Deck 2: Research Methods

Question 1

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Archival research

Answer 1

Research that replaces the direct observation or assessment of research participants with examination of records or artifacts.

Question 2

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Assent

Answer 2

Verbal agreement to participate in research, obtained when participants are unable to give informed consent.

Question 3

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Baby biography

Answer 3

Observational records made by parents or other caregivers of an infants' early development.

Question 4

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Behavioral state

Question 5

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Case study

Question 6

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Cohort

Question 7

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Cohort effects

Question 8

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Conditioned headturning

Question 9

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Cross-sectional research

Question 10

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Dependent variable

Question 11

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Dishabituation

Question 12

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Electroencephalography(EEG)

Question 13

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Ethnographic research

Question 14

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Event-related potential (ERP)

Question 15

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Event sampling

Question 16

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Experimental design

Question 17

What is the definition of the following terms?
-External validity

Question 18

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Habituation

Question 19

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Independent variable

Question 20

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Informed consent

Question 21

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Internal validity

Question 22

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Laboratory setting

Question 23

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Longitudinal research

Question 24

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Measurement equivalence

Question 25

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Microgenetic research

Question 26

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Narrative record

Question 27

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Naturalistic observation

Question 28

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Naturalistic setting

Question 29

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Observer bias

Question 30

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Operational definition

Question 31

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Orienting response

Question 32

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Data provided about infants' behavior and development by their parents or caregivers.

Question 33

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Practice effect

Question 34

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Quasi-experimental design

Question 35

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Random assignment

Question 36

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Research ethics

Question 37

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Single-subject research

Question 38

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Visual fixation

Question 39

What is the definition of the following terms?
-Visual preference method

Question 40

In which type of research settings do researchers typically remain relatively passive observers, neither intervening nor influencing the situation?

A) archival
B) naturalistic
C) laboratory
D) case study

Question 41

It is important for researchers to have a clear verbal description of behaviors of interest so that they can be measured accurately. This description is known as a(n)

A) event declaration
B) psychophysical indicator
C) operational definition
D) narrative record

Question 42

All of the following statements comparing naturalistic and laboratory studies are true except

A) laboratory studies are less ideal for investigating behaviors that occur infrequently in everyday settings
B) laboratory studies tend to have lower external validity
C) parents tend to feel less anxious in studies carried out in naturalistic settings
D) a laboratory setting may be more likely to elicit atypical behavior from infants and children being studied

Question 43

When a research team selected participants for a study of mother-infant play, they chose a socioeconomically and racially/ethnically diverse sample. By doing this, the researchers will increase their study's

A) viability
B) reliability
C) internal validity
D) external validity

Question 44

Which of the following research designs compares preexisting groups, tends to have high external validity, and is the only design available for topics for which random assignment to groups would be impossible?

A) case study
B) single-subject
C) quasi-experimental
D) experimental

Question 45

Which of the following is a key characteristic of case studies and single-subject research designs?

A) They permit in-depth study of a large sample of participants.
B) External validity tends to be quite high.
C) They allow random assignment to groups.
D) They may suggest topics for research involving larger samples.

Question 46

Which of the following research designs is most likely to use a random number table?

A) experimental
B) quasi-experimental
C) case study
D) single-subject

Question 47

In which type of design do researchers have the greatest degree of control?

A) archival
B) correlational
C) case study
D) experimental

Question 48

Why do researchers use random assignment to place participants into one of two or more groups?

A) To eliminate the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable.
B) To randomly distribute the presence of potentially influential differences between groups and increase the chance of drawing a causal inference.
C) To make sure that groups in a study are as different as possible at the beginning of the study.
D) To correlate the independent and dependent variables.

Question 49

Werner Leopold's study of his daughter's bilingual development is an example of which type of research design?

A) archival
B) case study
C) experimental
D) quasi-experimental

Question 50

All of the following describe microgenetic research designs except

A) they are ideal for showing long-term effects of interventions
B) they are time consuming
C) they focus on behavior during a short period of time
D) they are labor intensive

Question 51

In the _____ research design, the same sample of children is studied over time, measuring their behavior or abilities at intervals of months or even years.

A) cross-sectional
B) longitudinal
C) case-study
D) microgenetic

Question 52

Cross-sectional research designs

A) provide information about individual change or stability
B) are rarely used because they are time- and labor-intensive
C) are ideal for showing the long-term effects of interventions
D) do not differentiate between differences due to age and differences due to cohort

Question 53

Which research design is the best choice for studying change in a small number of participants over a short period of time?

A) cohort-specific
B) cross-sectional
C) microgenetic
D) multifactorial

Question 54

All of the following research designs enable researchers to study change in the same individuals except

A) cross-sectional
B) longitudinal
C) microgenetic
D) single-subject

Question 55

In a classic study of language development, Roger Brown chose three children to study and sampled their language every 2 weeks beginning when they were approximately 2 years old. This is an example of which research design?

A) cohort-experimental
B) cross-sectional
C) longitudinal
D) microgenetic

Question 56

When researchers study the same sample over a long period of time, as was done in a number of longitudinal studies that were launched in the 1920s and 1930s, their results may be limited by all of the following phenomena except

A) lack of measurement equivalence
B) attrition of participants
C) practice effects
D) lack of continuity

Question 57

Activity in the brain and spontaneous visual fixation are all examples of which type of research measure?

A) behavioral
B) conditioned behavior
C) parental reports
D) archival research

Question 58

_____ is a behavioral measure in which electrodes are placed on the infant's scalp to record the brain's activity in response to particular stimuli.

A) The event-related potential (ERP)
B) The conditioned headturn (CHT)
C) The visual preference method (VPM)
D) Habituation/dishabituation (HD)

Question 59

The method used most commonly in studies of infant cognition and perception, in which a stimulus is presented repeatedly until the infant loses interest in it, is known as

A) conditioning
B) visual fixation
C) habituation
D) electrocephalography

Question 60

All of the following research measures would be good choices for studying 1-month-old infants except

A) heart rate
B) conditioned headturning
C) sucking
D) changes of state/alertness

Question 61

Which of the following research measures requires presenting infants with two stimuli simultaneously?

A) habituation
B) visual preference
C) dishabituation
D) parental report

Question 62

A researcher decides to use habituation-dishabituation measures to study infants younger than 1 month. All of the following advice about this measure would be useful and accurate except

A) attrition rates are quite low, usually no more than 10 percent
B) there may be individual differences among infants in how quickly they habituate and dishabituate
C) infants will not have to be taught how to respond
D) state changes may interfere with some infants' ability to complete all parts of the procedure

Question 63

All of the following might be reasons to use parental reports instead of researchers' measures except

A) parents have a wider range of experience observing their infants
B) parents tend to be more objective about their infants' behavior
C) parents are unlikely to elicit wariness or unusual behavior in their infants
D) parents can be trained to keep diaries about their infants' development, noting when a particular behavioral milestone is achieved

Question 64

Researchers working with young infants need to keep all of the following in mind except

A) the ethical issue of informed consent
B) inference and interpretation of responses
C) finding a source of participants
D) infants' tendency not to change states during a laboratory task or procedure

Question 65

Principles and guidelines for conducting acceptable research activities are

A) optional in research with infants
B) based on inferences and are thus subject to debate
C) known as research ethics
D) of little interest to IRBs

Question 66

The most optimal behavioral state for most research with infants

A) is awake/alert
B) is the transition between sleep and waking
C) is the transition between deep sleep and light sleep
D) comprises approximately 45 percent of the average newborn infant's day

Question 67

When infants look longer at "impossible" events than at "possible" events,

A) their response must be confirmed with a simultaneous physiological response
B) researchers agree that infants are showing their sophisticated understanding of aspects of their environment and the objects or people in it
C) some researchers believe that infants are displaying surprise
D) researchers have evidence of parental bias and influence on infants' responses

Question 68

Research ethics with infants address all of the following except

A) the demographic characteristics of the participants
B) parents' beliefs about potential benefits from participating
C) potential risks or negative consequences of participating
D) parents' informed consent

Question 69

A research assistant helping out with a study of 3-month-old infants notices that a particular infant responds much more slowly in the laboratory procedure than other infants she has seen in a month of working on the study. According to research ethics guidelines, the research assistant should

A) stop the session and let the parent know that the infant might be developmentally delayed
B) give the parent detailed, specific information about the infant's performance compared to other infants, hoping that the parent will seek help from the infant's pediatrician
C) discuss the infant's performance with the principal researcher but say nothing to the parent because the laboratory procedure is not a recognized developmental assessment and the research assistant lacks expertise in infant assessment
D) notify child protection authorities immediately