Learning Actively (Not in text)
The following Learning Actively questions were written at the same time as the
ones in the student textbook, but because of space constraints did not appear in
the final version of the textbook. I am pleased to be able to make them available
here for your use in the classroom and distribution to students.
A. The following headlines appeared in online news sources. For each, identify the
claim as frequency/level, association, or causal. Identify the variable(s) in each
claim. Or alternatively, pick five of the claims and complete the table below.
a. Worry may make women’s brains work overtime.
b. High “normal” blood sugar may still harm brains.
c. Want a higher GPA? Go to a private college.
d. Those with ADHD do one month’s less work a year.
e. When moms criticize, dads back off baby care.
f. Report: 16 percent of teens have considered suicide.
g. MMR shot does not cause autism, large study says.
h. Breastfeeding may boost children’s IQ.
i. Breastfeeding rates hit new high in United States.
j. Smiling may lower your heart rate.
k. OMG! Texting and IM-ing doesn’t affect spelling!
l. Facebook users get worse grades in college.
m. Mother’s heartburn means a hairy newborn.
Claim
What are the
variable(s) in the
claim? (stated at
the conceptual
level)
Research Methods in Psychology, 2e
By Beth Morling
For each variable:
Is it manipulated
or measured?
(Could it be both?
Can you tell for
sure?)
For each variable:
State at the
operational level—
how might this
have been
operationalized?
© W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
B. Imagine you encounter each of the following headlines. What questions would
you ask if you wanted to understand more about the quality of the study behind
the headline? For each of your questions, indicate which of the four validities
your question is addressing.
a. Heartburn predicts a hairy baby
b. Chamomile can soothe a colicky baby
c. High distress seen in Japanese nuclear workers
C. You may have heard that spreading out your studying over several sessions
(distributed studying) helps you retain the information longer than if you cram
your studying into a single session. How could you design an experiment to test
this claim? What would the variables be? Would each be manipulated or
measured? Would your experiment fulfill the three criteria for supporting a
causal statement? What limitations might it have?
Learning Actively (In text)
The following Learning Actively questions appear at the end of Chapter 3. They are
presented here for your convenience in planning. Answers are printed in the back
of the student textbook.
1. For each variable below, indicate the variable’s levels, whether it is measured or
manipulated, and how you might describe the study at a conceptual and operational
level.
Variable
Conceptual
variable
A questionnaire study Participant’s
asks for various
sex
demographic
information, including
participants’ gender.
A questionnaire study
asks about selfesteem, measured on
a 10-item Rosenberg
self-esteem scale.
A study of readability
gives people a passage
of text. The passage to
be read is printed in
one of three colors of
text (black, red, or
Research Methods in Psychology, 2e
By Beth Morling
Levels of
this
variable
Measured or
manipulated
Operational
definition of
the variable
Male
Female
Measured
Asking
participants to
circle “male” or
“female” on a
form
© W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
blue).
A study of school
achievement
requests each
participant to report
her SAT score as a
measure of college
readiness.
A researcher studying
self-control and blood
glucose levels asks
participants to come
to an experiment at
1:00 P.M. Some of the
students are asked not
to eat anything before
the experiment; others
are told to eat lunch
before arriving.
A professor who
wants to know more
about study habits
among his students
asks students to
report the number of
minutes they studied
for the midterm exam.
In a study on selfesteem’s association
with self-control, the
researchers give a
group of students a
self-esteem inventory.
Then they invite
participants who
score in the top 10%
and the bottom 10%
of the self-esteem
scale to participate in
the next step.
2. Imagine you encounter each of the following headlines. First, classify each
headline as a frequency, association, or causal claim. Second, what questions would
Research Methods in Psychology, 2e
By Beth Morling
© W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
you ask if you wanted to understand more about the quality of the study behind the
headline? For each of your questions, indicate which of the four validities your
question is addressing. Follow the model in Table 3.7.
i. Chewing gum can improve your mood and focus.
ii. Obese kids less sensitive to tastes
iii. 45% of you shake your booty to Zumba.
3. Imagine you wanted to test the causal claim that “chewing gum can improve your
mood and focus.” How could you design an experiment to test this claim? What
would the variables be? Would each be manipulated or measured? What results
would you expect? Sketch a graph of the outcomes you would predict. Would your
experiment fulfill the three criteria for supporting a causal statement?
Note: Learning Actively 3 mentions a study on chewing gum and focus. For further
details on this study, have students read and analyze the original:
Smith, A. (2010). Effects of chewing gum on cognitive function, mood, and
physiology in stressed and non-stressed volunteers. Nutritional Neuroscience, 13.
Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20132649
Research Methods in Psychology, 2e
By Beth Morling
© W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.