Practice Quiz

Chapter 9
Conducting Experiments

Here are some questions for a practice quiz. The questions are multiple-choice and true-false. They may not resemble the questions that your instructor may ask on a test. That is, the questions on your class exams may be more difficult and may include essay and short answer questions.

When you get your score, you will be shown the correct answers. Take the quiz as many times as you like.

1. In an experiment, words with either feminine or masculine connotation were presented on a computer screen. The participant pressed one key when they perceived a masculine word and another key when it was perceived as feminine. Reaction time was the dependent variable. The experimenter used a:  
staged manipulation
straightforward manipulation

2. The dependent variable was score on a measure of comprehension of material. Virtually everyone in all conditions of the experiment answered all questions correctly. Researchers refer to this situation as a:
floor effect.
ceiling effect.
similarity effect.

3. Strength of the manipulation is important because it increases the likelihood that the researcher will be able to detect an effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable.
True
False

4. You are concerned that participants in your study may be figuring out exactly what you are studying. You are worried about:
demand characteristics.
experimenter expectancies.
placebo effects.

5. A placebo group is used to control for alternative explanations in studies of the effect of drugs.
True
False

6. The session that the experimenter holds with participants following an experiment is called:
deception.
informed consent.
debriefing

7. The galvanic skin response (GSR) is a measure of:
anxiety.
muscle tension.

8. A good way to "debug" a study is to run a:
placebo group.
pilot study.

9. An experiment was conducted entirely on the Internet. This procedure probably eliminated the problem of:
demand characteristics.
experimenter expectancies.
informed consent.

10. A researcher is designing a study on the effect of defendant attractiveness on juror decisions. To investigate whether participants perceive the two defendants as different in attractiveness, the researcher should use a: 
sensitive dependent measure.
manipulation check.
strong manipulation.

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