Dr.Acitelli studies sleep and sleep disorders.She is curious as to whether falling asleep in front of a television set causes people to fall asleep more slowly than falling asleep without watching TV.She recruits a sample of 60 middle-aged women from a local church who reported no history of sleep problems.She creates three conditions.All participants come to the sleep lab for three nights in a row and experience all three conditions.In the first condition (A),participants fall asleep in front of a television that is off.In the second condition (B),participants fall asleep in front of a television that is turned on to the same 24-hour news channel.In the third condition (C),participants fall asleep in front of a television that is turned on to the same 24-hour news channel but is muted.With the use of an electroencephalograph (EEG),the researcher measures how long it takes participants to fall asleep.

-Dr.Acitelli was concerned that asking participants how long it took them to fall asleep would lead them to suspect that was the purpose of the study.Her decision to measure how long it took participants to go to sleep using the EEG instead of self-report was meant to decrease which of the following?
A)Order effects
B)Selection effects
C)Demand characteristics
D)Counterbalancing effects

Question

Dr.Acitelli studies sleep and sleep disorders.She is curious as to whether falling asleep in front of a television set causes people to fall asleep more slowly than falling asleep without watching TV.She recruits a sample of 60 middle-aged women from a local church who reported no history of sleep problems.She creates three conditions.All participants come to the sleep lab for three nights in a row and experience all three conditions.In the first condition (A) ,participants fall asleep in front of a television that is off.In the second condition (B) ,participants fall asleep in front of a television that is turned on to the same 24-hour news channel.In the third condition (C) ,participants fall asleep in front of a television that is turned on to the same 24-hour news channel but is muted.With the use of an electroencephalograph (EEG) ,the researcher measures how long it takes participants to fall asleep.

-Dr.Acitelli was concerned that asking participants how long it took them to fall asleep would lead them to suspect that was the purpose of the study.Her decision to measure how long it took participants to go to sleep using the EEG instead of self-report was meant to decrease which of the following?

-Dr.Acitelli was concerned that asking participants how long it took them to fall asleep would lead them to suspect that was the purpose of the study.Her decision to measure how long it took participants to go to sleep using the EEG instead of self-report was meant to decrease which of the following?
A)Order effects
B)Selection effects
C)Demand characteristics
D)Counterbalancing effects

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Measuring how long it takes participants to fall asleep using an EEG instead of self-report is meant to decrease the likelihood of demand characteristics, which are cues that may lead participants to guess the purpose of the study and alter their behavior accordingly. This also reduces the possibility of response bias. Order effects refer to the potential influence of the sequence in which conditions are presented, selection effects refer to selection bias, and counterbalancing effects refer to the use of different sequences of conditions for different participants.

DrAcitelli Studies Sleep and Sleep Disorders