Understanding Experimental Designs

Understanding Experiment Designs

1. What might account for random error in an experimental measure?

   • natural variation among and within subjects
   • A systematic flaw in the logging software
   • A pattern of dropped data for every fifth subject
   • Biased observations

2. Which of the following would be an ordinal response? (Mark all tha apply)

   • Responses on a Likert-type scale
   • Height in centimeters of each subject
   • Favorite color of each subject

   • How spicy each subject prefers their Thai food using 1-5 stars

     • The number of heads resulting from one-hundred coin flips

3. In an experiment, factors are the independent variables manipulated by the experimenter, and level are the specific values a factor can take on.

   • True
   • False

4. A between-subjects factor is most precisely defined by which of the following characteristic?

   • Each subject experiences more than one level of the factor
   • Each subject experiences only one level of the factor,
   • Each subject experiences all levels of the factor.
   • Each subject experiences all but one level of the factor.
   • None of the above

5. A within-subjects factor is most precisely defined by which of the following characteristic?

   • Each subject experiences more than one level of the factor.
   • Each subject experiences only one level of the factor,
   • Each subject experiences all levels of the factor.
   • Each subject experiences all but one level of the factor.
   • None of the above

6. If a given factor has four levels and subjects experience two of the four levels, that factor is most precisely described as:

   • A within-subjects factor
   • A between-subjects factor
   • A partial within-subjects factor
   • A partial between-subjects factor
   • None of the above

7. Balanced experimental designs are where every subject experiences every level of every factor

   • True
   • False

8. The most common use of an independent-samples t-test is to examine which of the following?

   • One set of subjects that all does the same thing
   • One set of subjects that does two different things
   • Two sets of subjects that do the exact same thing
   • Two sets of subjects that do different things
   • None of the above

9. Which of the following is the most proper way to report a t-test result?

   • t(14) = 2.76. p = .015
   • t(14) = 2.76, p < .05

10. A t-test is a test suited to one factor with two levels

    • True
    • False