Deck 25: Choosing a Significance Test for Your Data

Question 1

1) A researcher selected a simple random sample from among the psychology student population in her University department. One group of participants was asked to perform a task with brief instructions. The other group received no instructions. Time to complete the task was measured. The researcher predicted that the instruction group would perform faster.
To investigate the difference between the training and control scores a possible significance test to use would be a:

A) Related t test
B) Pearson's correlation
C) Chi-square
D) Unrelated t test

Answer 1

D

Question 2

A researcher recorded whether people were male or female and whether they struck a match towards their body or away from their body.
-2) What analysis would determine a sex difference in match striking behaviour?

A) Related t test
B) Pearson's correlation
C) Chi-square
D) Mann-Whitney

Answer 2

A

Question 3

A researcher recorded whether people were male or female and whether they struck a match towards their body or away from their body.
-3) The same researcher now added whether people smoked or not to the variables of gender and match striking direction. An appropriate analysis would now be:

A) Unrelated t test
B) Log-linear analysis
C) Spearman's correlation
D) Sign test

Answer 3

B

Question 4

4) A researcher selected a simple random sample from among the psychology student population in her University department. She wished to show that the same participants would perform a simple task faster in front of an audience than when alone. An appropriate statistical test would be

A) Chi square
B) Correlation
C) Related t test
D) Mann-Whitney

Question 5

5) In order to support the theory that people's mood is better on sunnier days participants were asked to rate their mood on a standardised scale every lunchtime for several weeks. Number of hours of sunshine for each day was also recorded and the researchers looked at the relationship between sunshine and mood level. An appropriate statistical analysis would be:

A) Wilcoxon matched pairs test
B) Mann-Whitney U test
C) Chi-square test
D) Pearson's correlation

Question 6

Participants are asked to rate their own IQ. Before the estimations one group is told they have just failed a general knowledge test, one group is told they did well and a third group is given no information. Differences between estimates of each group are investigated and data are treated as satisfying parametric assumptions.

-6) An appropriate analysis would be:

A) One-way repeated measures ANOVA
B) Friedman's $\chi$ ²
C) One-way between groups ANOVA
D) Multiple regression

Question 7

Participants are asked to rate their own IQ. Before the estimations one group is told they have just failed a general knowledge test, one group is told they did well and a third group is given no information. Differences between estimates of each group are investigated and data are treated as satisfying parametric assumptions.
In a further IQ estimation study the same conditions are used but half of each group is given detailed information about what is contained in an IQ test while the other half is not. Participants are tested just after the general knowledge test information is given and again a week later.
-7) An appropriate analysis would be:

A) 2 x 2 x 3 mixed ANOVA
B) 2 x 2 x 3 repeated measures ANOVA
C) 2 x 3 x 3 between groups ANOVA
D) 2 x 3 mixed ANOVA

Question 8

Participants are asked to rate their own IQ. Before the estimations one group is told they have just failed a general knowledge test, one group is told they did well and a third group is given no information. Differences between estimates of each group are investigated and data are treated as satisfying parametric assumptions.
In a further IQ estimation study the same conditions are used but half of each group is given detailed information about what is contained in an IQ test while the other half is not. Participants are tested just after the general knowledge test information is given and again a week later.
-8) In the study described above:

A) The general knowledge information variable and the IQ test information variable both have two levels
B) The general knowledge information variable and the IQ test information variable both have three levels
C) The general knowledge information has three levels and the IQ test information variable is a repeated measure
D) The general knowledge information variable has three levels and the two tests a week apart are a repeated measure

Question 9

9) An English test, a geography test and a nature test are given to participants indoors and then again outdoors. An appropriate analysis is:

A) 3 x 2 mixed ANOVA
B) 3 x 2 between groups ANOVA
C) 3 x 2 repeated measures ANOVA
D) 2 x 2 repeated measure ANOVA

Question 10

10) A researcher takes measure of people's work motivation, educational level, self-esteem and neuroticism and wishes to use these data to see how well they predict absenteeism over a year. An appropriate analysis is:

A) Bivariate correlations
B) ANCOVA
C) Multiple regression
D) Log-linear regression