Deck 1: Introduction: Statistics--Who Needs Them

Question 1

Chance errors occur because of experimenter error

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Ture or False: Chance errors are generally out of the experimenter's control

Answer 2

True

Question 3

It is generally very difficult for statistics to be used to manipulate the audience

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Statistics is useful when it is applied to strengthen an argument.

Question 5

Inferential statistics are used to make predictions about a population based on a sample.

Question 6

Parameters are characteristics of the population that are used to estimate sample statistics.

Question 7

A non-representative sample generally means your sample statistics do not accurate predict and generalize to the actual population parameter

Question 8

The origins of word statistics were "predict numbers"

Question 9

The purpose of descriptive statistics characterize data and summarize the data into smaller pieces of information

Question 10

A sample is drawn out of the population

Question 11

If a researcher's target population is 7^th grade students, they can still draw their sample out of 8^th grade to make generalizations about the population

Question 12

Experimentation is generally done with samples instead of populations. This is because the sample data can be used to make predictions and estimates about the population

Question 13

Researchers manipulate the extraneous variable in order to see if it effects the dependent variable

Question 14

Context generally does not impact the use of statistics; the use of statistics does not depend on the goal of the author

Question 15

A single measurement or observation within a dataset is called data

Question 16

In statistics, the "population" refers to all members of a target group of interest

Question 17

A researcher is examining the effects of the parental presence during an experiment and children's ability to solve problems independently. In this case, parental presence is the dependent variable

Question 18

In an experiment with a repeated measures design, each participant experiences one of the possible different conditions.

Question 19

In a study examining two different amounts of drug dosage on an particular outcome variable, the independent variable has two levels

Question 20

a typical observation is an observation from a dataset that generalizes to the population of interest

Question 21

Which of the following is not a ratio?

A) The number of honeycrisp apples a farmer grew out of all the apples that were harvested from his farm
B) The number of boys in a choir group
C) The proportion of patients at a veterinarian that were cats
D) The amount of words in a paragraph that are nouns compared to verbs.

Question 22

Generally, when designing an experiment, a researcher tests the _________________, by examining whether the ____________ causes the ___________________.

A) Target variable; dependent variable; independent variable
B) Hypothesis; independent variable; dependent variable
C) independent variable; dependent variable; chance error
D) parameter; statistic; dependent variable

Question 23

Which of the following describes the quality of a representative sample is?

A) It has characteristics that are similar to the population
B) The data from the sample can likely be generalized to a the population
C) It can allow for reliable conclusions to be drawn
D) All of the above are true descriptions of representative samples.

Question 24

Which of the following most likely requires the use of inferential statistics?

A) What is the average height of boys in Ms. Simpson's 4th grade class?
B) How long is the average lifespan of a German Shepherd?
C) What is the average income of employees at a local supermarket?
D) In what year did the Cubs most recently win the world series?

Question 25

When collecting data from the population to draw a sample, you are forming a…

A) dataset
B) Descriptive statistic
C) Inferential statistic
D) parameter

Question 26

Why do we need descriptive statistics?

A) Descriptive statistics summarize data and tell us about various characteristics of a dataset.
B) Descriptive statistics allow us to generalize to the population
C) Descriptive statistics is critical for us to compare samples to populations.
D) Descriptive statistics are used to characterize and estimate the true population parameter based on the dataset.

Question 27

It is generally impractical to collect data from the entire population. But often times, scientists and researchers want to estimate true population parameters. This makes __________ particularly valuable.

A) Descriptive statistics
B) Typical observations
C) Inferential statistics
D) Experimentation

Question 28

Inferential statistics allows researchers to draw conclusions about a ______________ based on a ______________.

A) sample; population
B) Population; typical observation
C) Population; sample
D) Sample; dataset

Question 29

A research team is examining the effects of stress on emotion regulation. They are particular interested in adolescents in high school, as puberty is a time that where emotions can vacillate quickly.
In this case, what is the population?

A) High school students
B) Adolescents
C) Students
D) Minors

Question 30

A research team is examining the effects of stress on emotion regulation. They are particular interested in adolescents in high school, as puberty is a time that where emotions can vacillate quickly.
What is the dependent variable of this study?

A) stress
B) stress and emotion regulation
C) emotion regulation
D) there is no dependent variable

Question 31

If the sample's composition is similar to that of the population, we say that it is a __________________ sample.

A) typical
B) valid
C) representative
D) descriptive

Question 32

What is an extraneous variable?

A) The outcome variable
B) It is the target variable. This means it is not uncontrolled and the variable that the research is most interested in.
C) A variable included in the research to minimize chance errors.
D) It is a variable that can influence the target variable, but part of the researcher's intent

Question 33

Jennifer reviewed the literature on research related to patients with anxiety disorders in clinical psychology. She designs a study assigning some patients to three different treatments and a control group with no treatment. She then measures anxiety symptoms 2 months after the treatment.
Treatment in this case is the…

A) Independent variable
B) Dependent variable
C) Extraneous variable
D) Control variable

Question 34

Jennifer reviewed the literature on research related to patients with anxiety disorders in clinical psychology. She designs a study assigning some patients to three different treatments and a control group with no treatment. She then measures anxiety symptoms 2 months after the treatment.
Anxiety symptoms 2 months later is the…

A) Independent variable
B) Dependent variable
C) Extraneous variable
D) Control variable

Question 35

Jennifer reviewed the literature on research related to patients with anxiety disorders in clinical psychology. She designs a study assigning some patients to three different treatments and a control group with no treatment. She then measures anxiety symptoms 2 months after the treatment.
Which of the following would be a hypothesis for this study?

A) Treatment can reduce anxiety symptoms
B) Anxiety symptoms are caused by prenatal stress during pregnancy.
C) Treatment explain why anxiety disorders occur in some but not other individuals
D) All of the above are hypothesis appropriate for the study.

Question 36

Jennifer reviewed the literature on research related to patients with anxiety disorders in clinical psychology. She designs a study assigning some patients to three different treatments and a control group with no treatment. She then measures anxiety symptoms 2 months after the treatment.
Jennifer conducts her study and claims that one particular treatment is helpful to patients who suffer from anxiety disorder. Which of the following assumptions is she making?

A) Her sample is representative of the population of individuals who suffer from anxiety
B) Her sample is representative to the society at large
C) Her study was influenced by an extraneous variable
D) Her parameters were good estimates of the statistics.

Question 37

Jennifer reviewed the literature on research related to patients with anxiety disorders in clinical psychology. She designs a study assigning some patients to three different treatments and a control group with no treatment. She then measures anxiety symptoms 2 months after the treatment.
How many levels are there for the independent variable?

A) 2
B) 3
C) 4
D) 5

Question 38

In experimentation, it is generally the case that researchers are testing whether their ______________ are supported

A) target variable
B) representative sample
C) hypotheses
D) typical observations

Question 39

How are chance errors best described?

A) avoidable errors that are generally human mistakes
B) errors that are hard to avoid because they occur relatively randomly
C) errors that only occur when the researcher has no clear hypothesis
D) errors that influence only the independent variable

Question 40

The average IQ of the population is a ___________.

A) statistic
B) parameter
C) extraneous variable
D) inferential statistic

Question 41

The most frequently occurring observation in a sample can be thought of as a…

A) typical observation
B) parameter
C) extraneous variable
D) inferential statistic

Question 42

The existence of inferential statistics means that…

A) one does not need to collect data from the whole population
B) sample statistics can be used to estimate population parameters
C) One can make generalizations about the population based on a sample
D) All of the above

Question 43

In statistics, context is best described as…

A) where the research was conducted
B) the purpose of the research
C) the point the author is trying to make
D) fake news

Question 44

Which of the following is not a good description statistics?

A) Users of statistics can manipulate their audience with it
B) Statistics are inherently confusing to audiences, and often misrepresent the truth
C) The author or user of statistics can present the same information differently, based on how they use statistics.
D) Statistics can be a powerful tool to aid in making arguments or claims

Question 45

In experimentation researchers manipulate the ___________ and examine its effects on the _______________

A) dependent variable; independent variable
B) extraneous variable; dependent variable
C) independent variable; dependent variable
D) independent variable; control variable.

Question 46

A researcher is conducting a large-scale study, focusing on the effects of an educational intervention on children's reading ability in schools. Half of the classrooms in a school district were assigned this intervention, and the other half were not. Identify the independent variable, dependent variable, and a potential extraneous variable. Explain why the results may or may not be generalizable.

Question 47

A team of scientists is examining the habitat of a rare species of fish. They want to know under what temperatures they survive, and the amount of food they take in. Explain: 1.) why they draw a sample of fish, and 2.) how they might answer the questions with a sample.

Question 48

Exposure to sunlight can affect our emotions, but to what extent? A researcher is interested in this question and exposes participants to a certain amount of sunlight individuals are exposed to for a week. Then he reduces the sunlight exposure and examines how individuals' emotions change. Identify the IV, DV< and type of design the researcher uses.

Question 49

Why is context in statistics important?

Question 50

Given the role of chance errors, what is a general rule about sample size in statistics? Why does this rule make sense?