Practice Exam and study questions for Exam 2
Obviously this is not going to be totally comprehensive of everything you
need to know for the exam. However, it will give you an idea of how
confident you are in knowing the material. I suggest studying for awhile,
then trying to answer these questions, then go back and find the areas
where you think you need the most review and re-read that section in
the book.
Study Questions
A researcher wants to establish that her new weight-loss program
leads to a 10% weight reduction in participants. What are the three
conditions that must be met in order to establish causality?
From your notes



random assignment to experimental and control groups
manipulation of the grouping (independent) variable
control of extraneous, or confounding variables
A researcher has designed a 2-quarter intervention for reducing
test anxiety. He measures anxiety levels of freshmen in the fall,
and offers his program to the most anxious 10%. He then runs
participants in his program, and measures them again in the
spring. All of the participants are less anxious. What threats to
internal validity may arise?
History & Maturation, Regression to the mean
What are the advantages of using a within-subjects design over a
between-subjects design? What are the advantages of betweensubjects designs?
See notes
What is the difference between an extraneous variable and a
confounding variable?
See notes and in the book (p. 150)
What are the benefits of matching, versus random assignment?
See Notes
What are the benefits and drawbacks of each type of design that
we’ve learned about so far.
See notes and textbook
In a between subjects design, what is the major control issue?
What do we do as researchers to address this issue?
Equivalent groups Random Assignment
In a within subjects design, what is the major control issue? What
do we do as researchers to address this issue?
Order effects Matching of participants or counterbalancing
4 basic single factor designs:
Independent groups
Matched groups
Non-equivalent groups
Within subjects/repeated measures
Which of these designs use manipulated independent variables?
1, 2, 4
Be able to determine whether there are main effects or interactions
between variables when given data in either a table format, or a
bar graph or a line graph.
Practice exercises in class and on the website
Understand the numbering system in a factorial design
In your notes
Understand the various types of factorial designs and their
characteristics
 Mixed designs
 PXE designs
 Repeated measures
 Between subjects
In your notes
Practice Exam Questions
1. In a study of students’ preferences for two colas using a withinsubjects design every student tasted each cola two different
times and the order of cola presentation was counterbalanced
across participants. In this study, the order of cola presentation
was counterbalanced in order to
a. create equivalent groups
b. control for order effects
c. avoid participant bias
d. avoid experimenter bias
2. For a consumer task comparing four brands of colas, the
researcher decides to use a within-subject design using all
possible orders of the colas. In this case there will be ___
different sequences that must be represented in the study.
a. 4
b. 12
c. 24
d. 3
3. The hallmark of the non-equivalent group design is that
a. participants are assigned to each group using random
assignment
b. these designs are not subject to any threats to internal
validity
c. conclusions about the cause of behavior cannot be made
d. all of the above
4. In a correlational study examining the number of cats owned by
participants and loneliness, the researcher ______ the number
of cats and ______ the amount of loneliness that a participant
has.
a. manipulates; manipulates
b. manipulates; measures
c. measures; measures
d. measures; manipulates
5. If a between-subjects design uses random assignment, the design
will be called a(n)
a. nonequivalent groups design
b. repeated-measures design
c. independent groups design
d. matched groups design
6. A t test for dependent groups is used to compare experimental
conditions in which of the following designs?
a. single-factor, independent groups design
b. single-factor, matched groups design
c. single-factor, nonequivalent groups design
d. both alternatives a. and c.
7. Unlike two-level designs, multilevel designs can
a. use counterbalancing
b. test more than one independent variable
c. uncover nonlinear effects
d. reject the null hypothesis
8. What is the primary difference between complete counterbalancing
and partial counterbalancing?
a. whether each participant finishes the study
b. whether each participant is exposed to every condition three
times
c. whether every possible condition is presented to every
participant
d. whether every possible order of conditions is represented in a
study
9.If exposing participants to treatment A alters their responses to a
subsequent treatment B in a manner different from the alteration of
the participants’ response to A when it follows B, the data suffer from
a. response fortitude
b. carryover effects
c. external invalidity
d. counterbalancing
10.The external validity of a study can be questioned with regard to
a. the longevity of the results
b. the applicability of the results to other environments
c. the generalizability of the results to other populations
d. all of the above