowing the treatment condition of the participant. This helps to reduce experimenter expectancies as the experimenter does not know which participants are receiving the actual treatment and which ones are receiving a placebo or a different treatment. Trained experimenters instead of machines (A) and between-subjects rather than within-subjects design (D) are not related to reducing experimenter expectancies. Placebo control groups (B) can help control for placebo effects in participants, but they do not necessarily reduce experimenter expectancies.

Question 6

According to Orne, what characterizes most participants?
A) they are suspicious and uninterested in the study in which they are participating
B) they are cooperative and try to help the experimenter
C) they are too afraid for their behavior to be considered normal
D) they will actively try to give results opposite to the ones wanted by the experimenter

Accepted Answer

Orne suggests that most participants in psychology experiments are cooperative and try to help the experimenter.

Question 7

Demand characteristics refer to
A) aspects of the experimental procedure that give away the study's hypotheses
B) demands placed on experimenters by non-cooperative participants
C) pressures placed on participants by experimenters who want a study to come out a certain way
D) features of the study that raise evaluation apprehension in subjects

Accepted Answer

Demand characteristics are aspects of the experimental procedure that unintentionally communicate the researcher's hypotheses to participants, leading them to behave in ways that they think will fulfill the expectations of the study.

Question 8

Longitudinal design is to cross-sectional design as ______ is to _______.
A) within-subjects; between-subjects
B) between-subjects; within-subjects
C) cohort effect; carry-over effect
D) subject variable; manipulated variable

Accepted Answer

The answer of Longitudinal design is to cross-sectional design as...

Question 9

How might experimenter bias be communicated to subjects in animal research?
A) experimenters are more likely to cheat (animals can't report fraud)
B) animals in different groups might be handled differently by experimenters
C) the subjects will experience different degrees of evaluation apprehension
D) none of the above - experimenter bias only occurs in research with human subjects

Accepted Answer

Experimenter bias can affect the way animals in different experimental groups are handled or treated by the experimenter. For example, the group receiving the treatment might receive more attention or be handled more gently than the control group, which could affect the outcome of the study. Communicating this potential bias to subjects (in this case, animal subjects) could involve providing detailed instructions and guidelines to experimenters on how to handle all animals consistently and without bias.

Question 10

Automating the procedures as much as possible and using a double-blind procedure will help to reduce
A) subject bias only
B) experimenter bias only
C) both subject bias and experimenter bias
D) neither subject bias nor experimenter bias

Accepted Answer

Automating procedures can reduce experimenter bias by removing the potential for the experimenter to influence the results. Using a double-blind procedure can reduce subject bias as well as experimenter bias, by eliminating both the possibility of the subject being influenced by the experimenter's expectations and the possibility of the experimenter interpreting the results in a biased way.

Question 11

Compared to a cross-sectional study, a longitudinal study
A) takes less time to complete
B) has to deal with potential cohort effects
C) has attrition as its major difficulty
D) has to be concerned about counterbalancing properly

Accepted Answer

The answer of Compared to a cross-sectional study, a longitudinal...

Question 12

In a _____________ procedure, both participants and the experimenters do not know which condition is being tested, whereas in a _____________ procedure only the participants are unaware of which condition is being tested.
A) placebo control; manipulation check
B) manipulation check; placebo control
C) single-blind; double-blind
D) double-blind; single-blind

Accepted Answer

In a double-blind procedure, both participants and experimenters do not know which condition is being tested, whereas in a single-blind procedure only the participants are unaware of which condition is being tested. Therefore, choice D is the correct answer.

Question 13

Which of the following is true about cohort effects?
A) they are less important if the ages compared are 50, 60, and 70 (as opposed to 5, 6, and 7)
B) they are a version of the general problem of controlling order effects
C) they are more of a problem for longitudinal than for cross-sectional studies
D) they create a potential nonequivalent groups problem

Accepted Answer

Cohort effects refer to the influence of a person's generation on their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. These effects can create a potential nonequivalent groups problem, where two different cohorts may differ not only due to age and developmental factors but also due to historical events and cultural shifts that occurred during their lifetime. Therefore, D is the correct answer. A is incorrect because cohort effects can still be important at older ages, depending on the historical events that have occurred during their lifetime. B is incorrect because while cohort effects can be a version of the general problem of controlling order effects, they are not synonymous with them. C is incorrect because longitudinal studies are more likely to control for cohort effects since they follow the same group of individuals over time, whereas cross-sectional studies may compare different cohorts at the same point in time.

Question 14

Sometimes a subject's behavior is affected by the mere knowledge that he or she is participating in an experiment. Historically, this has been termed
A) the Hawthorne effect
B) the good subject effect
C) the evaluation apprehension effect
D) the bad subject effect

Accepted Answer

The Hawthorne effect refers to the phenomenon where subjects modify their behavior simply because they are participating in an experiment, and not due to the independent variable being manipulated. This effect has been observed in numerous studies where workers changed their behavior when they knew they were being observed, often leading to increased productivity or improved performance.

Question 15

Demand characteristics are more likely to be found in
A) between-subjects designs rather than within-subjects designs
B) within-subjects designs rather than between-subjects designs
C) studies with animal subjects than studies with human subjects
D) cross-sectional rather than longitudinal studies

Accepted Answer

Within-subjects designs involve participants being exposed to multiple conditions, making it more difficult for them to ignore or fail to notice experimental manipulations. This can lead to demand characteristics, where participants' behavior or responses are influenced by what they think the researcher wants them to do. In between-subjects designs, participants only experience one condition and are less likely to recognize the purpose of the study. Therefore, demand characteristics are more likely to be found in within-subjects designs rather than between-subjects designs.

Question 16

In a memory study, each subject learns six lists of words. A researcher decides to use a Latin square to determine the order in which lists will be shown. Which of the following is true?
A) if ten subjects are to be assigned to each row of the Latin square, then 600 subjects will be needed to complete the study
B) participants will see each list more than once
C) six different orders of list presentation will be used
D) the Latin square will have 36 (6x6) rows

Accepted Answer

A Latin square is a method for controlling the order in which treatments are administered to participants in a study. In this case, the six different lists of words will be presented in six different orders using the Latin square. Each participant will only see each list once, but the order in which they see the lists will be determined by the Latin square. The number of participants needed for the study is not specified in the question, so A is not necessarily true. D is also not true as the Latin square will have 6 rows and 6 columns, not 36 rows.

Question 17

Because they experience ____________, participants try to behave in a way that makes the experimenter think well of them.
A) evaluation apprehension
B) demand characteristics
C) the Hawthorne effect
D) deception in a study

Accepted Answer

Evaluation apprehension refers to the concern participants have about being evaluated by the experimenter or others present in the study, which can lead them to alter their behavior in order to make a good impression.

Question 18

In a cross-sectional comparison of intelligence in people aged 20, 40, and 60, differences might be due to aging but they might also be due to the different rearing conditions experienced by participants. This latter interpretation illustrates a(n) _______ effect.
A) cohort
B) placebo
C) attrition
D) order

Accepted Answer

Cohort effects refer to the influence of shared characteristics of a group that was born and raised in the same time period or historical context. In this scenario, differences in intelligence between the age groups could be due to cohort effects if each group experienced different rearing conditions, social attitudes, or educational opportunities during their respective formative years. This is in contrast to aging effects, which would predict systematic changes in intelligence across the lifespan due to cognitive and neural changes that occur with age. Placebo effects refer to improvements in health or behavior that are attributable to a person's belief in a treatment or intervention, attrition effects refer to biases that arise when participants drop out of a study, and order effects refer to the influence that the order of presenting stimuli or tasks may have on responses.

Question 19

Compared to a longitudinal study, a cross-sectional study
A) takes longer to complete
B) has to deal with potential cohort effects
C) has attrition as its major difficulty
D) has to be concerned about counterbalancing properly

Accepted Answer

Cross-sectional studies do not follow participants over time, so they are not subject to cohort effects. Longitudinal studies follow the same group of individuals over time and must account for potential cohort effects, as changes in the population over time can affect the study results.

Question 20

Experimenter expectancies
A) have been uncovered in studies involving human subjects but not in those using animals
B) can be reduced by using a double blind procedure
C) can be eliminated by recruiting only "good" subjects
D) are not a problem for experienced experimenters

Accepted Answer

Experimenter expectancies can be reduced by using a double blind procedure, which means neither the experimenter nor the participant know which group they are in, thus reducing the possibility of experimenter bias.

Quiz 6: Control Problems in Experimental Research

Terman's studies of gifted children have been criticized because

Which of the following is true of Terman's study of gifted children?

In a balanced Latin square,

Terman's studies of gifted children

Experimenter expectancies can be reduced by using

According to Orne, what characterizes most participants?

Demand characteristics refer to

Longitudinal design is to cross-sectional design as is to _.

How might experimenter bias be communicated to subjects in animal research?

Automating the procedures as much as possible and using a double-blind procedure will help to reduce

Compared to a cross-sectional study, a longitudinal study

In a _ procedure, both participants and the experimenters do not know which condition is being tested, whereas in a _ procedure only the participants are unaware of which condition is being tested.

Which of the following is true about cohort effects?

Sometimes a subject's behavior is affected by the mere knowledge that he or she is participating in an experiment. Historically, this has been termed

Demand characteristics are more likely to be found in

In a memory study, each subject learns six lists of words. A researcher decides to use a Latin square to determine the order in which lists will be shown. Which of the following is true?

Because they experience ____________, participants try to behave in a way that makes the experimenter think well of them.

In a cross-sectional comparison of intelligence in people aged 20, 40, and 60, differences might be due to aging but they might also be due to the different rearing conditions experienced by participants. This latter interpretation illustrates a(n) _______ effect.

Compared to a longitudinal study, a cross-sectional study

Experimenter expectancies