week 4

Question 1

What is the purpose of a research question?

Answer 1

To clearly state what the research is trying to find out. Good RQs are clear, concise, and general.

Question 2

What types of research questions exist?

Answer 2

Descriptive, comparative, explanatory, and relational.

Question 3

What is an example of a descriptive research question?

Answer 3

What are the factors that lead to user presence in VR?

Question 4

What is an example of a comparative research question?

Answer 4

Are there differences in user presence between AR and VR HMDs?

Question 5

What is an example of an explanatory research question?

Answer 5

Why are there differences in presence between AR and VR HMDs?

Question 6

What makes a good research study topic?

Answer 6

It should be novel, useful, scientific, clearly written, and based on evidence.

Question 7

What is the function of related work in research?

Answer 7

It helps define what has already been done and identifies research gaps to build novel contributions.

Question 8

What tools can help find related work?

Answer 8

Google Scholar, ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplore, and snowballing references from other papers.

Question 9

What is peer review in research publishing?

Answer 9

Experts anonymously review submitted papers for quality, clarity, novelty, and completeness before acceptance.

Question 10

What are the three passes in the Three-Pass Approach to reading a paper?

Answer 10

First pass: skim title, abstract, intro, conclusion. Second pass: review details, figures, notes. Third pass: critically assess assumptions and structure.

Question 11

What is a hypothesis?

Answer 11

A prediction based on related work about what the researcher expects to find.

Question 12

What are independent variables?

Answer 12

Factors manipulated in a study (e.g., headset type, emotion).

Question 13

What are dependent variables?

Answer 13

Factors measured to assess the effect of independent variables (e.g., enjoyment, presence).

Question 14

What is within-groups design?

Answer 14

One group is tested under multiple conditions or over time.

Question 15

What is between-groups design?

Answer 15

Different groups are tested under different conditions for comparison.

Question 16

What is experimental design?

Answer 16

Participants are assigned to controlled conditions, allowing cause-effect inference.

Question 17

What is quasi-experimental design?

Answer 17

Uses natural groups without random assignment (e.g., comparing VR users vs. non-users).

Question 18

What is correlational design?

Answer 18

Investigates whether variables are statistically related without manipulating them.

Question 19

What factors influence research design choice?

Answer 19

Resources, ethical constraints, previous research, and researcher’s methodological preference.

Question 20

What does a good study design need to be?

Answer 20

Ethical, scientifically rigorous, and appropriately matched to the research question.

Question 21

What is the difference between empirical and theoretical research?

Answer 21

Empirical research collects and analyzes direct observations or experiences; theoretical research uses logic and theory to predict or explain outcomes.

Question 22

What are lab studies in empirical research?

Answer 22

Controlled experiments offering high internal validity but low realism or external validity.

Question 23

What are field studies in empirical research?

Answer 23

Real-world observations offering high external validity but less control and internal validity.

Question 24

What is internal validity?

Answer 24

The degree to which observed changes in the dependent variable are directly caused by changes in the independent variable.

Question 25

What is external validity?

Answer 25

The extent to which study results can be generalized to other settings, people, times, and contexts.

Question 26

What is the tradeoff between internal and external validity?

Answer 26

Higher control improves internal validity but may reduce realism; real-world setups improve external validity but introduce more variables.

Question 27

What is a pilot study?

Answer 27

A small, preliminary study to test feasibility, setup, instructions, and logistics before the main study.

Question 28

What are confounding variables?

Answer 28

Uncontrolled factors that may affect results, making it unclear whether effects are due to the independent variable.

Question 29

What is order bias?

Answer 29

When task order affects results, e.g., participants perform better later due to practice or fatigue.

Question 30

What is a Latin Square used for?

Answer 30

A method to counterbalance order effects in within-subject designs by rotating the order of conditions across participants.

Question 31

What are training effects?

Answer 31

Improvements in performance due to learning over time rather than the independent variable.

Question 32

What is participant fatigue?

Answer 32

Performance declines due to tiredness from long or repetitive tasks, which can bias results.

Question 33

What is misunderstanding bias in participants?

Answer 33

Errors caused by unclear instructions, inconsistent tools, or misinterpreted tasks.

Question 34

What is social desirability bias?

Answer 34

Participants respond in ways they think are socially acceptable or pleasing to the researcher, rather than being truthful.

Question 35

What is self-selection bias?

Answer 35

Bias introduced when participants volunteer, possibly leading to an unrepresentative sample (e.g., tech-savvy users only).

Question 36

What is participant drop-out (mortality)?

Answer 36

When participants leave the study early, possibly skewing results if their data is excluded.

Question 37

What is the Hawthorne Effect?

Answer 37

Behavior changes simply due to awareness of being observed, not due to the independent variable.

Question 38

What is interaction bias?

Answer 38

When participants influence each other, leading to imitation, competition, or demoralization that skews results.

Question 39

What is a between-participants design?

Answer 39

Different groups test different conditions, avoiding order effects but susceptible to individual differences.

Question 40

What is a within-participants design?

Answer 40

All participants test all conditions, reducing individual differences but requiring counterbalancing for order effects.

Question 41

What is a matched-participant design?

Answer 41

Pairs of participants are matched on relevant traits and each tested under different conditions to reduce variation.

Question 42

What should you do when discussing threats to validity in exams?

Answer 42

Identify the threat, explain its impact, propose how to address it, and discuss how results might change if fixed.