Research CHPT 2

comparison group

a group in an experiment whose levels of the independent variable differ from those in a treatment group in an intended/meaningful way

confound

a general term for a potential alternative explanation for a research finding

• a threat to internal validity

confederate

an actor playing a role for the experimenter

probabilistic

describing the empirical method, stating that science is intended to explain a certain proportion of all possible cases

availability heuristic

a bias in intuition, in which people incorrectly estimate the frequency of something, relying predominantly on instances that easily come to mind, rather than using all possible evidence in evaluating a conclusion

confirmation bias

the tendency to consider only the evidence that supports a hypothesis, including only asking questions that will lead to the expected answer

bias blind spot

the tendency for people to think that compared to others, they themselves are less likely to engage in biased reasoning

empirical journal article

a scholarly article that reports for the first time the results of a research study

review journal article

an article summarizing all the studies that have been published in one research area

meta-analysis

a way of mathematically averaging the effect sizes of all the studies that have tested the same variables to see what conclusion that whole body of evidence supports

effect size

the magnitude or strength of a relationship between two or more variables

paywalled

general public must pay to access

open access

term referring to a peer-reviewed academic journal that anyone can read without paying

disinformation

a news story, photo, or video deliberately created to be false/misleading

click restraint

a critical reading technique in which one deliberately pauses before accepting, sharing, or following an online link, especially if it provokes emotion

lateral reading

a critical reading technique in which rather than reading deeper into a suspicious website, one checks its claims on alternative, legit sources