Experimental Psychology 7th Edition Test Bank

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Chapter 1
1
Chapter 1
Experimental Psychology and the Scientific Method
Chapter Overview
Researchers obtain knowledge about psychological processes by using scientific
methodology. The alternative, commonsense psychology, utilizes nonscientific sources
of data and inference, and is subject to many kinds of errors. Modern science avoids the
errors inherent in commonsense psychology by assuming a natural order (the scientific
mentality). Scientists gather observable data, develop laws or theories to organize and
explain our findings, use good thinking (objective, organized, rational, and parsimonious
reasoning), challenge findings through attempts to falsify–not verify–new hypotheses
(self-correction), publicize results, and repeat experimental procedures to confirm
previous findings (replication). Psychologists revise explanations and theories when
required by the weight of evidence.
The four major objectives of psychological research include description, prediction,
explanation, and control. Diverse psychological research methods are used in both
applied and basic research. The tools of psychological science are observation,
measurement, and experimentation. Researchers manipulate sets of antecedents called
treatments in a psychology experiment. The minimum requirements for an experiment
are that we must have procedures for manipulating the antecedents and the predicted
outcome must be observable. A psychology experiment is a controlled procedure in
which we apply at least two different treatment conditions to subjects and then measure
and compare subject behaviors to test an experimental hypothesis. Scientists use
experiments to infer a cause and effect relationship between treatment conditions and
subjects’ behavior.
When psychology joined the discipline of mental philosophy in the 1800s, it
contended against the popular pseudosciences of phrenology, physiognomy,
spiritualism, and mesmerism. Contemporary psychology deals with their modern
counterparts, like eye movement desensitization therapy. All of these therapies share
the appearance of being scientific, but they lack a scientific basis and have not been
confirmed using the scientific method.
Psychologists begin the experimental process by reviewing the research literature
to generate hypotheses about behavior, which provides the basis for the Introduction
section of a psychological report. We design a procedure to systematically test that
hypothesis, which is described in the Method section. We statistically analyze our
experimental data and report whether or not they support the hypothesis in the Results
section. Finally, we evaluate the meaning of our findings in the context of previous
research and re-evaluate our procedures and hypothesis in the Discussion section

Chapter 1
2
Chapter Outline
The Need for Scientific Methodology
Nonscientific Sources of Data
Nonscientific Inference
The Characteristics of Modern Science
The Scientific Mentality
Gathering Empirical Data
Seeking General Principles
Good Thinking
Self-Correction
Publicizing Results
Replication
The Objectives of Psychological Science
The Tools of Psychological Science
Observation
Measurement
Experimentation
Scientific Explanation in Psychological Science
Identifying Antecedent Conditions
Comparing Treatment Conditions
The Psychology Experiment
Establishing Cause and Effect
From Pseudoscience to Psychological Science
The Organization of the Text
Summary
Key Terms
Review and Study Questions
Critical Thinking Exercise
Online Resources
Key Terms
Antecedent conditions Observation
Applied research Parsimony
Basic research Pseudoscience
Cause and effect relationship Psychology experiment
Commonsense psychology Replication
Data Science
Empirical data Scientific method
Experimentation Subject
Good thinking Testable
Laws Theory
Measurement Treatment
Methodology

Chapter 1
3
Teaching Suggestions
Cengage Online Workshop Exercises
Introduce your students to the online resources available to them from Cengage. A few
of the sections most relevant to Chapter 1 are listed here:
http://www.wadsworth.com/psychology_d/templates/student_resources/workshops/inde
x.html
This is the home page for all Psychology resources. You may suggest that your
students bookmark this page and peruse the resources before the next class period.
http://www.wadsworth.com/psychology_d/templates/student_resources/workshops/resc
h_wrk.html
This is the gateway page for the information most relevant to Parts 1 and 2 of the
textbook: Research Methods.
http://www.wadsworth.com/psychology_d/templates/student_resources/workshops/res_
methd/science/science_01.html
The very first research methods workshop is called “What is Science?” and it covers
many of the same issues found in Chapter 1 of the text. After your students study this
workshop, they should be able to answer the following questions:
What makes something scientific?
What makes something empirical?
What are the goals of psychological science?
Describe Occam’s Razor.
What is a paradigm shift?
Additional Web Resources
http://www.wadsworth.com/psychology_d/templates/student_resources/workshops/res_
methd/science/science_01.html
This site from Wadsworth Research Methods Workshops covers the foundational
question: What is Science
http://psych.hanover.edu/research/exponnet.html
This is a great page with links to numerous ongoing psychology studies that your
students can learn about and even choose to participate in.
http://www.apa.org/
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/
These are the homepages for the American Psychological Association and the
Association for Psychological Science. Both are filled with resources for students,
faculty, researchers, and practitioners of psychology.

Chapter 1
4
Classroom/Homework Exercises
Commonsense Psychology
Our culture is full of psychological conclusions that are more based on commonsense
than science. For example, everyone knows that the “smart kids sit in the front of the
class.” Ask students to identify three or four of these adages. Ask them to describe the
nonscientific ways in which these conclusions were made, and identify problems with
these methods. Finally, brainstorm ways to scientifically investigate these sayings. Be
sure to point out to your students that “common sense” and “nonscientific inference”
usually involve going straight from observation or anecdote to conclusion, whereas the
scientific method inserts the critical steps of hypothesis/prediction and testing between
observation and conclusion.
Observation
Psychology is sometimes criticized as a “black box” science because it studies
processes that go on invisibly inside the mind. For each of the following invisible mental
processes, have students brainstorm ways in which these blackbox processes can be
observed systematically and then quantified. For example, memory can be measured
through a digit span task, a random word list, or a reading comprehension task.
Memory
Attention
Thinking
Emotion
Scientific versus Nonscientific Methodology
One point of Chapter 1 is the weakness of nonscientific inference. Each of the following
statements could be easily evaluated in a nonscientific way, but could also be examined
scientifically. Ask students to identify both nonscientific and scientific ways to evaluate
each statement. Have students specify potential problems with the nonscientific
approaches that are identified. Tip: be on the lookout for examples of verification rather
than falsification (see Handout 1-1).
“Attendance is worst in early morning classes.”
“Freshmen who have a boyfriend/girlfriend back home are more likely to
drop out of college than those who don’t.”
“Students who brown-nose in Dr. Ego’s class get better grades.”

Chapter 1
5
Handout 1-1: Falsification and Verification
An important, but often neglected, ingredient of scientific investigation is the process of
falsification. One reason falsification is neglected is that the opposite process,
verification, is so much easier. For each of the following hypotheses, identify data that
would verify the statement, and data that would falsify it.
“I feel best when I get to sleep in late.”
“My car gets the best fuel economy when I use a higher octane gas.”
“I do better on tests when I put off studying until the night before.”
“My parents will only be happy with me if I go to medical school.”
“Every member of the Lambda Delta fraternity is a jerk.”

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Chapter 1
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Key to Review and Study Questions
1. Why do we need scientific methods?
Science is one of many complementary approaches to studying our universe.
While science is unsuited for questions about the meaning of life or the nature of
God, scientists believe that scientific methods are our best means of
understanding human behavior. Scientific methods help us study psychological
processes in an objective, systematic, and replicable fashion.
2. How can commonsense psychology reduce objectivity when we gather data?
Commonsense psychology is the everyday, nonscientific collection of
psychological data used to understand the social world and guide our behavior.
While commonsense psychology often works adequately in commonplace
situations, like asking your roommate for a ride, it may mislead us in novel
circumstances, like answering personal questions during a job interview.
Commonsense psychology is not able to explain or predict human behavior, in
general, because it is crippled by reliance on nonscientific sources of information
and nonscientific inferential strategies.
3. Give an example of how you used commonsense psychology in the past week.
Students may cite diverse examples including judging the difficulty of an upcoming
test by the professor’s tone of voice and how to select compatible roommates.
4. What are the characteristics of modern science?
As scientists, we assume Alfred North Whitehead’s scientific mentality and believe
that the universe is orderly and that the scientific method can discover its laws. We
use good thinking, which is systematic, objective, and rational data collection and
interpretation. Good thinking uses logical and parsimonious reasoning.
We systematically collect empirical (observable) data using three main tools:
observation, measurement, and experimentation. We frame testable hypotheses
and design procedures, like experiments, to falsify them. We build general
principles from specific observations to explain our findings and then generate new
predictions from these principles.
Modern science is self-correcting since we appreciate the uncertainty of our
findings. The content of science changes as we acquire new information and
reevaluate previous data. We revise or replace theories as the weight of
evidence shifts.

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Chapter 1
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Scientists publicize results through presentations at professional meetings, in
scientific journals, and on the internet. This disseminates research findings and
reduces unintended duplication of effort.
Lastly, modern science is characterized by replication, which is the process of
repeating research procedures to confirm that the outcome will be the same as
before. Successful replication increases our confidence in the robustness of
research findings. Replication failures can help us identify the boundary conditions
within which a phenomenon occurs.
5. What do we mean by objectivity? How does objectivity influence observation,
measurement, and experimentation?
Objectivity means that our use of the scientific method is not biased by personal
beliefs or expectations.
Objectivity keeps a scientist “honest” during every aspect of the scientific method:
reviewing prior studies, selecting a question for study, framing a hypothesis,
designing an experiment, running an experiment, obtaining data, statistically
analyzing data, interpreting data, and explaining the meaning of our results in the
context of previous studies. Failure to maintain objectivity at any stage could result
in false conclusions.
6. Suppose that a researcher believed that firstborn children have higher IQs than
their later born sisters and brothers because the mother’s ova are younger
when firstborns are conceived. This hypothesis would not be testable. Explain why
not.
First, there is no noninvasive method of measuring the age of an ovum when it is
fertilized. Second, there is no ethical way to manipulate the age at which an ovum
is fertilized.
7. How does a psychology experiment demonstrate a cause and effect relationship
between antecedent conditions and behavior?
Antecedent conditions (treatments) are the circumstances that come before an
event or behavior we wish to explain. An experiment is a controlled procedure in
which we apply at least two different antecedent conditions to our subjects and
measure their effects on behavior.
An experiment must satisfy two requirements: we must have procedures for
manipulating the setting and we must be able to observe the predicted outcome.
After we administer the treatments, we measure and compare subject performance
across conditions to test the experimental hypothesis.

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Chapter 1
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8. What do we mean by treatment conditions in an experiment? Why must there be at
least two?
Treatment conditions are specific sets of antecedent conditions that an
experimenter applies to experimental subjects. A minimum of two treatment
conditions allows us to compare behavior under different treatments to control for
the effects of variables outside an experimenter’s control. For example, if subjects
receiving a new anti-depressant drug improve after three months, we cannot rule
out the contribution of the placebo effect, changes in other people’s expectations
and behavior toward them, and changes in their lifestyle, to their improvement. A
credible second treatment condition allows us to rule out these competing
explanations.
9. For each of the following examples, state at least one of the basic tools of
psychological science (observation, measurement, experimentation) that have
been violated, and explain the correct procedure:
a. Deanna wanted to do an experiment on gas mileage to see whether the name
brands give better mileage. She filled her tank with Fuel-Up one week and with
a well-known brand the following week. At the end of that time, she thought
things over and said, “Well, I didn’t notice much difference between the brands.
I filled the car with Fuel-Up on a Tuesday and needed gas again the following
Tuesday. It was the same story with the big-name brand, so they must be about
the same.”
Deanna violated the principles of measurement and control. To accurately
measure gas mileage, she should have recorded the exact number of miles
traveled on each tank of gas and the amount of fuel consumed during each
condition. To control the antecedent conditions, she should have ensured that
driving conditions (city or highway) and the way she drove (acceleration, load,
number of passengers, and speed) were identical.
b. Mike has been telling all his friends that his three-year-old daughter, Allie, can
read. One evening Mike invites some of his friends over for coffee and offers to
give a demonstration of his daughter’s remarkable skill. Allie then appears to
read a small storybook that Mike keeps on the coffee table. One of the friends
is not convinced and asks the little girl to read a page from a different but
equally simple storybook. Allie remains silent. Mike explains Allie’s behavior by
saying, “She’s just shy with strangers.”
Mike violated the principles of replication and objectivity. If Allie can actually
read, then she should have been able to read a page from a storybook of
comparable difficulty. Her inability to read this selection constituted a failure in
replication. Mike’s explanation, “She’s just shy with strangers,” showed his lack
of objectivity, since he was unwilling to consider an alternative explanation for

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Chapter 1
9
his daughter’s performance (e.g., she memorized his spoken words as he read
the storybook to her).
c. An author advocates the use of large doses of vitamin C to prolong life. In an
interview he says he has tried this treatment only on himself.
The author violated the principles of control and objectivity. To control
antecedent conditions, the author needed to randomly assign subjects with
comparable life expectancies to either vitamin C or control conditions. Since
there was only one treatment condition, we have no way to determine the
length of the author’s life without vitamin C therapy. We should also question
the author’s objectivity if his income were based on sales of books and fees
from lectures advocating this therapy.
d. A researcher wanted to compare the effects of a funny cartoon vs. a violent
cartoon on viewers’ moods. She measured mood by observing the body
language of her subjects. She couldn’t find any systematic differences in mood
for the two treatments.
The researcher violated the principle of measurement since body language
measures only one aspect of mood and is not a primary measurement tool in
research on emotion.
10. Explain why astrology is a pseudoscience rather than a true science.
A pseudoscience lacks a scientific basis and it does not confirm its claims using
the scientific method. Astrology is a pseudoscience because it does not utilize the
scientific method to postulate its assumptions and empirically test its predictions.
There is no objective evidence that testable astrological predictions achieve
greater than chance accuracy.
11. Name and describe each of the four main sections of the experimental report.
The four main sections of the experimental report include the Introduction, Method,
Results, and Discussion. The Introduction section states the research problem and
reviews prior studies in the field. The Method section describes the experimental
design, including the subjects, materials and equipment, and procedure. The
Results section reports the statistical analysis of the experimental data. Lastly, the
Discussion section summarizes, evaluates, and interprets the findings in the
context of the experimental hypothesis and previous studies.

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Chapter 1
1
Chapter 1
Experimental Psychology and the Scientific Method
Test Questions
Multiple Choice
1. (F) Introduction
The word science comes from the Latin scientia, which means
a. discovery.
* b. knowledge.
c. law.
d. truth.
2. (C) The Characteristics of Modern Science
The modern connotation of science includes
a. commonsense psychology.
b. the content of science.
c. the process of science.
* d. both the content and process of science.
3. (C) The Characteristics of Modern Science
Systematic data gathering, noting relationships, and offering explanations
are central to
a. commonsense psychology.
b. nonscientific inference.
c. the content of science.
* d. the process of science.
4. (F) The Need for Scientific Methodology
____ is everyday nonscientific data collection that shapes our
expectations and beliefs, and influences our social behavior.
* a. Commonsense psychology
b. Good thinking
c. Intuition
d. The scientific mentality

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Chapter 1
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5. (A) The Need for Scientific Methodology
Jon wears his favorite black tank top whenever he invites a dating
partner over for dinner. He claims, on the basis of 4 years’ experience, that
it makes him irresistible. Jon’s belief illustrates
* a. commonsense psychology.
b. intuition.
c. stereotyping.
d. the scientific mentality.
6. (F) The Need for Scientific Methodology
Two characteristics of commonsense psychology are that
a. it cannot be tested and does not make inferences.
b. it depends on systematic observation and almost never succeeds.
* c. it uses nonscientific data and makes nonscientific inferences.
d. it uses the content and process of science.
7. (C) The Need for Scientific Methodology
As commonsense psychologists, our ability to systematically and impartially
gather data is most seriously limited by our
a. failure to observe the behavior of others.
b. inferential strategies.
c. sources of psychological information.
* d. inferential strategies and sources of psychological information.
8. (C) The Need for Scientific Methodology
The North, Hargreaves, and McKendrick (1999) supermarket study
demonstrated that _____ can influence purchase decisions.
a. lighting
* b. music
c. product placement
d. shopping cart capacity
9. (F) The Need for Scientific Methodology
What did the North, Hargreaves, and McKendrick (1999) supermarket study
reveal about consumer purchasing decisions?
a. consumers are increasingly influenced by advertising on the web
* b. consumers are not always aware of their decision-making processes

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Chapter 1
3
c. consumer choices are often affected by the person with whom they are
shopping
d. men have more influence on snack food selection than women
10. (C) The Need for Scientific Methodology
Commonsense psychologists often _____ when they try to account for the
behavior of others.
a. overlook traits
b. overestimate situational causes
* c. prefer trait explanations over situational explanations
d. underestimate behavioral consistency across situations
11. (C) The Need for Scientific Methodology
All commonsense psychologists
a. are highly aware of their decision-making processes.
b. are situational theorists.
* c. are trait theorists.
d. use the same information sources and inferential strategies as scientists.
12. (C) The Need for Scientific Methodology
_____ better predict long-term behavior and _____better predict momentary
behaviors.
a. Situations; traits
b. Stereotypes; situations
c. Traits; stereotypes
* d. Traits; situations
13. (A) The Need for Scientific Methodology
Since Tim belongs to a Bible study group, a classmate mistakenly assumes
that he doesn’t drink alcoholic beverages and always votes Republican. This
example of nonscientific inference illustrates
a. confirmatory bias.
b. overconfidence bias.
* c. stereotyping.
d. the gambler’s fallacy.
14. (A) The Need for Scientific Methodology
Bama keeps playing the same slot machine because it has not paid off during
the last 2 hours. His behavior demonstrates the phenomenon of
a. confirmatory bias.
b. overconfidence bias.

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Chapter 1
4
c. stereotyping.
* d. the gambler’s fallacy.
15. (F) The Need for Scientific Methodology
Which of these involves poor use of data to estimate the true probabilities of
events?
a. confirmatory bias
b. overconfidence bias
c. stereotyping
* d. the gambler’s fallacy
16. (F) The Need for Scientific Methodology
In the phenomenon of _____, the more data we have, the more certain we
are of our predictions.
a. confirmatory bias
* b. overconfidence bias
c. stereotyping
d. the gambler’s fallacy
17. (A) The Need for Scientific Methodology
Dr. Jones mistakenly believes that he can identify students who will drop
before midterm by where they sit in the classroom. Years of teaching have
increased his misplaced faith in the accuracy of his predictions. This
illustrates the problem of
a. confirmatory bias.
* b. overconfidence bias.
c. stereotyping.
d. the gambler’s fallacy.
18. (F) The Characteristics of Modern Science
The assumption that human behavior follows a natural order corresponds to
Alfred North Whitehead’s concept of
a. empirical research.
b. falsification.
c. good thinking.
* d. the scientific mentality.
19. (A) Characteristics of Modern Science
Researchers who study how parenting style affects moral development
implicitly accept Alfred North Whitehead’s assumption of

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Chapter 1
5
a. commonsense psychology.
b. empirical research.
c. falsification.
* d. the scientific mentality.
20. (F) The Characteristics of Modern Science
Data are empirical when they are
a. observable.
b. verifiable through investigation.
c. experienced.
* d. observable or experienced, and verifiable through investigation.
21. (A) The Characteristics of Modern Science
Which of the following illustrates empirical data?
a. your attitude about gun control
b. your concept of friendship
c. your memories of Spring Break
* d. your reaction time
22. (F) The Characteristics of Modern Science
Whitehead credited _____ for advocating systematic observation and
careful classification of naturally-occurring events.
* a. Aristotle
b. Hume
c. Newton
d. Popper
23. (C) The Characteristics of Modern Science
_____ explain and predict behavior across the widest range of situations.
a. Constructs
b. Hypotheses
* c. Laws
d. Theories
24. (F) The Characteristics of Modern Science
Scientific principles that apply to all situations are called
a. constructs.
b. hypotheses.
* c. laws.
d. theories.

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Chapter 1
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25. (F) The Characteristics of Modern Science
Explanations of events are called laws when they
* a. apply to all situations.
b. apply to most, but not all, situations.
c. are supported by a majority of studies.
d. provide interim explanations.
26. (F) The Characteristics of Modern Science
_____ explained prior observations of stars through a system of
equations that expressed laws of celestial mechanics.
a. Aristotle
b. Galileo
c. Tycho Brahe
* d. Johannes Kepler
27. (F) The Characteristics of Modern Science
_____ are scientific principles that have received sufficient experimental
support to provide an interim explanation of events.
a. Constructs
b. Hypotheses
c. Laws
* d. Theories
28. (C) The Characteristics of Modern Science
Theories are explanations of events that
a. apply to all situations.
b. are supported by a majority of studies.
c. provide interim explanations.
* d. are supported by a majority of studies and provide interim explanations.
29. (F) The Characteristics of Modern Science
Sir Karl Popper proposed that science only progresses by replacing old
theories with new theories with greater
* a. explanatory power.
b. simplicity.
c. generality.
d. popularity.

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