Chapter 1

Question 1

hindsight bias

Answer 1

the believe after learning an outcome that you would have known that.

Question 2

overconfidence

Answer 2

thinking that you know more than you actually know

Question 3

curiosity

Answer 3

passion for learning new things

Question 4

skepticism

Answer 4

not accepting a fact until you know it is true by either challenging it or testing it

Question 5

humility

Answer 5

being able to accept the fact that you are wrong

Question 6

critical thinking

Answer 6

does not accept arguments, claims and conclusions blindly. it examines assumptions, discerns hidden values and evaluates evidence

Question 7

James Randi

Answer 7

Tested Uri Geller to show that he could not read peoples minds when they were put in an unfamiliar situation.

Question 8

theory

Answer 8

an explanation that uses principles to organize observation and predicts behaviours or events

Question 9

hypothesis

Answer 9

a testable prediction prompted by a theory to enable us to accept reject or revise the theory

Question 10

operational definitions

Answer 10

statement of procedures used to define research variables

Question 11

research

Answer 11

is testing out the theory

Question 12

replicate

Answer 12

redoing the original observations with different participants, materials and circumstances

Question 13

descriptive research

Answer 13

a systematic, objective observation of people to get a clear picture of peoples behaviours, thoughts and attributes.

Question 14

case study

Answer 14

examines one individual or group in depth, can’t be used to generalize

Question 15

naturalistic observation

Answer 15

records behaviour in natural environment, describes behaviour but does not explain it

Question 16

Survey

Answer 16

examines many cases less in depth to find the reported attitudes or behaviours of a group. uses random sampling of population for best results

Question 17

correlation

Answer 17

the measure of how two things vary together

Question 18

correlation coefficient

Answer 18

statistical measure of the relationship between two variables

Question 19

scatterplot

Answer 19

graph compromised of points that are generated by values of two variables. slope is direction and amount of scatter points is the strength of the relationship

Question 20

positive correlation

Answer 20

two variables change in the same direction either increasing or decreasing together

Question 21

negative correlation

Answer 21

two variables change in opposite directions, one increasing and one decreasing

Question 22

random assignment

Answer 22

controlling certain variables minimizing differences

Question 23

random sampling

Answer 23

everyone in a population has an equal chance of being of being selected for the sample

Question 24

independent variable

Answer 24

the factor that is manipulated by the experimenter. the effect of this is the focus of the study

Question 25

dependent variable

Answer 25

factor that may change in response to the independent variable usually a behaviour or mental process.

Question 26

intuition

Answer 26

an effortless and immediate feeling or thought as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning

Question 27

illusory correlation

Answer 27

chance events are subject to our personal control

Question 28

regression toward the mean

Answer 28

the tendency for extreme or unusual scores or events to fall back toward the average

Question 29

experimental group

Answer 29

the group exposed to the treatment, that is, to one version of the independent variable

Question 30

control group

Answer 30

the group not exposed to the treatment, contrasts with experimental group and serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of treatment

Question 31

double-blind assignment

Answer 31

an experimental procedure in which both the research participants and the research staff are blind about whether the participants have received the treatment or a placebo

Question 32

placebo effect

Answer 32

experimental results caused by expectations alone. any effect on behaviour cause by the administration of a substance or condition, which the recipient assumes is an active agent

Question 33

confounding variable

Answer 33

a factor other than the independent variable that might produce an effect

Question 34

mode

Answer 34

the most frequently occurring scores in a distribution

Question 35

mean

Answer 35

the average of a distribution obtained by adding the scores and then dividing by the number of scores

Question 36

median

Answer 36

the middle score in a distibution, half the scores are above it and half the scores are below it.

Question 37

range

Answer 37

the difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution

Question 38

standard deviation

Answer 38

a computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean score

Question 39

statistical significance

Answer 39

a statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance