Data Detectives
A psychologist calculates the average score on a test. What central unit of measurement is that?
Mean.
What bias makes people think they “knew it all along”?
Hindsight bias
A researcher explains the study to participants and asks them to sign before joining. What is this called?
Informed consent
This perspective focuses on how we encode, process, store, and retrieve information—essentially how we think.
Cognitive perspective
A study measures “happiness” but never defines what counts as happiness. What’s missing?
Operational definition
Identify the research method: Watching how kids play at recess without telling them.
Naturalistic Observation
A test has one very high outlier score. Which central unit of measure would best represent the data?
Median.
A student thinks they’ll ace the quiz without studying. Which bias is this?
Overconfidence
A researcher uses minors without parental permission. What’s missing?
Informed assent
Why can’t correlation prove causation?
A third or confounding variable may factor into the results
In a study on exercise and mood, the exercise group meets in the morning but the control group meets at night. What’s the confounding variable?
Time of day
Identify the IV and DV: One group studies with music, one without, test scores measured.
IV = music/no music; DV = test scores
Group A’s scores are close together; Group B’s scores vary widely. Which has a higher standard deviation?
Group B - more varied scores = higher SD
You think you see a pattern in random coin flips. What’s that called?
Perceiving order in random events
A study puts one group in a warm room and another in a cold room to test concentration. What’s the independent variable?
Room temperature
A researcher finds r = +0.85 between hours studied and test scores. How would you describe the strength and direction of this correlation?
Strong, positive correlation
A researcher wants to study how a new teaching method affects test scores but doesn’t include a control group. What’s the flaw?
No baseline for comparison
A psychologist combines the results of 20 different studies on sleep and test scores to find an overall pattern. What is this called?
Meta-analysis
Something that has a p-value of .08 would not be __________________.
Statistically significant
Which type of study helps eliminate experimenter and participant bias?
Double blind study
After a sleep study, the researcher explains what was being tested and answers questions. What is this called?
Debriefing
Research shows r = –0.75 between stress levels and hours of sleep. What does this negative correlation indicate about the relationship between stress and sleep?
More stress = less sleep
A student feels calmer after drinking “stress tea” that actually contains only water. Why?
Placebo effect
How big or meaningful the difference/relationship between two groups/variables is called ______.
(Helps determine if the difference is important in the real world)
Effect size
What does a small p-value indicate about the variables of a study?
That the relationship between the variable is unlikely to be due to chance alone - the IV likely influenced the DV.
Why is replication important in psychology?
It helps confirm results aren’t just due to chance and can be generalized.
This perspective emphasizes how unconscious drives and early childhood experiences influence behavior.
Psychodynamic/psychoanalytic
Why is effect size important in addition to the p-value?
It tells us how big or meaningful the difference is, not just whether it’s real.
A teacher lets students pick their own groups for a caffeine experiment. What’s the design problem?
No random assignment
If a new memory strategy improves test scores by 0.5% but the p-value is .001, how would you explain the statistical significance and effect size to the principal?
The p-value makes us confident that the effect of the memory strategy is likely not due to chance, but the size of the effect (.5%) is so small that it likely isn't meaningful.
Ex. We're sure the improvement is real, but going from 80% to 80.5% isn't enough to chance policy or practice.