Homework:  Research Designs

Name: _________________________________

1. Dr. Julius wanted to see if aggression was related to violent video games. He gave a large group of subjects an aggression questionnaire and asked each subject to write down how many hours per week he or she played violent video games. He discovered that the more time students spent playing violent video games, the higher their scores were on the aggression questionnaire.

  1. Describe the two variables under investigation and indicate (when appropriate) if each variable is an IV or a DV. (If an IV and DV were not used, refer to the variables as X and Y).

    2.  

     

     

  2. On what basis were the groups formed?

    3.  

     

  3. Which statistic would be appropriate to use in this study? Pearson’s r or t-test


  4. What conclusions can be drawn from his study?

    5.  

     

     

  5. What general type of design was used? Experimental or non-experimental

     f.    Which specific type of design was used?

 

 

  1. Ms. Farley wants to find out if 20 minute "power naps" will lead to an increase in the performance of her sales staff. She decides that the salespeople who work on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays must remain awake throughout their shifts. The employees who work on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays are allowed to take a 20-minute nap after lunch. She then keeps track of the daily sales (in dollars) of both groups for 30 days. At the end of the month she finds that the group which took naps had significantly higher sales than the group that didn’t.
  1. Describe the two variables under investigation and indicate (when appropriate) if each variable is an IV or a DV. (If an IV and DV were not used, refer to the variables as X and Y).

    2.  

     

     

  2. On what basis were the groups formed?

    3.  

     

  3. Which statistic would be appropriate to use in this study? Pearson’s r or t-test

  4. What conclusions can be drawn from this study?

    5.  

     

     

  5. What general type of design was used? Experimental or non-experimental

    f.    Which specific type of design was used?

 

 

3.    Professor Milton believes that cell phones may cause brain damage. She obtains a sample of subjects who have never owned cell phones. She then randomly places each subject into one of two groups. Each subject in the first group is given a free cell phone and instructed to use it for all of their calls (all bills will be paid by the research team). The second group is told to use regular phones ONLY (the research team will also pay their bills). At the end of one year, each subject is given a CT scan to determine if any visual brain damage is apparent. She finds no differences between the two groups with respect to visual brain damage.
  1. Describe the two variables under investigation and indicate (when appropriate) if each variable is an IV or a DV. (If an IV and DV were not used, refer to the variables as X and Y).

    2.  

     

     

  2. On what basis were the groups formed?

    3.  

     

  3. Which statistic would be appropriate to use in this study? Pearson’s r or t-test

  4. What conclusions can be drawn from this study?

    5.  

     

     

  5. What general type of design was used? Experimental or non-experimental

    f.    Which specific type of design was used?

 

 

 

 

4.    Mr. Polyglot believes that boys are naturally better at math than girls. For one full school year, he kept track of all of the scores in his 4th grade math class. He then compared the mean score of the boys to the mean score of the girls. He found that the boys scored significantly higher than the girls did.
  1. Describe the two variables under investigation and indicate (when appropriate) if each variable is an IV or a DV. (If an IV and DV were not used, refer to the variables as X and Y).

    2.  

     

     

     

  2. On what basis were the groups formed?

    3.  

     

  3. Which statistic would be appropriate to use in this study? Pearson’s r or t-test

  4. What conclusions can be drawn from this study?

    5.  

     

     

  5. What general type of design was used? Experimental or non-experimental

    f.    Which specific type of design was used?

 

 

 

5.    Dr. Willis believes that living near nuclear plants may cause cancer. In order to test his theory, he located a town (Springfield) that is in close proximity to a large nuclear plant. He then located a city similar to Springfield in terms of population, elevation, rainfall, type of weather, etc., but that was not near a nuclear plant. Over the next ten years he kept track of all cases of cancer reported in both cities. He found the rate of cancer in Springfield was significantly higher than the rate in the other city.
  1. Describe the two variables under investigation and indicate (when appropriate) if each variable is an IV or a DV. (If an IV and DV were not used, refer to the variables as X and Y).

    2.  

     

     

  2. On what basis were the groups formed?

    3.  

     

  3. Which statistic would be appropriate to use in this study? Pearson’s r or t-test

  4. What conclusions can be drawn from this study?

    5.  

     

     

     

  5. What general type of design was used? Experimental or non-experimental

    f.    Which specific type of design was used?

 

 

6.    Principal Strictland believes that disciplinary problems could be done away with if all students were required to eat in the cafeteria while listening to classical music (no talking allowed!). Principal Goodwill strongly disagrees with his old friend. So, the two decided to find out who was correct. Beginning in September, all students in Strictland’s school had to listen silently to classical music during lunch while students at Goodwill’s school ate lunch in the normal fashion. At the end of the year, the two principals compared the total number of disciplinary problems each had. They found that Principal Strictland was right. There were significantly fewer problems at his school.

  1. Describe the two variables under investigation and indicate if each variable is an IV or a DV. (If an IV and DV were not used, refer to the variables as X and Y).

    2.  

     

     

  2. On what basis were the groups formed?

    3.  

     

  3. Which statistic would be appropriate to use in this study? Pearson’s r or t-test

  4. What conclusions can be drawn from this study?

    5.  

     

     

     

     

  5. What type of design was used? Experimental or non-experimental

    f.    Which specific type of design was used?

 

 

7.     Professor Gilbert believes that consumption of tofu leads to better vision. To test his theory he asked 500 college students how much tofu they typically ate per month and what their vision was. He found that the more tofu a student ate, the closer that student’s vision was to 20/20.

  1. Describe the two variables under investigation and indicate (when appropriate) if each variable is an IV or a DV. (If an IV and DV were not used, refer to the variables as X and Y).

    2.  

     

     

  2. On what basis were the groups formed?

    3.  

     

  3. Which statistic would be appropriate to use in this study? Pearson’s r or t-test

    4.  

     

  4. What conclusions can be drawn from this study?

    5.  

     

     

  5. What general type of design was used? Experimental or non-experimental

    f.    Which specific type of design was used?

 

 

  1. Professor Sunnyhill heard about Professor Gilbert’s study. She decided to follow up on his research. To do this, she obtained 300 volunteers from her university. She then randomly placed each student into one of two groups. The first group of subjects was told to remain on their regular diets. The second group was instructed to remain on their regular diets but to add 4 ounces of tofu each day. At the end of 9 months, she compared the vision of the first group to the vision of the second group. She found no significant differences between the two groups.
  1. Describe the two variables under investigation and indicate (when appropriate) if each variable is an IV or a DV. (If an IV and DV were not used, refer to the variables as X and Y).

    2.  

     

     

  2. On what basis were the groups formed?

    3.  

     

     

  3. Which statistic would be appropriate to use in this study? Pearson’s r or t-test

    4.  

     

  4. What conclusions can be drawn from this study?

    5.  

     

     

  5. What general type of design was used? Experimental or non-experimental

    f.    Which specific type of design was used?

 

 

9.    Miss Marlowe believes that giving pop quizzes to her 9th grade history students will encourage them to keep up with their reading assignments and thus, improve their grades. But, pop quizzes are time consuming to write and score. To determine if the extra work is really worth it, she decides to conduct a study. She informs her 3 morning classes that pop quizzes will be giving throughout the trimester and she informs her 3 afternoon classes that she will always notify them of upcoming quizzes. At the end of the year, she compares the mean scores of the two groups and finds that her morning classes have significantly higher grades than her afternoon classes.
  1. Describe the two variables under investigation and indicate (when appropriate) if each variable is an IV or a DV. (If an IV and DV were not used, refer to the variables as X and Y).

    2.  

     

     

  2. On what basis were the groups formed?

    3.  

     

     

  3. Which statistic would be appropriate to use in this study? Pearson’s r or t-test

    4.  

     

  4. What conclusions can be drawn from this study?

    5.  

     

     

  5. What general type of design was used? Experimental or non-experimental

f.        Which specific type of design was used?

 

 

 


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