University of Alberta PSYCH 212/ PSYCH212: Research Methods in Psychology_ Midterm Exam 2 | completed 100% questions and answers - Latest 2025/26.

LAST Name: _______________________ FIRST Name: _______________________ PSYCH 212: Research Methods in Psychology Fall 2025 Instructor: Kimberley Campbell University of Alberta Midterm Examination VERSION 2 Thursday, November 6, 2025 Instructions 1. This exam consists of 55 multiple choice questions and 3 short answer questions. 2. Answer the multiple choice questions by filling in the selected letter response on the multiple-choice “bubble” sheet (aka scantron sheet) provided using pencil. Scantrons filled out in pen will be graded as “no correct responses.” Pick the best, most correct answer from those provided. 3. Ensure that you correctly code your name (LastName, FirstName) and student ID in the appropriate places on the “bubble” sheet. 4. You are writing Version 2 of the exam. Fill in the number 2 in column J of the Special Codes section on your scantron to ensure correct grading. IDENTIFICATION NUMBER SPECIAL CODES A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ Օ 5. Answer the short answer questions by printing clearly in the space provided. Print your name at the top of the short-answer question page before detaching. 6. Do not look at other students’ exams. Do not allow other students to look at your exam. Either of these actions constitutes cheating. 7. You have 80 minutes to complete the exam. ●Part 1: Multiple Choice Questions (55 questions worth 1 mark each) 1. As a data-driven instructor, Dr. Campbell has decided to survey all her PSYCH 212 classes to measure how satisfied her students are with her teaching this semester. She is teaching two of the six sections of PSYCH 212 being offered in the department and wants to compare attitudes between her Monday, Wednesday, Friday (MWF) class and her Tuesday, Thursday (TR) class. In this example, what is the population? a. All Dr. Campbell’s PSYCH 212 students b. All Dr. Campbell’s students across all classes c. All students in the Psychology Department d. All students taking PSYCH 212 2. In the example above, if 90 of 100 students in the MWF class complete the survey and 83 of 95 students in the TR class, what can Dr. Campbell conclude in regards to her sample? a. Her sample is biased b. Her sample came from her population of interest c. Her sample is larger than the population d. Her sample is representative 3. A researcher has conducted a study, aiming to find an association claim between two measured variables. If the data from this study is presented in a bar graph, which of the following would show the association that the researcher is investigating? a. The number of observations summarized by each bar b. The direction of the bars c. A difference in the heights of the bars d. The number of bars shown in the graph 4. A recent graduate has decided to systematically evaluate the effectiveness of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) Test in the hopes of showing once and for all that it is a terrible predictor of student success in graduate school. He decides to study the universities in his own province to start. There are 15 universities with graduate programs, and he randomly chooses five. Then, of the 2,500 graduate students in each of those five universities, he randomly recruits 250 students. This is an example of which of the following sampling techniques? a. Cluster sample b. Systematic sample c. Multistage sample d. Snowball sample 5. Which of the following statements is true of random assignment and random sampling? a. They both mean the same thing. b. They both are necessary for association claims. c. Random assignment is necessary for external validity, whereas random sampling is necessary for internal validity. d. Random assignment is most important for internal validity.6. A news report claimed: "Video Games Make Kids Violent." The report cited a study comparing children at two schools. One school was a boarding school where children were not permitted to use computers or other electronic gaming systems even outside of classes, while the other was a public school where access to gaming devices was not restricted at all. Though the two school environments are very different in a variety of ways outside of their policies on gaming, none of those other potential confounds are mentioned in the report. Which validity is threatened by these potential confounds? a. External validity b. Internal validity c. Construct validity d. Statistical validity 7. Planning for a future experiment, Dr. Doofenshmirtz wants to investigate the relationship between voice pitch (quantified as the average frequency of an individual’s normal speaking voice) and happiness (quantified as a score from 1 to 10 from a standardized survey). He finds a significant negative relationship between the variables (r = -0.11). From this information, what would a scatterplot of data points from this study look like? a. The cloud of points would slope downward from left to right. b. There isn't enough information given to determine this. c. The cloud of points would have no slope at all. d. The cloud of points would slope upward from left to right. 8. After the correlational study above, Dr. Doofenshmirtz has decided to create a machine that increases the pitch or frequency of an individual’s voice (which he names the toneinator). He wants to see if increasing the frequency of people’s voices lowers their happiness score, so he measures 100 people’s happiness scores before randomly assigning them into two groups. Group One gets their voice frequency increased by the machine while Group Two does not. He then measures their happiness scores a week later. This experiment is best described as a __________. a. Repeated-measures design b. Concurrent-measures design c. Posttest only design d. Pretest/posttest design 9. In the experiment above, Dr. Doofenshmirtz found that the average change in happiness score between the two groups was not significantly different. Which of the following conclusions best explains the discrepancy between the negative correlation found in his first study (in Q 7) and the nonsignificant result found in his second study (in Q 8)? a. The experimental study was likely better able to account for confounding variables than the correlation, so the experiment is more valid b. The experiment only tested for the effect of voice pitch on happiness, not happiness on voice pitch, so happiness and voice pitch could still be causally related c. There must not have been a real relationship between voice pitch and happiness in the first study if the experiment failed to match the original findings d. The correlational study was likely better able to account for confounding variables than the experiment, so the correlational study is more valid10. Emilia runs a co-ed basketball league and wants to administer a survey about how players are enjoying the league. From enrolement data, Emilia knows that 65% of the players identify as male, 25% identify as female, and the remaining 10% selected “Other/choose not to disclose” option. Since she has a list of all the players and their gender identities, Emilia decides to randomly select 65 individuals who identified as male, 25 that identified as female, and 10 that selected “other” from the list to give her 100 total participants that represent the league. Which sampling method is she using? a. Cluster sampling b. Multistage sampling c. Quota sampling d. Stratified random sampling 11. Adding several variables to a regression analysis can help do which of the following? a. Increase the construct validity of a study b. Meet the temporal precedence criterion for causal inference c. Increase the statistical significance of the results d. Control for several variables at once 12. Tetiana is conducting an experiment on visual sensitivity. She has participants sit with their chin on a support bar at the center of a rounded screen and has them focus their eyes on a stationary point in the middle. The experiment involves displaying lights of different intensities at different locations on the screen. The participants need to press a button each time they see a light. Tetiana records how often the participant was correct in their responses (“light on, button pressed” and “no light, no button”) and incorrect in their responses (“light on, no button” and “no light, button pressed”). Tetiana is using a repeated-measures design. Which is the independent variable in this experiment? a. Light brightness and location b. Button presses c. Number of correct responses d. Number and type of correct and incorrect responses 13. The Yerkes-Dodson law (1908) shows performance increases with arousal up to a point, but beyond that, performance decreases with increasing arousal. Which type of correlation is this? a. Positive b. Negative c. Zero d. Curvilinear 14. Dr. Mou wants to use a longitudinal study to investigate the relationship between selfesteem and social media use. They collect data at three time periods: Time 1, Time 2, and Time 3. A negative correlation between social media use at Time 1 and social media use at Time 2 is an example of which of the following? a. A significant cross-sectional correlation b. An insignificant finding c. A significant autocorrelation d. A significant cross-lag correlation15. Participants in a research study are given a list of words to study for 3 minutes and then, after a delay, are asked to recall the list. The length of the delay is manipulated between participants to be either 2 minutes, 5 minutes, or 10 minutes. Because different groups need different amounts of time, the first 25 participants who arrive are assigned to the 10-minute group, the next 25 are assigned to the 5-minute group, and the final 25 are assigned to the 2-minute group. Which confound does this create? a. Design confounds b. Selection effect c. Practice effects d. Carryover effect 16. Random assignment enhances _________ validity and random selection enhances _________ validity. a. internal; external b. external; internal c. internal; internal d. external; external 17. A small business owner wants to see if having a 25% off sale will bring in enough business to be worth the reduced prices. To make it a good experiment, the owner only dropped the price of five shop items while the rest remained at full price. They compared the total number of sales from the month before the sale, the month while the sale was running, and the month after the sale ended between the items that were on sale versus those not on sale. The owner found that while the non-sale purchases were unchanged, the number of sale items purchased during the sale was significantly higher than before or after the sale. Which is the independent variable in this study? a. Items being on sale or not b. Time (before, during, after sale) c. Purchases for the month the sale ran d. Number of purchases 18. What is the primary difference between pretest/posttest designs and within-groups designs? a. The number of levels of the independent variable participants are exposed to b. There is no difference between the two designs. c. The number of participants used d. The number of times the dependent variable is measured 19. Dr. Gong conducts a study where she randomly assigns participants to different experimental conditions. The testing for each condition occurs in a different room of the psychology building. After collecting her data, she learns that the air conditioning in one of the rooms had been turned off during data collection. Which of the following threats to internal validity should Dr. Gong be concerned with? a. Order effect b. Maturation effect c. Design confound d. Selection effect20. When examining the results of a multiple regression, which of the following should be compared to determine which predictor variables have the largest relationship to the criterion variable? a. Significance values b. Effect sizes c. r values d. Beta values 21. A multiple-regression analysis is run to examine third variables as a follow-up to a study indicating that those who watch more violent media are more likely to commit violent crimes. Socioeconomic status, parental presence, and age are all included as predictor variables. Even after controlling for these variables, violent media is still a predictor of violent behaviour. Which of the following explains why this study doesn't establish causation? a. The beta values are not shown, so there isn't enough information to establish covariance. b. No significant cross-lag correlations were found. c. Temporal precedence isn't established between the variables. d. There may be some other third variable. 22. Which of the following is true of selection effects? a. Selection effects are unimportant for interrogating internal validity b. Selection effects are rarely considered in causal experiments c. Selection effects are a type of control variable d. Selection effects can occur when experimenters allow participants to choose their own treatment group 23. A researcher has examined a variety of correlational studies that point to a causal relationship between two variables. All of the studies have found a positive relationship between the two variables, but for ethical reasons, no experiments have been conducted. Using an approach of pattern and parsimony, the researcher may begin to make a causal claim by doing which of the following? a. Examining the dates of the studies to look for temporal precedence b. Replicating all of the original studies c. Running another correlational study but with more people d. Specifying a mechanism or explanation for the causal relationship 24. A librarian wants to determine if children enjoy books with AI generated illustrations any less than those with artist-created illustrations. A group of 50 children are shown two copies of a book at the same time. The story is the same but one book has AI-created illustrations and the other has artist-created illustrations. Students are then asked to indicate which book they prefer. This is an example of which of the following designs? a. Concurrent-measures design b. Posttest-only design c. Longitudinal design d. Repeated-measures design25. Dr. Russell did a study that found praise provided by supervisors is associated with higher levels of work productivity only because more-motivated employees are praised more often, and highly motivated people are more productive. In her findings, employee motivation is a ___________ in the relationship between praise from supervisors and work productivity. a. confounding third variable b. criterion variable c. mediator d. moderator 26. If a researcher is asking why the relationship between two variables exists, she is curious about which of the following? a. Third variables b. Controlling variables c. Mediation d. Moderation 27. What is the difference between concurrent-measures and repeated-measures designs? a. Concurrent-measures design is an independent-groups design; repeatedmeasures design is a within-group design. b. Concurrent-measures designs expose participants to the levels of the independent variable at roughly the same time; repeated-measures designs expose participants to the levels of the independent variable sequentially. c. Concurrent-measures designs can have any number of levels of an independent variable; repeated-measures designs can only have two levels of the independent variable. d. There is no difference; they are two terms for the same design. 28. When interrogating the construct validity of the dependent variable in an experiment, which of the following questions should be asked? a. "How well was this variable manipulated?" b. "How well was this variable controlled by the experimenter?" c. "How well was this variable explained to participants?" d. "How well was this variable measured?" 29. Which of the following phrases describes a manipulated variable? a. "Participants were placed in the soft background music condition, the white noise condition, or the no sound condition based on a dice roll." b. "Researchers recorded the length of time participants took to escape the maze." c. "Participants recorded how many customers they served each shift." d. "Researchers noted whether children volunteered to read in class or not." 30. All else being equal, which of the following is most important for external validity? a. A large sample size b. Using measures that are valid and reliable c. Random sampling d. Random assignment31. Vida is studying the connection between school grades and time spent using social media. She measures social media use at the beginning of the semester and grades at the end of the semester. Vida finds using more social media early in the semester was linked with lower school grades. Which other criterion of causality does she need if she wants to establish causation? a. Temporal precedence b. Covariance c. Convergent validity d. Internal validity 32. Which popular media headline might suggest that a multiple regression has been used? a. "Eating lunch away from your desk is associated with greater work productivity." b. "Vacations are important for happiness, even when length of vacation is controlled for.” c. "Pet ownership is an important predictor of well-being in elderly adults." d. "Daughters are happier when their mothers are happy working outside the home." 33. Which of the following is a threat to internal validity found in within-groups designs but not in independent-groups designs? a. Demand characteristics b. Practice effects c. Selection effects d. Design confounds 34. Professor Nakum designs an experiment to test the effect of word familiarity on memory. Three lists of words are created: common words, uncommon words, and made-up words. Participants study one of the lists of 30 words for 5 minutes, do math problems for 5 minutes, then write all the words they recall from the list. Their score is the number of words correctly recalled. Which of the following is the dependent variable? a. The length of the list studied b. The number of words correctly recalled c. The type of word list d. The time spent studying the list 35. Which of the following is NOT true of control variables? a. Control variables are important in experimental designs. b. Control variables are kept the same for all participants. c. Control variables help define the control group. d. Control variables help establish internal validity. 36. Which of the following is NOT true of 95% confidence intervals (CIs)? a. They give you information about the precision of an association b. They give you information about the strength of an association c. You can infer statistical significance from them d. Studies with larger samples will have narrower 95% CIs than those with smaller samples37. Chenoa finds a positive association between hours of sleep and well-being, and she wants to see whether this association is the same for teenagers (ages 16–19) as it is for young adults (ages 20–24). What discovery would suggest that the association between hours of sleep and well-being is driven by a third variable? a. Hours of sleep and well-being are equally positively associated for teenagers and young adults b. The association between hours of sleep and well-being is stronger for teenagers than for young adults c. Hours of sleep and well-being are positively associated for teenagers but have zero association for young adults d. Overall, teenagers report sleeping more and having greater well-being than young adults 38. Which of the following statements are TRUE? a. If a third variable is associated with the criterion variable, the relationship between the key predictor and the criterion variable is no longer meaningful b. Effect sizes in multiple regression analyses can be represented by both b and r c. Multivariate designs are no better than bivariate correlations when it comes to how close they can get to establishing causation d. Multiple regression can help limit problems with internal validity by controlling for potential third variables 39. Which of the following is TRUE of the difference between beta and r? a. Unlike r, beta cannot be negative b. Unlike r, beta reflects the independent contribution of the predictor variable, controlling for the other predictor variables c. Unlike r, a beta of zero reflects a statistically significant relationship between the predictor variable and the criterion variable d. None of the above are true 40. Which of the following are FALSE about within-groups designs? a. They are superior to independent-groups designs b. They require fewer participants than independent-groups designs c. They make it easier to be certain of differences between conditions than independent-groups designs d. Participants serve as their own control 41. Indra wants to investigate the relationship between job status (whether or not they have a job) and grades among college students. She goes to the student center and hands out a survey with two questions about job status and GPA. She finds that at her institution, students with jobs have higher grades than students without jobs. Which of the three causal criteria are established in Indra’s study? a. Covariance b. Temporal precedence c. Internal validity d. Both A and B42. Professor Horvat designs a study to assess the work satisfaction and home-life satisfaction of a group of graduate students and measures those variables on two occasions, 1 year apart. If she finds that home-life satisfaction at the first time point is strongly correlated with job satisfaction at the second time point, but that there is no correlation between job satisfaction at the first time point and home-life satisfaction at the second time point, which statement explains why Professor Horvat can’t conclude that home-life satisfaction causes job satisfaction? a. Home-life satisfaction is not related to job satisfaction b. There are potential third variables that might explain the relationship c. Home-life satisfaction does not occur before job satisfaction d. All of the above are true 43. Leigh is interested in looking at how caloric intake affects performance. She conducts a study in which participants drink a cup of water before completing a task and then eat a small meal before completing the task again 5 hours later. Which type of design is this? a. Repeated-measures design b. Concurrent-measures design c. Posttest only design d. Pretest/posttest design 44. Conducting a longitudinal study looking at educational television program (ETP) consumption and job success, Dr. Wu found that ETP consumption at Time 1 was positively correlated with job performance at Time 2. Which of the following best describes this finding and its relationship to establishing causality? a. A cross-sectional correlation that establishes covariance b. A cross-sectional correlation that establishes internal validity c. A cross-lag correlation that establishes internal validity d. A cross-lag correlation that establishes temporal precedence 45. Rukmini is running a study to examine the effect of music genre on mood. She randomly assigns participants to three conditions: rock, jazz, and country. She has the participants rate their mood, then listen to their assigned music for 20 minutes, and then fill out the mood questionnaire again. This is an example of which type of design? a. Repeated-measures design b. Concurrent-measures design c. Posttest only design d. Pretest/posttest design 46. Abhinav wants to investigate whether music genre affects concentration levels. He wants his participants to listen to two genres of music, classical music and pop music, while completing a concentration task. After conducting the experiment, he finds a significant difference in performance between the two music conditions. Which of the following results would be consistent with this finding? a. p = 0.5 b. r = 0.1 c. 95% CI [−.43, −.05] d. None of the above would indicate a significant finding47. What is the main difference between pretest/posttest and repeated-measures designs? a. The number of levels of the independent variable participants experience b. The number of threats to internal validity c. The number of independent variables d. The number of testing times 48. Which of the following is FALSE about interrogating causal claims with the four validities? a. Causal claims cannot be made if experiments contain confounds b. Replicating an experiment in another population increases external validity c. Many experiments sacrifice external validity to achieve internal validity d. Replicating an experiment with a larger sample improves external validity 49. Mohamad hypothesizes that lack of sleep before the age of 7 results in substance abuse later in life. He realizes that it would be unethical to conduct an experiment depriving children of sleep and that a correlational study could not establish temporal precedence. Mohamad decides to conduct several different studies to establish multiple association claims that point to his hypothesis. What is Mohamad’s approach called? a. Bivariate correlation b. Multiple regression c. Pattern and parsimony d. Longitudinal study 50. Which of the following are TRUE of pattern and parsimony? a. The technique relies on the weight of evidence from multiple studies b. All of the above are true c. The technique can only be considered with other experiments d. The technique works best when all of the studies use similar methodologies 51. Professor Espejo wonders if there is an association between students’ grades and extra credit points earned in his classes. He examines the number of extra credit points his students earned and the percentage grade his students earned without extra credit. He finds r = .28. Which of the following statements are true of this study? a. The study involves one categorical and one quantitative variable b. The data would work better in a bar graph than a scatterplot c. The correlation indicates that students with higher grades are more likely to earn extra credit than students with lower grades are d. The correlation indicates that students with lower grades are more likely to earn extra credit than students with higher grades are 52. Which of the following questions are NOT applicable to interrogating internal validity? a. Did the study ensure there were not variables that systematically varied with the independent variable? b. Did the study counterbalance the order of conditions? c. Did the study use random sampling? d. Did the study use random assignment?53. What is the reason that researchers sometimes rely on pattern and parsimony to investigate causality? a. The technique can effectively examine multiple theories at the same time b. It may not be ethical or practical to manipulate certain variables c. The technique controls for all possible third-variable explanations d. It is difficult to conduct multiple studies on the same theory 54. Dr. Kline, an environmental psychologist, conducts a study to examine whether visiting zoos causes people to have more positive attitudes toward environmental conservation. He asks a group of 45 people attending the zoo on a Saturday morning about their attitudes. He finds that 69% of the people report having a positive attitude after their visit. Which of the following is true? a. He can make a strong causal claim about the effect of zoo visits on environmental attitudes. b. His study does not qualify as an experiment. c. His control group is people who did not visit the zoo. d. He does not have a dependent variable. 55. In the study shown below, how could a researcher change it into a within-groups design? a. By adding another independent variable b. By having participants play both the competitive game and the noncompetitive game c. By adding a control group d. By removing the first blood pressure measurementLAST Name: _______________________ FIRST Name: _______________________ Part 2: Short Answer Questions (3 questions worth 2 marks each) Print your responses clearly in the space below. Make sure that you answer all parts of each question. Point form responses are encouraged. Do not feel the need to fill the space provided. 1. Briefly explain the difference between a moderator, mediator, and a third variable. Are they all a problem in research; Why or why not? (2 marks) 2. Provide one advantage and one disadvantage for both within-groups and between-groups (independent-groups) designs. (2 marks)3. Why is the size of a sample used in a study less important than how that sample was collected? What type of validity is most relevant to this distinction? (2 marks)