LAURENTIAN UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITÉ LAURENTIENNE

Course and No.

Date: April, 2022 Cours et no PSYC 3256 EL 12 Winter 2022

Total no. Of pages

Nombre total de pages 8 Questions 28

Professor Time allowed

Professeur .C. Whissell Durée de l'examen...5 Hours, Open Book

INSTRUCTIONS

1. This is an open-book exam: you can access any and all resources, but you are
expected NOT to consult with other students about it.
2. You have several days in which to complete the paper. It will be accessible in the
Dropbox at 8 am on Saturday, April 16 and will be due by midnight of Saturday,
April 23rd.
3. The exam should take about 3-4 hours to complete. It is assumed that you will use
the necessary time to complete the exam within the eight days allowed.
4. Answer everything on the examination paper, in the spaces provided.
5. Submit the examination paper, complete with the questions and answers, in the
Dropbox for the final examination when you have completed your work.

6. The examination has 28 questions: 10 in Part I, 7 in Part II, and 10 in Part III.
7. Each question has suggested length limits (in terms of number of words).
8. The total points are 101 points, with values for each question indicated in each
Part.
9. Please pay attention to all subparts of every question.

1
Part I Design Issues: 10 questions, 4 points each (total 40).
Explain both the similarity and difference between the two key terms in each option. In
your answer of about 30-50 words, explain:
a. How the two terms are related, and
b. How they are different.

Terms Your Answer

1. Internal and a
External
Validity b

2. Between a
Subjects and
Within b
Subjects
Design

3. Type I a
(alpha) and
Type 2(beta) b
error

4. A t test and a
Oneway
Analysis of b
Variance

5. Spearman a
and Pearson
Coefficients b

6. Bonferroni a
and LSD
Post Hoc b
Tests

2
 7. Experimental a
and Non-
experimental b
Designs

8. Positively a
and
Negatively b
Skewed
Distributions

9. Normal and a
Bimodal
Distributions b

10. Random a
Sample and
Stratified (or b
proportional)
Sample

Part II Understanding Research: 7 questions, 4 points per question, 28 points.

I will describe a research design. Your job is to answer the following 7 questions about
it. Each question is worth 4 points, for a total of 28 points. Answers will usually be at
most a sentence long: sometimes only a word or two is needed.
Researcher VG wanted to find a way to improve student study habits for the
Introduction to Psychology course. VG studied the literature and decided to use four
different study methods that were described in it.
Method A: unstructured study
Method B: structured study with outline
Method C: structured study with outline and discussion groups
Method D: structured study with outline, discussion groups, and practice tests.
Students studied in the specified way all term, and then took the same final exam at the
end.

3
Question Your Answer
1. Approximately how
many participants (in
total) should VG use?
Be realistic (VG does
not have years to
complete the
research); also be
statistically wise.

2. If we wanted to
describe VG’s study in
terms of a Control
Group, which Method
(A, B, C, or D) would
be the control group?
Why?

3. Why might VG want to

use SPSS to make
sure that the
distribution of scores in
the final exam was
normal? Which SPSS
procedure could VG
use to do this?
4. Which inferential
procedure/s should VG
use to compare the
group averages?
5. What would the null
hypothesis of the
statistical test in (4)
be? The alternative
hypothesis?
6. VG had a favorite
method – Method D.
VG believed D would
be better than all the
other methods. How
could this expectation
be tested statistically?
7. How might VG use
the technique of
random assignment to
groups in this

4
research?

5
Part III Reading SPSS output, 11 questions, 3 points each, 33 points.
This SPSS output is the result that VG got from data analysis for the research in the
previous question. Answer the eleven questions below, 4 points each. Use 30 words or
less for each answer. Sometimes only one or two words are enough.

Descriptives
finalexamscore

Std. Std.
N Mean Deviation Error
A 8 66.7500 13.41375 4.74248
B 9 76.6667 4.30116 1.43372
C 7 79.8571 5.39841 2.04041
D 8 88.2500 5.14782 1.82003
Total 32 77.7813 10.86496 1.92067

Tests of Homogeneity of Variances

Levene
Statistic df1 df2 Sig.
finalexamscore Based on Mean 2.832 3 28 .056
Based on Median 2.650 3 28 .068
Based on Median 2.650 3 14.239 .089
and with adjusted df
Based on trimmed 2.744 3 28 .062
mean

ANOVA
finalexamscore
Sum of Mean
Squares df Square F Sig.
Between 1891.612 3 630.537 9.987 .000
Groups

6
Within Groups 1767.857 28 63.138
Total 3659.469 31

Multiple Comparisons
Dependent Variable: finalexamscore
LSD
Mean 95% Confidence Interval
(I) (J) Difference Std. Lower Upper
method method (I-J) Error Sig. Bound Bound
*
A B -9.91667 3.86103 .016 -17.8256 -2.0077
*
C -13.10714 4.11241 .004 -21.5310 -4.6833
*
D -21.50000 3.97296 .000 -29.6382 -13.3618
*
B A 9.91667 3.86103 .016 2.0077 17.8256
C -3.19048 4.00437 .432 -11.3931 5.0121
*
D -11.58333 3.86103 .006 -19.4923 -3.6744
*
C A 13.10714 4.11241 .004 4.6833 21.5310
B 3.19048 4.00437 .432 -5.0121 11.3931
D -8.39286 4.11241 .051 -16.8167 .0310
*
D A 21.50000 3.97296 .000 13.3618 29.6382
*
B 11.58333 3.86103 .006 3.6744 19.4923
C 8.39286 4.11241 .051 -.0310 16.8167
*. The mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level.

Question Your Answer

1. How many
participants used
study Method C in
this research?
2. Which of the four
groups (A, B, C, or
D) had the widest
spread of scores
(greatest
variability)? How
do you know?
3. Was the
assumption of
homogeneity of
variance satisfied?

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 How do you know?
4. Was the main null
hypothesis of the
research rejected?
How do you know?
5. The F value of
9.987 comes from
dividing one _____________ is divided by _______________
number in the
ANOVA table by
another (it is a
ratio). What are
the two numbers?
6. In comparison to
a Bonferroni, was
the post hoc test
employed likely to
find and report
more or fewer
significant
differences? How
do you know?

7. Which two of the

study Methods
were most similar
to each other in
terms of final exam
mean?

8. According to the
post-hoc test, were
the two means in
your answer to the
previous question
(7) significantly
different?

9. Was VG’s
expectation (that
Method D would
provide the best
results) supported
by the data and
analysis? How do
you know?

8
10. How many
degrees of
freedom does the
F test have?
11. What was the
average score on
the final exam for
Group A?