WorksheetsVCE Psychology Key Science Skills
Total questions: 20
Worksheet time: 12mins
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
A cross-sectional study is not a true experiment because:
there is no true control group
participants cannot be randomly allocated to groups
participants cannot be randomly sampled
there is no true dependent variable
Within a case study, a students' Psychology exam score would be _________________, and a sentence describing how they felt after receiving their exam score would be ________________.
Primary data; secondary data
Secondary data; primary data
Qualitative data; quantitative data
Quantitative data; qualitative data
When should the median be used instead of the mean?
when there is low variability in the data
when there is high variability in the data
when scores are clustered around the mean
when there are no outliers around the mean
A low standard deviation means that:
a conclusion cannot be drawn from the data
there is high variability in scores
the scores are clustered around the mean
the mode should be used instead of the median
Miss Jessulat wants to improve the external validity of her study. She should:
ensure that the sample is representative of the population
use a large sample size
conduct the study in a real life setting
do all of the above
Miss Bayly is conducting an experiment on her Psychology class. To ensure she has conducted it ethically and obtained true informed consent, she must:
offer the participants a reward for participating in the experiment
debrief her participants if she uses deception
inform the participants of the nature of the research, any risks of participating, and their rights in the research
promise to keep the participants' information private and confidential
Miss Burns is conducting research on her dog, Bella, and wants to ensure that her research is reliable. She should:
conduct a case study, as there is only one participant
replicate her research using other dogs
use a repeated measures design, as there is only one participant
conduct her research as an observation in a naturalistic setting
A disadvantage of using a matched - participants design is
there is no true control group
minimization of individual participant differences
the potential for order effects due to pre-testing
minimization of experimenter effects
A confounding variable:
is a variable that can negatively impact the effect of the DV on the IV
makes it impossible for the researcher to isolate the effects of the DV on the IV
is any variable other than the IV that can cause a change in the DV
makes it impossible for the researcher to isolate the effects of the IV on the DV
Which of the following is NOT one of the steps in psychological research?
formulate the research hypothesis
observe ethical procedures
report the research findings
design the research
