VCE Psychology Key Science Skills

In an experiment, the ___________ variable is tested by the researcher to observe its effect(s) on the ___________ variable.

• Independent; dependent

• Extraneous; confounding

• Dependent; independent

• Independent; extraneous

Which group in an experiment is exposed to the independent variable?

• Control Group

• Experimental Group

• Participant Group

• All groups

Psychology researchers attempt to minimise or eliminate the impact of uncontrolled variables in experiments because the presence of these variables:

• Can affect the measurement of the independent variable

• Means that only the uncontrolled variables are measured

• Do not enable the researcher to control the dependent variable

• Negatively impact the generalisability of a study

When performance of one task by participants in an experiment affects their performance in a second experimental task, this confounding variable is commonly referred to as a/an

• Order effect

• Placebo effect

• Experimenter effect

• Confounding effect

In a study of pain medications, injections of a saline solution (which contains no chemicals) were shown to be quite effective for relieving pain. This is an example of

• the experimenter effect

• the placebo effect

• an order effect

• use of non-standardised instructions and procedures

Miss Jessulat is researching whether doing practice questions improves her students' Psychology understanding. An operationalised DV for this study could be:

• psychology understanding

• number of practice questions completed

• number of psychology classes attended

• mean score on a psychology exam

Miss Burns is researching whether gender affects memory recall. A possible operationalised IV for this study is:

• mean number of words correctly recalled off a list

• words recalled off a list

• gender (male or female)

• memory recall (good or bad)

Miss Bayly is researching whether caffeine affects how well her students can concentrate in class. She is particularly concerned about controlling individual participant differences. To eliminate the effects of this CV, Miss Bayley should:

• Use a repeated measures design

• Use an independent measures design with a large sample

• Use a control group

• Use an independent measures design with a small sample

To ensure a representative sample and validity, participants should be collected for a study using ___________________ and divided into groups using __________________.

• random allocation; random sampling

• random allocation; control and experimental conditions

• random sampling; convenience sampling

• random sampling; random allocation

Single-blind procedures control for ______________, while double-blind procedures also control for _______________.

• the experimenter effect; the placebo effect

• order effects; the placebo effect

• the placebo effect; the experimenter effect

• the placebo effect; order effects