AP Psychology › Influential Experiments and Methods
Solomon Asch's line judgment task investigated which phenomenon of human interaction?
Conformity
Empathy
Altruism
Obedience
Dependency
Participants in the line-judgment task were asked to identify which of three lines shown in a series of projected images was the longest while sitting in a room with a group of study confederates whom they believed were other participants in the study. The confederates would unanimously agree on the same incorrect line for a question, forcing the participant to choose between conforming to the majority opinion or trusting his/her own eyes and dissenting.
What is the main difference between laboratory experiments and field experiments?
Laboratory experiments are conducted in the lab and field experiments are conducted in the real world
Laboratory experiments are conducted in the real world and field experiments are conducted in the lab
Laboratory experiments are more realistic
Field experiments are more easily controlled
Laboratory and field experiments differ based on the number of subjects
The difference between laboratory experiments and field experiments is not the number of subjects, but the place where they are conducted-the lab or the outside world. Lab experiments are more easily controlled whereas field experiments are more realistic.
Which of the following best describes the difference between basic and applied psychological research?
Basic research is more theoretical while applied research is more practical
Applied research is more theoretical while basic research is more practical
Basic research is more biological while applied research is more philosophical
Basic research is used for simple problems while applied research is used for complex problems
Basic research is used for complex problems while applied research is used for simple problems
The distinction between basic and applied research does not have to do with the difficulty of the problem or to which branch of psychology it relates. Basic research is more theoretical and focused on understanding a phenomenon, whereas applied research is more focused on solving a real-world problem.
A researcher wants to run a study to figure out whether people who drink water are happier than people who drink soda. If some of the subjects are led to believe that they drank something (when they didn't) and their happiness changes, what experimental error is this an example of?
Placebo Effect
Experimenter Bias
Order Effects
Participant Effect
Confounding Variable
The placebo effect occurs when a participant does not have the treatment but has effects from believing that they had the treatment.
Order effects occur when the order of the tasks in a study affects the outcomes.
A confounding variable is a variable besides the IV affects the DV in a systematic way that makes it hard to tell what the IV’s effect is on the DV.
Participant bias is when the participant accidentally affects the results of the study by doing or saying what they think the experimenter wants them to do or say rather than what they naturally would.
Experimenter bias is when the experimenter affects the results of their own study because of their expectations.
A researcher wants to run a study to figure out whether people who drink water are happier than people who drink soda. In order to figure this out, the researcher tests the happiness of the subjects, has them do a long puzzle to distract them, has them drink either the water or the soda, and then tests their happiness again. If the subjects' happiness goes down because they did the puzzle in between the two happiness tests, what kind of experimental error is this?
Order Effects
Experimenter Bias
Participant Bias
Placebo Effect
Confounding Variable
Order effects occur when the order of the tasks in a study affects the outcomes.
A confounding variable is a variable besides the IV affects the DV in a systematic way that makes it hard to tell what the IV’s effect is on the DV.
Participant bias is when the participant accidentally affects the results of the study by doing or saying what they think the experimenter wants them to do or say rather than what they naturally would.
Experimenter bias is when the experimenter affects the results of their own study because of their expectations.
The placebo effect occurs when a participant does not have the treatment but has effects from believing that they had the treatment.
In Stanley Milgram’s famous experiment on obedience, he asked participants to administer electric shocks to another person in order to help the person learn a list of words. They could hear but not see the other person; furthermore, the “learner” was an actor and no electric shocks were ever administered to them. Which of the following best describes Milgram’s primary finding?
People obeying instructions from an established authority figure may feel they are simply an instrument of this authority figure and therefore feel much less responsibility for their actions.
When it comes to inflicting physical harm on another human being, people demonstrate strong altruistic tendencies.
Removing a source of physical pain (the shock) in response to a correct answer is an effective method of negative reinforcement.
Confederate approaches are often not convincing enough to use in formal research.
In this study, participants continued to administer what they thought were high-voltage shocks up until and even past the point on the dial marked “fatal,” presumably because the experimenter told them to keep going. This appears to suggest that people are much more blindly obedient to authority than they think they are, and people may carry out horrible acts they normally never would simply because they were told to by an authority figure. While removing a shock in response to a correct answer would be negative reinforcement, it is important to remember that no one was actually ever shocked in this experiment. This is because the “learner” was actually a confederate—a researcher acting as if he or she is another participant in order to add an element of deception to the experimental design.
In Mark Rosenzweig and David Krech's 1950's rat experiment, they observed rats that were in impoverished caged environments versus ones in cages with communally enriched environments that included slides and toys. Which of the following best represent the significant discovery that resulted from the brain analysis of the two types of rats?
The rats that lived in the enriched environment usually developed a thicker and heavier brain cortex
The rats that lived in confinement developed more neural connections
There were no difference between the rats' brains
The rats from the enriched environments had significant development in all brain tissue
The rats from the impoverished environment had significant development in all brain tissue
The result Rosenzweig and colleagues noted was that the brain weight of the environmentally enriched rats increased over time relative to the impoverished rats. Taking a closer look, they realized that it was specifically the cerebral cortex that had the most significantly noticeable difference. This experiment marked a cornerstone in the “nature vs. nurture” debate where genes ("nature") are said to be be responsible for the brain's blueprints, but experiences ("nurture") fill in the rest—in this case, development and establishing impressive branched neural connections. In order to make sure, Rosenzweig and colleagues repeated the experiment multiple times prior to publishing. This finding has been extended into observing the importance of nurturing in early childhood. This was true for the young rats—as seen in the experiment—and has been noted for young children as well.
A researcher is curious about how temperature relates to aggression and predicts that as the temperature in a room increases, a measure of the subject's aggression will increase as well. What is the experimental design term for "temperature" in this scenario?
Independent variable
Dependent variable
Hypothesis
Variables
Theory
A “variable” is described something that varies between people or objects—in this case, temperature and aggression are the variables. The “independent variable” (IV) is the variable that is manipulated by the researcher (temperature) and the “dependent variable” (DV) is the variable that changes as a result of a change in the IV (aggression). A “hypothesis” describes the relationship between variables and is generally what the researcher predicts will happen (i.e. “as the temperature in a room increases, a measure of the subject's aggression will increase as well”). Last, a “theory” is a principle or set of principles that explains a phenomenon.
What is the name of the experiments, conducted by Roger Sperry and his colleagues, that revealed the functional specialization of cerebral hemispheres?
Split-Brain experiments
Bicameral Mind experiments
Interhemispheric experiments
Lateralus experiments
Transcranial Stimulation experiments
Roger Sperry and colleagues, using a tachistoscope and other instruments, studied patients that had their corpus callosum severed. Their findings demonstrated that information is specialized in the hemispheres of the brain.
A researcher wants to run a study to figure out whether people who drink water are happier than people who drink soda. When the drinks are given to the subjects, all the water is put in blue cups and all the soda is put in red cups. What kind of experimental error is the change in color?
Confounding Variable
Experimenter Bias
Participant Bias
Order Effects
Placebo Effects
A confounding variable is a variable besides the IV affects the DV in a systematic way that makes it hard to tell what the IV’s effect is on the DV.
Participant bias is when the participant accidentally affects the results of the study by doing or saying what they think the experimenter wants them to do or say rather than what they naturally would.
Experimenter bias is when the experimenter affects the results of their own study because of their expectations.
The placebo effect occurs when a participant does not have the treatment but has effects from believing that they had the treatment.
Order effects occur when the order of the tasks in a study affects the outcomes.