RM Self test 5 – Flashcards

Which of the following would NOT be considered an operational definition of memory?

What IS considered an operational definition of memory

In a study of aggression in children, a researcher has his undergraduate research assistants watch a group of children on the playground and record the number of instances of physical or verbal attacks. Which category of measured variable is this researcher using?

Which of the following is an example of a categorical variable?

What is NOT an example of a categorical variable

Georgina graduated as valedictorian of her high school class because of her class ranking. What type of scale is used for the quantitative variable of class ranking?

The Department of Motor Vehicles receives a complaint that some of their employees who administer the road test pass a much higher percentage of test-takers than other employees. In this example, what aspect of the road test is being questioned?

What information can you learn from a scatterplot that you cannot learn from the correlation coefficient?

Which statistic is used to represent the internal reliability of multiple-item self-report scales?

Professor Morgan questions whether the ratings he receives from his students on "teaching effectiveness" indicate how much the students learn in his class or whether they are just a reflection of how much his students like him. What aspect of the ratings is he questioning?

Josiane has found an online test that claims to measure IQ. It consists of choosing the correct definitions for a series of words. She is concerned that it doesn't include any tests of other things that are part of IQ, such as problem solving or visual-spatial ability. Which type of validity is she questioning?

Some colleges no longer require the SAT I or the ACT tests, instead basing their admissions on other factors, such as high school GPA. A large reason that they have done this is that they have found a low correlation between the scores on the tests and the students' freshman year GPA. In other words, they were concerned that college entrance exams lacked which type of validity?

Dr. Kamran studies domestic violence and has designed a self-report scale that is meant to assess men's negative attitudes toward women. To validate her scale, she administers it to two groups of recently incarcerated male prisoners: prisoners convicted of domestic violence and prisoners convicted of other crimes. Dr. Kamran finds a statistically significant difference in the mean scores of the two groups. What technique is Dr. Kamran using to validate her scale?

Sun Mi is designing a questionnaire on loneliness. She is concerned that some features of loneliness are similar to depression and to low self-esteem. What type of validity does she need to show to demonstrate that her questionnaire assesses loneliness and not depression or low self-esteem?

When using a measure to assess a trait that is expected to remain stable over time, a researcher would expect to get consistent results each time the measure is used. This type of reliability is known as which of the following?

Dr. Nolan gives his new anxiety measure to a group of his colleagues who are anxiety experts. They agree that the questions on the measure appear to assess anxiety symptoms. This suggests that Dr. Nolan's measure has which of the following types of measurement validity?

Which of the following is an example of a physiological measure?

Lorenzo is studying aggression in children. First, Lorenzo administers a questionnaire to the children that asks them about their feelings of aggression. Then Lorenzo and his lab partner observe the children while they play and record instances of aggression. What type of measure is the questionnaire?

Lorenzo is studying aggression in children. First, Lorenzo administers a questionnaire to the children that asks them about their feelings of aggression. Then Lorenzo and his lab partner observe the children while they play and record instances of aggression. The results of these two parts of the study are compared. The total number of instances of aggression for each child is used as the measure in the observational part of the study. What type of quantitative variable is this?

Julie has developed an intervention to improve the relationship between parents and pre-school-aged children. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of her intervention, Julie video records the parents interacting with their children at the end of the study. She has two research assistants watch the videos and rate the level of warmth in the interaction. Julie then correlates the ratings of the raters. She finds a high positive correlation (r = .87) between the two raters. What type of reliability is she examining?

Lorenzo is studying aggression in children. First, Lorenzo administers a questionnaire to the children that asks them about their feelings of aggression. Then Lorenzo and his lab partner observe the children while they play and record instances of aggression. The results of these two parts of the study are compared. Lorenzo runs a statistical test to find how consistent the responses are to different wordings of items on the questionnaire. What type of reliability is he examining?

Dr. Johnson wants to do a study to investigate whether the physiological measure, heart rate variability, varies over time or whether it is a trait that stays stable within the same person over time. He records participants' heart rate variability once at the beginning of the semester and once at the end of the semester. He finds a high positive correlation (r = .55) between the first and second time points. What would a scatterplot of these results (heart rate variability at the beginning of the semester on the x-axis, heart rate variability at the end of the semester on the y-axis) look like?

Dr. Johnson wants to do a study to investigate whether the physiological measure, heart rate variability, varies over time or whether it is a trait that stays stable within the same person over time. He records participants' heart rate variability once at the beginning of the semester and once at the end of the semester. He finds a high positive correlation (r = .65) between the first and second time points. What type of reliability is he examining?

Julie has developed an intervention to improve the relationship between parents and pre-school-aged children. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of her intervention, Julie video records the parents interacting with their children at the end of the study. She has two research assistants watch the videos and rate the level of warmth in the interaction. Julie then correlates the ratings of the raters. She finds a high positive correlation (r = .87) between the two raters. What would a scatterplot of these results (ratings by the first research assistant on the x-axis, ratings of the second research assistant on the y-axis) look like?

Mendoza et al. (2009) introduced a coin rotation task as a convenient test of motor dexterity. It involves timed completion of twenty 180° rotations of a nickel using the thumb, index, and middle fingers. The results were compared to the results of another widely used test of motor dexterity, the finger-tapping task, in which participants tap their index fingers as many times as possible in 10 seconds. The results indicated that there was a statistically significant relationship between the finger-tapping task and the coin rotation task (r = -.40). What would a scatterplot of these results (coin rotation scores on the x-axis, finger-tapping scores on the y-axis) look like?

Mendoza et al. (2009) introduced a coin rotation task as a convenient test of motor dexterity. It involves timed completion of twenty 180° rotations of a nickel using the thumb, index, and middle fingers. Research participants' results on the coin rotation task are compared with their results on two widely used tests of motor dexterity: the finger-tapping task and the Grooved Pegboard task. What empirical way of assessing construct validity is being used?

Mendoza et al. (2009) introduced a coin rotation task as a convenient test of motor dexterity. It involves timed completion of twenty 180° rotations of a nickel using the thumb, index, and middle fingers. Research participants' results on the coin rotation task are compared with their results on a test of grip strength — a measure of another construct: global upper-extremity strength. The correlation between the coin rotation task and the grip strength task were found to be not statistically significant. This comparison provides support for which type of measurement validity?