UW Madison Psych 225 Exam 1

Basic Structure of an Introduction

General problem (broad) -> past research -> present research (specific)

Provide a thesis, framework, overview guide for readers

Define key terms

Provide a clear justification, rationale, purpose for the current study

Effects

Relations between variables- findings (e.g. means, differences, and associations)

Not explanatory or broad

When to Use the Passive Voice

In your hypothesis

Methods Section

Participants -> Design -> Materials -> Procedure

Included in Participants

# of participants, who were they, demographics

Did ppts receive compensation

Included in Design

Specify the IV or factors and their levels

What type of design did you use

What are the DV

Included in Materials

Which materials, describe them fully

Format for scales

Included in Procedures

Describe the actions fully and chronologically

How and where did the experimenters recruit ppts

How and where did experimenters run the study

Did ppts provide informed consent

Did the experimenters run the sessions in groups or individually

Instructions/Cover story

How did the experimenter assign ppts to condition

How many practice sessions/trials

How were the sessions paced

How was data gathered and recorded

How and when were ppts debriefed

What was the duration of the session

Tenacity

Refers to the acceptance of a belief based on the idea that "we have always known it to be this way"

Authority

We accept something is true simply because an authority figure said it is true

Reason

Often takes the form of a logical syllogism such as "All men can't count; Dick is a man; therefore Dick can't count"

Common Sense

May offer an improvement over acceptance based in tenacity, authority, or reason because it appeals to direct experience; based on our own past experiences and perceptions of the world

Science

An idea is evaluated or corrected through 1) dispassionately observing by means of our bodily senses and 2) using reason to compare various theoretical conceptualizations based on experience

Methods of Acquiring Knowledge

Tenacity, authority, rationalism, common sense, science

Replication

A procedure is repeated under similar conditions, if the same results our found, this gives credibility to the findings

Empiricism/Empirical Process

Learning through direct observation

The acceptance of sensory information as valid

The process of relying on sensory experience to verify our ideas about reality

Marker Variables

An event that occurs along with the process we are studying (dreaming accompanied by REM)

Newton's Rules of Reasoning

Parsimony: Natural events should be explained in the simplest way possible

The same natural effects should be assigned the same causes

What we learn from our experiments can be applied to similar structures outside the reach of our experiments

Theories obtained from experiments should be considered true until another experiment proves them false

Steps to Scientific Problem Solving

1. Identify the problem

2. Design the study

3. Conduct the study

4. Test the hypothesis

5. Communicate Findings

Identify the Problem

Lit review, unanswered questions/conflicts, form one or more hypothesis

Design the Study

Which conditions are necessary to test hypothesis, between/within/mixed, stimuli/measure, abstract constructs of title and into -> concrete operations of methods

Operational Definition

Concrete, unambiguous, definition, one that specifies how the abstract concept will be measured or manipulated

To avoid confusion, the crucial terms in the hypothesis are defined clearly in reference to concrete operations

Conduct the Study

Empirical process, if experimental research: standardization, control procedures, method section

Test the Hypothesis

Stat analysis, results, discussion

Communicate Findings

Papers, presentations, posters, other researchers: review and critique, attempt to replicate, use present research in future research

Hypothesis

Idea being tested

Naturalistic Observation

The scientific process of observing and describing

Lack of intervention by scientists

Primary goal: description

Correlation Approach

Researchers seek to determine whether when one event occurs, another event also occurs

Lack of intervention by scientists

Primary goal: prediction

Experimental Method

Intervention by scientist

Primary goal: explanation

Potential for high internal validity

Internal Validity

Within the experiment itself

Internal to the experiment (extent to which we can be sure IV caused differences on DV)

Modeling

A scientific approach based on attempting to establish a model capable of performing operations similar to the topic being studied

Treatment Effect

The difference in the magnitude of the DV for the control and the experimental groups

Independent Variable

The variable that an experimenter manipulates

Dependent Variable

If a relationship does exist, its value depends on the independent variable

Confounding Variable

The unintended IVs (those not chosen by the experimenter)

Control Group

Group that does not receive the manipulation

Experimental Group

Group that receives the manipulation

Induction

The process by which one moves from a particular set of data to a general theory or concept

Deduction

The process by which one moves from a theory to a particular statement concerning data

Inference

The process by which we look at the evidence available to us and then use our powers of reasoning to reach a conclusion

External Validity/Generalizability

The world outside the setting in which the experiment is preformed

Falsification

Suggests that science should be concerned with disproving or falsifying theories through logic based on observation

Paradigm

The current notion concerning science and accepted methods, which encompasses a philosophical way of seeing the world

Normal Science

The process of problem solving

Science preformed in relation at a particular paradigm

Stanovich's Theory Definition

An interrelated set of concepts that is used to explain a body of data and to make predictions about the results of future experiments

Stanovich's Hypothesis Definition

Specific predictions that are derived from theories (which are more general and comprehensive)

Popper

Falsifiability

Pointed to Freud's "stagnant" theories

Popper's Problems with Freud

These theories used a complicated conceptual structure that explained human behavior after the fact but did not predict anything in advance. They could explain everything, but that makes them scientifically useless.

Bem

Scientist who conducted ESP study (ppts guessed what was behind the curtain when it was erotic)

APA Style

A well-developed system of writing conventions that includes information on how to organize empirical reports, how to reference published works, and how to solve dozens of other technical problems that arise in the preparation of a manuscript

Epistemology

Empirical writing eventually leads to empirical thinking

Discourse Community

A group of individuals who share common beliefs and have developed a method to communicate them

Rhetoric of Objectivity

Language use should not call attention to itself nor the scientist but to the ideas

Story Schema

Provides a formula for recasting the actual empirical study into a reported version that exhibits characteristics valued by the discipline

Introduction -> Method -> Results and discussion

Hedged Language

There is reason to argue that, our suggestion is, etc.

Serve to demonstrate that the data from one single study cannot give a definite answer to related questions

Purpose of Peer Review

Catching errors, collaboration

Content Analysis

Fiske and Fogg coded previews of papers for agreement on review and types of criticism

34.4%

Fiske and Fogg frequency of planning and execution problems

65.4% (2/3)

Fiske and Fogg frequency of presentation problems

Descriptive Statistics

Measures of Central Tendency, Measures of Variability

Measures of Central Tendency

Mean, median, and mode

Variability

Point to point fluctuations in measurements

Inferential Statistics

Used to infer, from a given set of scores on some measure, the parameters for the set of all possible scores (the population) from which the sample was drawn

Parameters

The statistics of an entire population rather than a selected sample

Nominal (Categorical) Measurements

Occurs when people are simply placed into different categories

Ordinal Measurement

Whenever you rank research participants or events along a single dimension, reflects an underlying continuum: the relative amount or magnitude

Interval Measurement

The scale values are related by a single underlying quantitative dimension that are separated by equal intervals

Ratio Measurement

Scores are related by a single quantitative dimension, are separated by equal intervals, and have an absolute zero

Measure of Variability

Variability, range, sum of squares, standard deviation

Mean

The arthritic average of a set of scores

Median

Middle score

Mode

Most frequently occurring score

Range

Difference between the largest and smallest scores in a set

Sum of Squares

We add the numbers squared

Standard Deviation

Square root of variation

Degrees of Freedom

The number of scores that you are free to vary

Pearson's Correlation Coefficient

The measure of the strength of a linear relation between two variables (r)

Chi Squared

Assessing the goodness of fit between observed values

Frequency Distributions

You simply plot how frequently your score appears in the data

Skewed Distribution

Occurs when scores pile up at either end of the curve

Bimodial Distribution

People tend to fall into two groups

Normal Distribution

Bell-shaped curve

Positively Skewed

Results are skewed toward the left of the x-axis

Negatively Skewed

Scores are skewed towards the right of the x-axis

Line Graph

Used when values of the independent variable correspond to points along a continuum

Bar Graph

Used to depict information that is categorical

Order for Presenting Results

Confound and/or manipulation check, primary results, exploratory analyses

Between Subjects Design

Different ppts used in each group

Within-Subjects Design

The ppts own performance is the basis of comparison; every ppt serves in every group and receives all levels of the IV

Completely Randomized Designs

Assignment of ppts is completley randomized between groups

Factor

May be an IV but also may not necessarily be manipulated

Power

The probability that a researcher will correctly reject the null hypothesis when it is false

Type I Error

When we reject the null hypothesis even though it is true

Type II Error

When we fail to reject the null hypothesis and it is actually false

Sampling Distribution

Shows every possible result a statistic can take in every possible sample from a population and how often each result happens

A Priori Tests

Planned comparisons

Confirmation of hypothesis test, lowers p(type II error), contrast t-test, LSD, smaller mean difference needed to show effects, t

Post Hoc Tests

Compares each group to another in a pairwise fashion

Exploration, Tukey HSD, q

Factorial Designs

Allows us to examine scientifically the effects of more than one independent variable, both individually and collectively on the DV

Two+ independent variables or factors

Main Effect

Treatment differences in factorial designs

Interaction Effect

In factorial designs the IVs may combine in various ways to influence the DVs