Research Methods & Statistics
This type of research relies on the collection and statistical analysis of numerical data.
What is quantitative research?
In correlational research, this issue arises when it is clear two variables are related, but it is impossible to know which causes the other.
What is the directionality problem?
Molecules that bind to receptor sites and mimic or increase a neurotransmitter's normal action.
What are agonists?
Three fluid-filled bony channels in the inner ear that are critical for our vestibular sense and maintaining balance.
What are the semicircular canals?
Estimating the likelihood of events based on how easily examples of them come to mind.
What is the availability heuristic?
This research approach focuses on non-numerical data like text, interviews, and observations to understand concepts and experiences.
What is qualitative research?
An unmeasured factor that might actually be the true cause of an observed correlation between two other variables.
What is a third variable?
Molecules that bind to receptor sites and block or inhibit a neurotransmitter's response.
What are antagonists?
The principle stating that to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage rather than a constant amount.
What is Weber's law?
Judging the likelihood of something based on how well it matches a typical prototype, sometimes causing us to ignore other relevant statistics.
What is the representativeness heuristic?
A testable prediction, often implied by a psychological theory.
What is a hypothesis?
A statistical score indicating the percentage of scores in its frequency distribution that are equal to or lower than it.
What is a percentile?
Another name for REM sleep, named because the brain is highly active while the body's voluntary muscles are essentially paralyzed.
What is paradoxical sleep?
Information processing guided by our higher-level mental processes, drawing on our experiences and expectations to interpret sensory data.
What is top-down processing?
The tendency to search for, interpret, and recall information in a way that aligns with our preexisting beliefs.
What is confirmation bias?
A study is described as this when its original findings are successfully reproduced by conducting the study again with different participants.
What is replicated?
This statistical measure of dispersion represents how much the values in a data set differ from the mean; it is the square of the standard deviation.
What is variance?
This theory suggests that dreams are simply the cerebral cortex's attempt to make sense of random neural impulses firing from the brainstem during REM sleep.
What is activation-synthesis theory?
Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information.
What is bottom-up processing?
The phenomenon of substantial and long-sustained increases in intelligence test scores measured over the 20th century worldwide.
What is the Flynn effect?
Unintended factors other than the independent variable that might influence the results of an experiment.
What are confounding variables?
A computed measure that tells us how much scores vary around the mean score of a distribution.
What is standard deviation?
The theory proposing that sleep plays a crucial role in strengthening and organizing new memories for long-term storage.
What is consolidation theory?
A binocular cue for perceiving depth, referring to the inward turning of the eyes when focusing on nearby objects.
What is convergence?
In classical conditioning, the learned reaction to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus.
What is a conditioned response?