Types of Research
What are the 3 types of research?
Survey, observational, experimental
What is a variable other than the supposed causative variable that affects a dependent variable?
Lurking variable
Why do we implement the scientific method?
It is a process to complete research and to build a body of knowledge
What is a hypothesis?
What is the purpose of an experiment?
To test a hypothesis
How do survey and observational research vary?
Surveys sample people through asking questions
Observational research can be descriptive or relational meaning that it describes conditions, settings, or event or it explores the relationships between two variables
Explain what variable could be causing this outcome:
Ice cream sales in the summer are strongly and positively correlated with drowning deaths.
common cause
What do all steps of the scientific method link back to?
Background research
What two things must a hypothesis be?
Testable and falsifiable
What is an experimental variable?
Anything that can influence outcome of an experiment
Explain experimental research. What variables are involved in this?
Experimental research attempts to establish cause-and-effect relationships between variables. These variables are independent and dependent variables which are either the variable you manipulate or the variable you measure.
Explain what variable could be causing this outcome:
During the oil embargo in the 1970’s, a the lowered highway speed limit (70-55 mph) was strongly correlated with fewer highway deaths.
Confounded variables
What makes a question a good research question?
Important question that is well-defined, testable, controllable, and measurable
True or false: all hypotheses are supported if an experiment is set up right
False. Hypotheses can be supported or rejected. We anticipate both outcomes when setting up an experiment
Define independent, dependent, and controlled varibales
Independent: the factor manipulated by the experimenter
Dependent: effect or outcome of the experiment - variable being measured
Controlled variables: remains the same for all experimental subjects to eliminate confounding variables
What type of research would you use to answer this question: Do teenagers or adults tend to have more phone numbers saved in their phone?
Survey
Explain what variable could be causing these two outcomes:
1) The reduction of Louisiana’s land mass due to subsidence (sinking) is strongly correlated with an increase in the state’s population.
2) A number of years ago, a study showed significantly higher rates of heart disease in people who consume decaf coffee.
Coincidence
Confusion (of cause with effect)
What are the steps of the scientific method?
Idea/observation, research question, hypothesis, experiment, results, and conclusions
Is this a good hypothesis?
If students laugh during class, they will have a better grade in the class.
Bad - if/then statements are better for predictions. A hypothesis should be an explanation.
An example would be... Laughing in class increases student interest in the material leading to improved grades.
Explain the differences between accuracy and precision. Give an example of both.
Accuracy is being close or at the correct answer/value. Precision is when your answer/value is not close to the correct one, but all attempts are close to each other.
If the answer to the math problem is 52, and my three attempts got me answers of 41,40.5, and 40, my answers are precise but not accurate. If my answers were 52, 51.5, and 53, my answers are accurate and precise.
What type of research would you use to answer this question: How many students walk by a knocked over trash can without picking it up?
What specific subset of this research type would be used for this question?
This would be descriptive observational research.
What does it matter that correlation does not imply causation? Give a couple of examples where this could be problematic.
We can falsely label something as the cause for a disease, event, or other circumstance.
Examples:
1) If we collect data for the total number of measles cases in the U.S. each year and the marriage rate each year, we would find that the two variables are highly correlated.
2) If we collect data for the total number of high school graduates and total pizza consumption in the U.S. each year, we would find that the two variables are highly correlated.
Come up with a research question and talk through how you would carry it out through all steps of the scientific method.
will vary
Come up with a hypothesis for the following research question:
Does excedrin work better than tylenol at easing migraines?
will vary
What should every experiment specify?
Research entities (subjects), dependent variable measurement, levels of treatment (independent variable), replications (trials), and constants