ResourcesRead/review the following resources for this activity: Textbook: Chapter 1, 2 File: IRB Form and IRB Consent Form (in Course Document ) Link (video): How is research made safe? Minimum of
Directions: For this assignment complete the work sheet below. Please type out your answers on a separate Word document and then upload it. Don’t forget to number your answers so they can be matched up to the correct question.
Instructors wanted to determine if technology could help students retain information better. One-half of the general psychology students complete computer simulations. The remaining half of the students spent an equal amount of time reviewing the text and their lecture notes. Both groups were then tested on the course information.
What is the hypothesis? ___________________________________________
What is the control group? ____________________________________________
What is the experimental group? _______________________________________
What is the independent variable? ______________________________________
What is the dependent variable? _______________________________________
One-half of a fraternity at NC State watched the television program, “The Day After”. The program was a dramatic presentation of a nuclear holocaust. The remaining members of the fraternity watched programs on one of the other major networks during the same time period. The fraternity members were then individually interviewed regarding their attitudes toward nuclear disarmament.
What is the hypothesis? ___________________________________________
What is the control group? ____________________________________________
What is the experimental group? _______________________________________
What is the independent variable? ______________________________________
What is the dependent variable? _______________________________________
A scientist wants to determine if hunger is motivating. Two groups of rats are run in a maze with a food reward. The time that it takes for each rat to reach the goal box is recorded. One group of rats is deprived of food for 24 hours before being run on the maze. The other group is fed on their regular schedule before the maze trials. All other conditions for the two groups are the same.
What is the hypothesis? ___________________________________________
What is the control group? ____________________________________________
What is the experimental group? _______________________________________
What is the independent variable? ______________________________________
What is the dependent variable? _______________________________________
Operational Definitions:
A group of scientists believe that women find men without earrings more attractive than men with earrings.
What is the independent variable? _______________________________
What is the dependent variable? _______________________________
Propose an operational definition for the dependent variable. _______________________________
A team of scientists is testing the hypothesis that young women look in the mirror more than older women.
What is the independent variable? ____________________________
What is the dependent variable? _______________________________
Propose an operational definition for the dependent variable. ______________________________
Confounding Variables: For each selection, identify the one serious confounding factor that threatens the experiment’s validity. Then, suggest how the confounded factor could be controlled.
Fred Rogers wanted to test a new sing-along method to teach math to fourth graders (e.g. “I Love to Multiply” to the tune of God Bless America). He used the sing-along method in his first period class. His sixth period students continued solving math problems with the old method. At the end of the term, Mr. Rogers found that the first period class scored significantly lower than the sixth period class on a mathematics achievement test. He concluded that his sing-along method was a total failure.
Name a confounding variable:
What is one method to unconfound the experiment?
An airport administrator wanted to determine how many incoming flights the average controller could coordinate at the same time. Each randomly selected controller was tested without his or her knowledge by a computer program, which fed false flight information to a computer terminal. The controller first “received” information from one plane and by the end of the hour was coordinating the flight patterns of ten planes simultaneously. The administrator analyzed the errors collected by the computer program. The analysis revealed that six was the maximum number of planes a controller could handle without making potentially fatal errors. Also, no errors occurred when only one to three planes were incoming. He concluded that a controller should never coordinate more than six incoming flights.
Name a confounding variable:
What is one method to unconfound the experiment?
Practice: Write a hypothesis for each of the statements and identify the variables, control group, and experimental group.
8. Cigarette smoking increases the risk of lung cancer.
Hypothesis: If _______________________________, then _________________________
Independent Variable: ______________________ Dependent Variable: _______________
Control Group: ____________________________ Experimental Group: _______________
9. Eating breakfast increases performance in school.
Hypothesis: If _______________________________, then _________________________
Independent Variable: ______________________ Dependent Variable: _______________
Control Group: ____________________________ Experimental Group: _______________
10. Using computers to take notes in class decreases retention of information.
Hypothesis: If _______________________________, then _________________________
Independent Variable: ______________________ Dependent Variable: _______________
Control Group: ____________________________ Experimental Group: _______________
11. Runners have less stress.
Hypothesis: If _______________________________, then _________________________
Independent Variable: ______________________ Dependent Variable: _______________
Control Group: ____________________________ Experimental Group: _______________
Decoding and experiment:
Dr. Antonio Ruane is a developmental psychologist who loves his work. It is a great profession except that he can never get away from work! One area of interest for him is toilet training because parents always ask how to do it faster and neater. He was out at a restaurant sitting next to a table of boy toddlers and their parents. (It wasn’t the best eating event for him.) Dr. Ruane did become fascinated as the boys made targets out of everything. The boys even threw wads of napkins at his water glass – fortunately, their aim wasn’t that good. It got him to thinking, though, about boys and targets and whether he could use this for toilet training.
He decided to set up an experiment. Dr. Ruane enlisted 10 daycare centers that agreed to participate. He wrote letters to parents asking if they would allow their children to be subjects in his study. He only used boys in this study due to anatomical and maturational differences between the sexes. A number of parents agreed to participate, and he randomly assigned their sons to different groups. One group of day care providers and parents received instructions to throw Cheerios in the toilet for the boys to aim at. The other group did not use targets and just followed the traditional toilet training. Dr. Ruane charted the time it took to become accident free, i.e. toilet trained.
He was delighted to find that the ‘Cheerio boys’ trained in half the time, when compared to the traditional potty training boys. (As you might imagine, the makers of Cheerios were delighted!)
12. What was his hypothesis?
13. Independent variable? Why?
14. Dependent variable? Why?
15. Did he get a random assignment of subjects? Why or why not?
16. Did he prove his hypothesis? Are there any other confounding variables that may have impacted the boys?
