Deck 14: Statistics Part B : How to Think About Research Studies

Question 1

The most usual kind of frequency distribution is the _________.

A) normal curve
B) skewed curve
C) bimodal curve
D) binomial distribution

Answer 1

normal curve

Question 2

Psychologists want to be able to do two things with the data they collect. The first is to summarize the information from a study or experiment. To do this, they use _________.

A) descriptive statistics
B) inferential statistics
C) univariate statistics
D) multivariate statistics

Answer 2

descriptive statistics

Question 3

Psychologists want to make judgments and decisions about the data and variables. This is the role of __________.

A) descriptive statistics
B) inferential statistics
C) univariate statistics
D) multivariate statistics

Answer 3

inferential statistics

Question 4

Jamilla is interested in how many pizza slices the average teenage boy would eat for lunch. Thus, she asks 25 young men from her high school home room class to eat pizza and computes the average. This average would be called a ___________.

A) measure of variability
B) measure of dispersion
C) mean
D) inferential statistic

Question 5

What is another name for a bell-shaped curve?

A) bimodal distribution
B) counterpointal distribution
C) Durkheimian distribution
D) normal distribution

Question 6

Saundra collected a data set. She wanted to understand how spread out the scores were. What were the highest and lowest scores? Were the scores tightly concentrated? Saundra went to her psychology professor who told her that she should study up on ________________.

A) measures of central tendency
B) measures of parameters
C) measures of probability
D) measures of variability

Question 7

The most frequently occurring score in a distribution is called the ______________.

A) mean
B) median
C) standard deviation
D) mode

Question 8

Students in Dr. Friedlander's class got the following scores on their first test: 75, 77, 87, 63, 93, 77, 72, 80, 57, 68, 76. What is the median?

A) 77
B) 75
C) 36
D) 76

Question 9

Students in Dr. Friedlander's class got the following scores on their first test: 75, 77, 87, 63, 93, 77, 72, 80, 57, 68, 76. What is the range?

A) 77
B) 36
C) 30
D) 75

Question 10

Descriptive statistics are used to ______________.

A) summarize data from a sample
B) decide if two sample groups are different from each other
C) decide if two variables are related to each other
D) determine if an experimental design has high reliability

Question 11

When researchers want an explanation for the differences in data, they would use ______________.

A) descriptive statistics
B) inferential statistics
C) the correlation coefficient
D) the method of limited decisions

Question 12

Dr. Starr gives 10-question quizzes in her psychology class. When she returns quizzes, she puts on the board how many people scored a 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. This is called a ______________.

A) normal curve
B) frequency distribution
C) frequency polygon
D) histogram

Question 13

The range of the correlation coefficient is from ___________.

A) -1.0 to +1.0
B) -3 standard deviation units to +3 standard deviation units
C) 0 to +1
D) 34.13 percent to 68.26 percent

Question 14

The mean, median, and mode are ______________.

A) measures of central tendency
B) measures of variability
C) characteristics of a normal distribution, but not a skewed distribution
D) characteristics of a skewed distribution, but not a normal distribution

Question 15

A measure of variability that indicates the variability in a data set is called the ______________.

A) range
B) standard deviation
C) mode
D) z-score

Question 16

The first step in organizing raw data is to ______________.

A) get a measure of the central tendency
B) establish the range
C) construct a frequency distribution
D) identify standard deviation

Question 17

A lopsided distribution in which scores cluster at the high or low end of the distribution is referred to as ______________.

A) normal
B) bimodal
C) skewed
D) standard

Question 18

Students in Dr. Friedlander's class got the following scores on their first test: 75, 77, 87, 63, 93, 77, 72, 80, 57, 68, 76. What is the mode?

A) 77
B) 75
C) 36
D) 76

Question 19

Students in Dr. Friedlander's class got the following scores on their first test: 75, 77, 87, 63, 93, 77, 72, 80, 57, 68, 76. What is the mean?

A) 77
B) 75
C) 36
D) 76

Question 20

The correlation coefficient is a ________________.

A) measure of variability
B) measure of central tendency
C) parameter
D) measure of a relationship between two or more variables

Question 21

Your study's hypothesis will tend to be initially found in a research paper's ________ section.

A) Introduction
B) Methods
C) Results
D) Discussion

Question 22

Results that are not attributable to chance are referred to as ______________.

A) non chance fluctuations
B) skewed
C) statistically significant
D) variant

Question 23

The Method section contains all of the following parts except ________.

A) participants
B) materials
C) results
D) procedure

Question 24

Statistical significance ______________.

A) suggests that a result would be highly probable by chance alone
B) does not necessarily have anything to do with psychological importance
C) is a likely outcome with a small sample
D) occurs when the mean, median, and mode are identical in a data set

Question 25

Bob is reading a research report and is attempting to understand several possible answers to the main research question provided by the investigators. As such, he appears to be focusing on the ________ part of the QALMRI method.

A) question
B) alternatives
C) logic
D) method

Question 26

Which of the following is most accurate when applying the QALMRI method to writing research papers?

A) Only the question component applies.
B) Both the alternatives and logic components apply.
C) All components apply.
D) Only the inferences component applies.

Question 27

The "I" in the QALMRI method stands for ________.

A) inferences
B) information
C) influences
D) intelligent

Question 28

Which correlation coefficient indicates a negative relationship?

A) +1.2
B) 0.8
C) -0.8
D) -1.96

Question 29

The "Q" in the QALMRI method stands for ________.

A) quiz
B) query
C) question
D) quintessential

Question 30

When writing a Results section, according to the authors, you should first ________.

A) remind the reader of the initial question of the study posed in the introduction
B) review prior results stemming from previous research
C) review the hypotheses
D) present results that directly address the question and alternative answers

Question 31

The "L" in the QALMRI method stands for ________.

A) latent
B) logic
C) length
D) lighten

Question 32

In their application of the QALMRI method to studying whether mental practice can change subsequent golf putting, your text authors offer which of the following alternatives?

A) Mental practice will rarely improve putting.
B) Mental practice might not have any effect on putting.
C) Mental practice hurts putting when participants imagine successfully tapping the ball into the hole but actually improves performance when they imagine tapping the ball so that it misses the hole.
D) Mental practice is unrelated to putting because that is a physical action.

Question 33

Your text authors suggest that the QALMRI method can serve the practical purpose(s) of ________.

A) quickly solving statistical related questions
B) determining the validity of a study only
C) understanding the meaning of a research study only
D) understanding the meaning of a research study and for reporting your own research

Question 34

Which correlation coefficient demonstrates the strongest relationship?

A) +0.5
B) -0.7
C) +1.2
D) -3.2

Question 35

The "alternatives" component of the QALMRI method focuses on ________.

A) at least two possible answers to the question and why both are plausible
B) what question the article is addressing
C) the inferences that can be drawn from the study
D) the general idea behind the study

Question 36

Which correlation coefficient indicates a positive relationship?

A) +1.2
B) 0.8
C) -0.8
D) 1.96

Question 37

In writing a research report, you would expect a discussion of the step-by-step process of what happened in a study to be discussed (in) ________.

A) the Results section
B) the Discussion section
C) anywhere in the Methods section
D) the procedure section within the Methods section

Question 38

After reviewing several results in a psychology paper, Jim is trying to determine which results are "statistically significant." In order to do so, he should look for "p values" that are ________.

A) less than 5
B) less than .10
C) less than .05
D) less than or equal to .05

Question 39

The Discussion section of a research paper tends to be associated with ________.

A) presentation of data
B) inferences
C) a description of what was done
D) the general logic of a study

Question 40

In writing an Introduction section for a study, you should aim to be ________.

A) as inclusive as possible
B) as minimal as possible
C) concisely providing background that puts your study in context
D) overly critical of all studies discussed