Practice Test #2

1.) What does it mean to say that the probability of two outcomes are independent of each other?

2.) According to Stanovich, people have the tendency to invert conditional probabilities. Explain what this means and provide an example.

3.) Jerry is interested in the effects of watching violent TV on aggressive behavior. He has college students watch 0, 5, or 10 hours of violent television in one week. At the end of the week he then has them come into the lab and work on a difficult problem with an incompetent assistant. He then measures the number of times they yell at or put down the assistant.

What is the potential research hypothesis of this study?

What is the potential null hypothesis?

What is the potential alternative hypothesis?

4.) When would one use a one-tailed p value rather than a two-tailed p value?

5.) Draw a 2 X 2 table indicating the combinations in which a researcher makes Type I errors, Type II errors and correct decisions

6.) Differentiate between quantitative and qualitative methods of observation.

7.) Name three characteristics that differentiate the systematic observations of the researcher from the casual observations of the layman.

8.) What is the difference between laboratory experimentation and field experimentation?

9.) What is one of the main reasons for researchers deciding to use a forced-choice scale?

10.) Name the three broad types of rating scales.

11.) List four potential errors associated with using correlational research.

12.) Provide an example of the directionality problem.

13.) Briefly describe how partial correlation used to resolve the third variable problem.

14.) What is the difference between random and systematic errors?

15.) Draw one scatterplot using a minimum of 10 data points that is consistent with a high negative correlation.

16.) Name 4 threats to internal validity and provide an example of one of them.

17.) What is a convenience sample?

18.) Why does Stanovich claim that the "college sophomore problem" is no longer a problem?