A researcher was interested in the interaction between experience and mild intoxication on driving performance. They recruited 40 drivers to complete a driving simulation task. Half of the participants were highly experienced drivers, while the others were relatively inexperienced.
Participants all completed the task under two conditions: once when they were sober; and again after drinking a low dose of alcohol. Reaction times to hazards that appeared in the simulation were taken as the DV. What statistical test should be used to analyse the data collected from this study?
Select one:
2×2 Repeated Measures ANOVA
3×2 Independent ANOVA
Two-Way Mixed ANOVA
Three-Way Independent ANOVA
How many data points would each participant provide for an experiment which is analysed using a Repeated Measures 2×2 ANOVA? (Hint: think about how many columns you would need to enter their actual performance scores into when setting up an SPSS data file).
Select one:
1
2
4
You can’t tell from the information provided.
Which of the following assumptions would you need to test before you interpret the results of a two-way mixed ANOVA, where both variables have 3 experimental conditions?
Select one:
Neither sphericity nor homogeneity of variance
Both sphericity and homogeneity of variance
Homogeneity of variance
Sphericity
The following output was used to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention designed to decrease generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms. Ratings of GAD symptoms were made on a 0-10 scale, with higher scores indicating more symptoms.
Ratings were made at the start of the study (Intake), end of the study (Discharge), and at a 1-year follow-up (Follow-up); thus the independent variable in this case is Time.
Assuming all necessary assumptions have been met, which of the following is the correct way to report output in APA format:
Select one:
There was a significant effect of time on participants’ GAD scores, F(2,58) = 13.82, p < .001, ηp2 = .32
There was a significant effect of time on participants’ GAD scores, F(2,58) = 63.24, p < .001, ηp2 = .32
There was a significant effect of time on participants’ GAD scores, F(1.97,57.09) = 13.82, p < .001, ηp2 = .32
There was no significant effect of time on participants’ GAD scores, F(2,58) = 13.82, p > .05, ηp2 = .32.
While investigating the effectiveness of an intervention designed to treat GAD symptoms, the same researcher from Q4 also obtained the following output.
Looking at these tables, which of the following conclusions can we reasonably draw from the data?
Select one:
GAD symptoms were significantly greater at intake than they were at either discharge or follow-up.
GAD symptoms had significantly reduced at discharge, but not at follow-up.
No significant difference was found between any of the conditions.
GAD symptoms were only significantly reduced at follow-up.
A language researcher wanted to investigate the potentially negative impact that text message usage may have on children’s ability to spell. Or, put another way: does snding txt msgs make u 4get how 2 spell?
To investigate this, the researcher recruited 40 children (aged 8-9) from schools in the UK. Half of the children were given a mobile phone and encouraged to send text messages to one another over a 3 month period. The other half of children had to promise that they would not use a mobile phone until the study was over.
To investigate the impact of text usage on spelling ability, all of the children completed a spelling test (scored out of 100) both before and after the 3 months were up.
Thus, there are two independent variables in this study:
The first IV is text message group (text messagers vs controls)
The second IV was time (i.e. when the children completed the spelling text: either before or after the 3 month period).
You run the test and get the following output:
Which of the following statements are true:
Select one or more:
There is a significant main effect of text message group, but no effect of time and no interaction.
There is a significant main effect of time, but no effect of text message group and no interaction.
There is a significant interaction between text message group and time, but no effect of time or text message group.
There are no significant findings here.
After attempting to replicate the study in Q6, a researcher produced the following graph in their output:
Description
This figure is a line graph. The horizontal axis refers to “Time” with ‘Time 1’ and
‘Time 2’ as labels. The vertical axis is labelled “Estimated Marginal Means” and is
marked from 50 to 68, at intervals of 2. There is a legend/key which highlights two
variables “Text Messagers” and “Controls” with blue and orange lines respectively.
The general trend of both lines is downwards. The orange line representing controls
starts at 64.8 at Time 1 and is 52.5 at Time 2. The blue line is 65.8 at Time 1 and
63.9 at Time 2.
Which of the following statements are true (tick all that apply):
Select one or more:
There was an interaction such that there was a difference between the two groups’ spelling scores at Time 1, but not at Time 2.
There was no interaction between the variables.
There was an interaction such that spelling scores deteriorated over time for the controls, but not for the group encouraged to send text messages.
There was an interaction such that there was a difference between the two groups’ spelling scores at Time 2, but not at Time 1.
The following output can tell you whether a factor analysis an appropriate test to run on a given set of data.
Which of the following statements best describe this output? (tick all that apply)
Select one or more:
Bartlett’s test of sphericity indicates there are not a sufficient number of correlations in the data to run a factor analysis, so any analysis should be interpreted with caution
Bartlett’s test of sphericity indicates there are a sufficient number of correlations in the data to run a factor analysis
The KMO statistics suggests the sample is not adequate for a factor analysis, so any analysis should be interpreted with caution
The KMO statistics suggests the sample is adequate for a factor analysis
Description
A line graph is presented. There is a title “Scree Plot” at the top. The vertical axis is
labelled “Eigenvalue” and is marked from 0.0 to 6.0 at intervals of 1. The horizontal
axis goes from 1 to 14 in intervals of 1. The general trend of the line is downwards
dropping sharply from 1 to 4 on the horizontal axis from 4.7 to 0.5 on the vertical
axis. Then declines in a shallower manner from 4 to 14 on the horizontal axis from
0.5 to 0.1 on the vertical axis.
Looking at the above Scree Plot, what would be the most sensible number of factors to retain?
Select one:
2
3
4
5
An occupational psychologist has recently developed a new survey to measure the job satisfaction of university lecturers. They are particularly interested in establishing what factors might underlie this concept, so wish to carry a factor analysis. They give their survey to 150 lecturers to complete and run the analysis.
The researcher runs the factor analysis, and gets the following four factors in their final output:
They interpret three of the factors as representing:
General job satisfaction
Autonomy
Recognition and respect
What is an appropriate interpretation for the missing factor?
Select one:
Pay scale.
Work preference.
Student abilities.
Faculty Support.
Which of the following statements accurately describes split-half reliability?
Select one:
It measures the consistency of scores obtained from two equivalent halves of the same test.
It measures of degree of agreement between two or more scorers, judges, or raters.
It measures the consistency of test scores over time.
It measures the consistency with which a test measures a single construct or concept.
Which of the following best describes convergent validity?
Select one:
The degree to which a measure is unrelated to measures of different constructs.
The degree to which a measure is associated with other measures of the same construct.
The degree to which a measure assesses the different facets of the construct of interest.
The degree to which a measure can predict future behaviour.
A researcher is interested in whether exposure to certain toxins (measured as the number of days exposure per year), and an individual’s ability to process those toxins (as measured by the amount of metabolites found in their blood) can predict the psychological ill health symptoms of chemical factory workers.
They run a multiple regression and get the following output:
Which statement best sums up what the research has found here?
Select one:
The model explains 6.0% of the variance in the data, and is a significant predictor of psychological ill health symptoms.
The model explains 6.0% of the variance in the data, and is not a significant predictor of psychological ill health symptoms.
The model explains 24.6% of the variance in the data, and is a significant predictor of psychological ill health symptoms.
The model explains 24.6% of the variance in the data, and is not a significant predictor of psychological ill health symptoms.
Imagine you are psychologist interested in understanding the well-being of the elderly. It is well known that cognitive abilities decline with older age, and you begin to suspect there might be a relationship between psychological wellbeing and cognitive function.
To explore this, you recruit 80 participants aged 70-90 years old and measure several different aspects of cognitive function using standardised tests. Specifically, you measure:
Working memory
General comprehension and semantic processing
Mental flexibility (i.e. the ability to switch between tasks)
Cognitive processing speed
Following these tests, you also give participants a questionnaire to measure their overall psychological wellbeing. The aim of the study is to see whether the different measures of cognitive function are associated with wellbeing scores.
You run a multiple regression and get the following output.
Which of the cognitive abilities contribute significantly to the model of wellbeing (tick all that apply)?
Select one or more:
Mental Flexibility.
None of them.
Processing Speed.
Comprehension.
Memory.
An educational psychologist believes that an individual’s reading speed (in words per minute) and general comprehension abilities (scored out of 10) may be related to how well they do on a timed exam. To study the relative importance of these variables and the association between them, she runs a multiple regression and produces the following predictive model for exam score:
Exam Score = 7.78 + (0.05*Reading Speed) + (5.77*Comprehension)
Click here (40.8KB) for a description of the above formula.
Exam Score = 7.78 + (0.05*Reading Speed) + (5.77*Comprehension) Description An equation which reads as follows: Exam score = 7.78 add (0.05 times Reading Speed) add (5.77 times Comprehension)
What exam score would you expect students to achieve if they have a reading speed of 350 w.p.m. and a comprehension score of 9?
Select one:
66.44
77.21
55.67
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