psych 79 test revised

Consuming Research

Using knowledge of research methods to evaluate the evidence behind claims in mental health, business, or education.

Straightforward Manipulation

Changing an independent variable through simple instructions or stimulus presentations (e.g., changing the font size of a text).

Staged Manipulation

Creating a complex psychological state in participants by staging an event, often involving a confederate (e.g., staging an emergency to measure helping behavior).

Confederate

An actor who appears to be another participant but is actually working for the researcher to create a specific social situation.

Manipulation Check

A measure used to determine if the independent variable actually had the intended effect on the participant (e.g., asking "how angry do you feel?" after an insult manipulation).

Pilot Study

A small-scale "trial run" of an experiment used to test the procedures and refine the measures before the actual study.

Sensitivity

The ability of a dependent variable to detect even small differences between experimental groups.

Ceiling Effect

A measurement problem where a task is so easy that everyone scores at the maximum, making it impossible to see differences between groups.

Floor Effect

A measurement problem where a task is so difficult that everyone scores at the minimum (zero), masking any potential effects of the IV.

Demand Characteristics

Cues in an experiment that tell the participant what the behavior is expected to be, causing them to change their behavior to fit the hypothesis.

Filler Items

Irrelevant questions added to a survey to distract participants from the study's true purpose and reduce demand characteristics.

Placebo Group

A control group that receives an inert "fake" treatment to control for the participant's expectations of improvement.

Double-Blind Procedure

A control where neither the participant nor the researcher interacting with them knows who is in the treatment or control group.

Single-Case Experimental Design

A study that focuses on a single individual’s behavior, often using an ABAB reversal design to establish a baseline and test a treatment.

Baseline

The measured level of a behavior before any experimental intervention is introduced.

Reversal (ABAB) Design

A single-case design where a treatment is introduced (B), removed (A), and introduced again (B) to prove the treatment caused the change.

Multiple Baseline Design

A design that introduces a treatment at different times across different people, behaviors, or settings to rule out outside timing coincidences.

Quasi-Experimental Design

A study that looks like an experiment but lacks random assignment, often because the groups are pre-existing (e.g., smokers vs. non-smokers).

One-Group Posttest-Only Design

A flawed design with no control group and no pretest, making it impossible to know if the treatment caused the result.

History Effects

An outside event that occurs between the first and second measurement that might explain the change in the dependent variable.

Maturation Effects

Natural changes in participants over time (e.g., growing older, getting tired) that could explain changes in the DV.

Testing Effects

A threat to internal validity where the act of taking the pretest changes the participant's behavior on the posttest.

Regression Toward the Mean

The tendency for participants who score extremely high or low on a first test to score closer to the average on the second test.

Cross-Sectional Method

A developmental design that compares different age groups at a single point in time; it is fast but risks "cohort effects."

Longitudinal Method

A developmental design that follows the same group of individuals over a long period; it is accurate for change but takes years.

Sequential Method

A combination of longitudinal and cross-sectional designs that follows multiple age groups over several years.

Cohort Effects

Differences between age groups caused by growing up in different time periods (e.g., Gen Z vs. Baby Boomers) rather than actual aging.

Factorial Design

An experiment with more than one independent variable, allowing researchers to see how variables work together.

2 x 2 Design

The simplest factorial design, consisting of 2 independent variables, each with 2 levels, resulting in 4 total conditions.

Main Effect

The overall impact of one independent variable on the dependent variable, averaging across the levels of all other IVs.

Interaction

The "It Depends" effect; occurs when the influence of one IV changes depending on the specific level of another IV.

Simple Main Effect

A follow-up analysis used after finding an interaction to look at the effect of one IV at only one level of the other IV.

Mixed Factorial Design

A study that uses a between-subjects (independent groups) assignment for one IV and a within-subjects (repeated measures) assignment for another.

Moderator Variable

A variable that influences the strength or direction of the relationship between two other variables (statistically, this is an interaction).

External Validity

The extent to which results can be generalized to other populations, settings, or times.

Exact Replication

An attempt to repeat a study as closely as possible to see if the original results are reliable.

Conceptual Replication

Testing the same research question or theory but using different operational definitions for the variables.

Meta-Analysis

A statistical procedure that combines the results of many different studies on the same topic to determine an overall effect size.