Research methods MCQ (2019)

What type of distribution refers to a situation in which the majority of participants score highly on the measure on which they are assessed?

• bimodal

• negatively skewed

• normal

• positively skewed

Which of these best describes what a ‘Type 2’ error refers to?

• incorrectly accepting the null hypothesis

• incorrectly rejecting the null hypothesis

• use of the incorrect inferential statistical test

• use of the incorrect tables of critical values

When would it be best to use the median rather than the mean?

• when there are a few scores much lower than the rest

• when there are a few scores very similar to each other

• when there is a large number of scores overall

• when there is a small number of scores overall

Which of these inferential statistical tests is the only one that does not involve ranking of the data at some stage?

• Chi-square

• Mann whitney U

• Spearman's rho

• Wilcoxon signed ranks

A study investigating the difference in aggression between boys and girls recorded the number of times a child shouted at someone during playtime. Which of the following would be the appropriate inferential test to use to analyse the data from this study?

• Binomial sign test

• Chi-square

• Mann Whitney U test

• Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test

Which symbol in statistics means ‘approximately’?

• α

• <

• ~

• Σ

What type of validity refers to the extent to which the scores on one measure are able to predict the outcome on another related measure?

• Criterion

• Ecological

• Face

• Population

Which of these is the name of an interviewing technique where the researcher has no pre-planned questions?

• free form

• open

• unplanned

• unstructured

For which of the following would it be appropriate to use a line graph to display the data?

• differences in the ability of males and females to identify six emotions displayed on the face

• number of acts of aggression displayed by boys and girls

• preference for four different learning styles displayed as percentages

• self-ratings of aggression (1 to 10) at different times of day (10am to 10pm)

In the study by Simons and Chabris investigating inattentional blindness, how was the dependent variable operationalised?

• detection of ‘gorilla’

• duration of video clip played

• estimation of number of players present

• number of passes of basketball counted