RESEARCH STUDY 12.2
Dr. LaGuardia is a cognitive neuroscientist who is interested in the effect of brain concussions on the ability to recognize faces. He conducts a quasi-experimental study in which he examines football players before and after the regular season, using the Benton Facial Recognition Test (a published, widely used measure of one's ability to recognize faces) to compare those who received concussions to those who did not. He finds that players who had concussions during the regular season performed worse on the Benton Facial Recognition Test than did players who did not experience concussions.
-Refer to Research Study 12.2 above to answer the following question. In interrogating the construct validity of Dr.LaGuardia's study,which of the following statements is accurate?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Construct validity refers to how well the measures used in a study actually capture the construct of interest. In this study, the independent variable is whether or not the participant experienced a concussion during the regular football season, and the dependent variable is performance on the Benton Facial Recognition Test. Because the participants actually experienced concussions, the independent variable appears to have construct validity. The other statements in the answer choices are inaccurate: B is incorrect because a true experimental design is not necessary for construct validity, and C is incorrect because the study does not look at how well football players recognize faces in general (which would be the dependent variable if that were the case), but rather how well they perform on the Benton Facial Recognition Test specifically.

RESEARCH STUDY 12.2 Dr. LaGuardia Is a Cognitive Neuroscientist Who Is Interested in Is