PSY 326 Week 5 Quiz

PSY 326 Week 5 Quiz

1. Dr. Washington is conducting an experiment in which he is interested in the effects of the drug alprazolam on episodic memory in adult participants.  He conducts an experiment in which he gives one group a pill containing 1 mg of the drug and a second group a placebo pill.  One hour following drug administration he has the participants study 50 words, one a time, and then asks them to recall as many of the words as possible.  What is Dr. Washington’s independent variable?

2. The threat to validity known as reactive arrangements is a problem for __________.

3. Whitney is conducting a study in which she is testing the “Mozart effect,” playing Mozart improves mental rotation performance for a brief period of time.  She creates two versions of the mental rotation task and then has participants listen to 10 minutes of Mozart, complete the mental rotation task, listen to 10 minutes of rap music, and then take the other version of the mental rotation task.  Unfortunately, her advisor points out participants may do better in the rap condition because they have simply improved at taking the test.  What problem does her advisor point out?

4. Rick is interested in the effects of fitness on cognition in older adults.  He recruits a group of older adult participants and randomly assigns them to a twice weekly exercise condition (one hour twice a week fitness class) and to a twice weekly pottery class (as a control condition).  He starts with 50 participants in each group, and at the end of his study he has 22 participants still in the exercise condition and 48 in the pottery class group.  Which of the following best describes the problem with Rick’s study?

5. Dr. Andrews is conducting an experiment examining gender differences in visuospatial ability; she gives 50 women and 50 men a mental rotation task, and tests of spatial attention.  Which of the following best describes her comparison?

6. __________________ is a criterion for judging external validity which indicates the research replicates the psychological conditions of the real world.

7. Robert is a graduate student interested in the effects of exercise on attention.  His hypothesis is that brief exercise will improve attention performance in college aged adults.  He tests half of his participants following a 5 minute step test and the other half of his participants following a five minute period of sitting quietly.  Which of the following best describes the exercise group?

8. Also known as compensatory rivalry, the __________ happens when members of the control group work harder than they normally would to try to outperform the treatment group in an experiment.

9. ___________ is a threat to internal validity that occurs when measures used in a study have low reliability or are not valid for the purpose.

10. A researcher has conducted an experiment in which she has given participants a placebo, 10mg, and 20mg of a drug. She then measured their anxiety, blood pressure, and heart rate in response to the drug.  How many levels does this experiment’s independent variable have?