Test Bank

Chapter 7: Experiments

Multiple Choice

1. Which of the following is NOT a requirement of a true experiment?

A. two groups

B. a pretest and posttest

C. variation in the independent variable before assessment of change in the dependent variable

D. random assignment to the two (or more) comparison groups

Difficulty Level: Medium

2. Assigning subjects randomly to the experimental and comparison groups ensures that this does not affect the assignment of subjects to groups.

A. systematic bias

B. spuriousness

C. field effects

D. nonequivalence

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. Whenever there is reason to think that taking the pretest may itself influence how participants react to the treatment, this design should be considered.

A. true experiment

B. quasi-experiment

C. Solomon four-group design

D. randomized comparative posttest design

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. What is a procedure used to equate experimental and comparison groups, but by itself is a poor substitute for randomization?

A. time series designs

B. before-and-after designs

C. statistical controls

D. matching

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. Time series designs preferably include at least how many observations in both pretest and posttest periods?

A.10

B. 20

C. 30

D. 40

Difficulty Level: Easy

6. A true experiment must have all of the following EXCEPT ______.

A. an experimental group

B. at least one comparison group

C. variation of the independent variable before assessment of change in the dependent variable

D. a measurement of the dependent variable before treatment

Difficulty Level: Easy

7. Which of the following is FALSE about pretesting in experiments?

A. It can be a source of internal invalidity.

B. It measures the dependent variable prior to treatment.

C. It is exactly the same as a posttest, just administered at a different time.

D. It allows researchers to test for ambiguity in measurement instruments.

Difficulty Level: Medium

8. In an experiment, the posttest measures ______.

A. the control group

B. the experimental group

C. the independent variable

D. the dependent variable

Difficulty Level: Easy

9. In an experiment, the group which receives the treatment is called the ______.

A. experimental group

B. control group

C. comparison group

D. selection group

Difficulty Level: Easy

10. In an experiment, what provides a good estimate of the counterfactual?

A. experimental treatment

B. before and after design

C. randomized comparison groups

D. selection bias

Difficulty Level: Medium

11. A true experiment allows the establishment of nonspuriousness through ______.

A. using two comparison groups

B. controlling when treatment occurs

C. random assignment into two or more comparison groups

D. documenting the conditions under which change occurs

Difficulty Level: Medium

12. A researcher randomly assigns people into two groups: one that will receive the experimental treatment and one that will not. The group that receives the treatment is called the ______.

A. spurious group

B. association group

C. comparison group

D. experimental group

Difficulty Level: Easy

13. A researcher is concerned that gender may affect how subjects respond to an experimental stimulus. So subjects are paired with another subject who has the same gender, and one member from each pair is assigned by a flip of a coin to the experimental group and one to the control group. This method of assigning subjects to groups is called ______.

A. matching

B. quotas

C. stratified randomization

D. random assignment

Difficulty Level: Hard

14. Field experiments have particular difficulty controlling for ______.

A. time order

B. association

C. context

D. nonspuriousness

Difficulty Level: Medium

15. In nonequivalent control group designs, the comparison group is selected by using ______.

A. matching and randomization

B. stratified sampling

C. individual and aggregate matching

D. convenience

Difficulty Level: Medium

16. A common feature of all before-and-after designs is ______.

A. deliberate assignment is used to determine control and experimental groups

B. all cases receive the experimental treatment

C. pretests are given to only half of the subjects

D. group assignment occurs through matching

Difficulty Level: Medium

17. Two types of before-and-after experimental designs in which multiple pretest and posttest observations are made of the same group are ______.

A. Solomon four group designs and panel designs

B. panel designs and repeated measures panel designs

C. repeated measures panel designs and time series designs

D. time series designs and nonequivalent control group designs

Difficulty Level: Medium

18. Researcher V wants to compare similar drunk driving laws in several states. She selects states that have similar median incomes, automobile fatalities per capita, and car ownership per capita. She has attempted to match states using what technique?

A. randomization

B. individual

C. aggregate

D. random

Difficulty Level: Hard

19. A study of a policy change that affects all members of your organization is best done using what technique?

A. quasi-experimental

B. cross-sectional

C. nonequivalent control groups

D. before-and-after

Difficulty Level: Medium

20. True experiments are designed to maximize ______.

A. internal validity

B. external validity

C. sample generalizability

D. cross-population generalizability

Difficulty Level: Easy

21. Differential attrition in comparison and experimental groups creates what type of internal invalidity?

A. selection bias

B. endogenous change

C. history effects

D. contamination

Difficulty Level: Medium

22. Researcher B collects the number of new building permits issued in Sunny City every month for 5 years prior to the establishment of Sunny City's new development controls and for 5 years after the development controls were in place. B wants to know if the development controls changed the number of new building permits. B's research design is ______.

A. true experiment

B. noncomparable groups

C. cross-sectional research

D. time series

Difficulty Level: Hard

23. A university conducts a series of surveys in which subjects are drawn from first year and graduating students and finds that graduating students demonstrate much higher rates of approval for the university (in terms of whether they think the classes were relevant, the instructors were competent, etc.). The university then claims that more experience with the university leads to higher approval. What source of internal invalidity has the university not considered?

A. selection bias

B. mortality

C. noncomparable groups

D. regression

Difficulty Level: Hard

24. Which of the following is NOT an example of endogenous change, in which internal validity is compromised because of natural developments in the subjects, independent of experimental treatment?

A. testing

B. the History Effect

C. maturation

D. regression

Difficulty Level: Hard

25. While participating in a lengthy experiment involving job training for welfare recipients, the economy enters into a major recession. Posttest measurements found that job training was unsuccessful in helping participants locate jobs. However, the experiment's designers claim that the findings were inconclusive because of internal invalidity. Which of the following sources of internal invalidity would they be most likely to name as the problem?

A. contamination

B. history effect

C. selection bias

D. the Hawthorne effect

Difficulty Level: Hard

26. If a control group realizes they are being denied some advantage, which two processes may create invalid experimental findings:

A. Compensatory rivalry and demoralization

B. Regression and maturation

C. Contamination and the placebo effect

D. The Hawthorne effect and the history effect

Difficulty Level: Hard

27. Which of the following is NOT a source of non-comparability between comparison groups?

A. testing

B. instrumentation

C. nonprobability sampling

D. history

Difficulty Level: Medium

28. After they had failed in the writing exam that was required for all students before graduation, 15 students were placed in a class in which they received additional tutoring. After completing this class, all 15 students retook the exam and earned higher scores. Their success was held up as an example that the class curriculum really works. What source of internal invalidity has not been considered?

A. history effect

B. noncomparable groups

C. contamination

D. regression

Difficulty Level: Hard

29. Research Assistant Z is particularly enthusiastic when working with subjects who are receiving SUPER treatment but less animated when working with subjects who are receiving a placebo. Z's actions may introduce what type of internal invalidity into the research on SUPER treatment?

A. history effect

B. treatment misidentification

C. selection bias

D. John Henry effect

Difficulty Level: Hard

30. Schutt indicates that the “Achilles heel” of true experimental design is ______.

A. establishing time order

B. establishing association

C. generalizability

D. differential attrition

Difficulty Level: Easy

31. The potential for interaction of testing and treatment creates the least concern in which of the following designs.

A. true experimental designs

B. nonequivalent control group designs

C. before-and-after designs

D. Solomon four group designs

Difficulty Level: Medium

32. Which of the following is FALSE about a factorial survey.

A. can determine the impact of questions on answers to other questions

B. is a type of one-shot case study

C. combines features of true experiments with surveys

D. does not allow for control and experimental groups to be identified

Difficulty Level: Medium

33. If researchers have evidence that some treatment will produce benefits for participants, but they do not have the financial resources to administer it to all subjects, what is an ethical way to distribute the benefits without compromising the strength of experimental design?

A. first-come, first-serve

B. randomly distribute benefits

C. withhold benefits from all subjects

D. select fewer subjects

Difficulty Level: Hard

34. A researcher is asked to distribute medication to the participants of a study. Although each cup of medication is labeled with the participant's number, neither the researcher nor the participants know who is getting the placebo and who is getting the actual treatment. What type of experimental method does this example illustrate?

A. deception procedure

B. researcher blindness procedure

C. placebo effect procedure

D. double-blind procedure

Difficulty Level: Hard

35. Researchers sometimes find that subjects in the experimental group seem more motivated than the subjects in the comparison group, which leads to greater drop out from the comparison group. This is known as ______.

A. demoralization

B. placebo effect

C. differential attrition

D. selection bias

Difficulty Level: Hard

36. True experiments utilize comparison groups because they help reduce which of the following threats to internal validity?

A. testing

B. instrumentation

C. maturation

D. all of these

Difficulty Level: Medium

37. Participants were chosen to take part in a study based on how poorly they engaged with the teacher and their learning material in class. During the study, researchers noted a vast improvement in students who did not engage regularly in class. However, when placed back in their regular classroom setting, the students' behavior regressed back to normal. Which of the following best fits what is happening to these children?

A. the Hawthorne effect

B. the Placebo effect

C. contamination

D. all of these

Difficulty Level: Hard

38. The most powerful type of quasi-experimental design that can be considered a before-and-after design is the ______.

A. repeated measures panel design

B. regression–discontinuity design

C. time series design

D. multiple group before-and-after design

Difficulty Level: Hard

39. Which of the following CANNOT explain any change over time in most of the before-and-after designs?

A. history

B. maturation

C. selection

D. instrumentation

Difficulty Level: Medium

40. Newsworthy events that have to do with the focus of an experiment and major disasters to which subjects are exposed are examples of ______.

A. history effect

B. maturation

C. instrumentation

D. regression effect

Difficulty Level: Hard

41. Changes in outcome scores during experiments that involve a lengthy treatment period may result from ______.

A. history effect

B. maturation

C. instrumentation

D. regression effect

Difficulty Level: Hard

42. What is a reason that a true experimental design may not be feasible?

A. too costly

B. takes too long to carry out

C. won’t be ethical to randomly assign subjects to the different conditions

D. all of these

Difficulty Level: Medium

43. This problem occurs when the groups become different after the experiment begins because more participants drop out of one of the groups than out of the other(s) for various reasons.

A. selection bias

B. maturation

C. regression

D. differential attrition

Difficulty Level: Hard

44. The variable used to specify a cutoff score for eligibility for some treatment in a regression–discontinuity design is called ______.

A. control variable

B. assignment variable

C. independent variables

D. dependent variable

Difficulty Level: Easy

45. This term refers to when comparison group members are aware that they are being denied some advantages and, in response, increase their efforts to compensate for this denial.

A. maturation

B. John Henry effect

C. selection bias

D. demoralization

Difficulty Level: Medium

True/False

1. True experiments require random assignment of subjects to two or more groups.

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. True experiments can have only two comparison groups: an experimental and a control group.

Difficulty Level: Easy

3. A control group receives no treatment in an experiment.

Difficulty Level: Easy

4. All true experiments require a pretest and a posttest.

Difficulty Level: Easy

5. A quasi-experimental design is indicated if subjects are not randomly assigned to comparison groups.

Difficulty Level: Easy

6. In experimental research, the researcher controls the causal mechanism.

Difficulty Level: Easy

7. Field experiments allow greater control over conditions than do laboratory experiments.

Difficulty Level: Easy

8. Before-and-after designs have no control or comparison groups.

Difficulty Level: Easy

9. A fixed sample panel design is the same thing as a before-and-after quasi-experimental design.

Difficulty Level: Easy

10. A time series before-and-after quasi-experimental design makes multiple observations in both pretest and posttest periods.

Difficulty Level: Easy

11. In ex post facto control group designs, comparison groups are assigned prior to treatment.

Difficulty Level: Easy

12. Time order cannot be assured in nonequivalent control group designs.

Difficulty Level: Medium

13. Internal validity in experiments is weakened by noncomparability of groups.

Difficulty Level: Medium

14. Maturation in experiments occurs when changes in outcome scores are likely due to a length treatment period.

Difficulty Level: Easy

15. Although cross-population generalizability is difficult to achieve using experiments, a true experiment usually has high sample generalizability.

Difficulty Level: Medium

Essay

1. What is the primary difference between true experiments and quasi-experimental designs? Why is this difference so important?

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. Why aren't experiments very generalizable? What can be done to improve the external invalidity of experiments?

Difficulty Level: Hard

3. What are the main ethical concerns in experimental design?

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. What is the effect of history? Provide an example of a study and how it could be affected by an external event.

Difficulty Level: Hard

5. Describe the characteristics of a true experiment. Explain how true experiments meet (or don't meet) the criteria for causality. Do quasi-experiments and nonexperimental designs improve on these criteria? Explain how (or how not).

Difficulty Level: Hard

6. Is it possible to determine whether a treatment led to a change in the value of cases on the dependent variable in an experiment in which there was no pretest?

Difficulty Level: Hard

7. In what situations is it ethical to deceive participants in an experiment? Provide an example that would ethically allow deception and an example in which the ethics of deception are more ambiguous.

Difficulty Level: Hard

8. Explain at least four different ways to improve generalizability in experimental research.

Difficulty Level: Hard