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Psy Study Material
Psy Study Material
2. Understand the basic scientific approach as outlined in class, and the important differences
between a true experiment and the correlational approach.
Modify
Support
True Experiment Correlational Method
1) Randomly Divide Subjects 1) Measure Two Variables
4. What is introspection?
a. To look within, examine your own thoughts
6. We begin a true experiment by randomly dividing subjects into 2 or more groups in order to
get groups that are equal on uncontrollable variables such as age, Intelligence, gender and so
on. By doing this we have equaled the effect of all such extraneous variables. We have not
actually controlled those variables, just evened out any effect they might have on the Dependent
variable. If we don’t do this, any of those extraneous (third) variables might explain any effect we
observe on the dependent variable and we could not infer causality.
7. We randomly select subjects in some research in order to get a sample that represents a
population of interest. This allows us to generalize any findings from the sample to the larger
population
8. understand the important difference between True Experiments and Correlational Studies
and how that relates to causation
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May infer that coffee CAUSED an increase in Support for hypothesis but cannot infer Causality
Heart Rate
10. Charles Darwin’s brilliant book On the Origin of Species pointed out that natural selection acts
on individual differences in the population and that natural selection could not occur if there
were no natural variation in a population to begin with. This led to investigations of individual
differences in people, which led to psychology.
11. Area under the normal curve (about 34%, 14%, 2%, .13%)
12. the dependent variable and the independent variable.
a. independent variable: condition that the experiment manipulates
b. dependent variable: resulting behavior that is measured/recorded
13. descriptive and inferential branches of statistics
a. Descriptive: summarizing large amounts of data into a form that is easily interpreted.
Graphs, measures of central tendency, measures of variation.
b. Inferential: using statistical procedures to draw conclusions about the meaning of data
14. There are s measures of central tendency (mean, median and mode) and 3 measures of
spread or variability range, standard deviation and variance)
a. Central Tendency
i. mean – arithmetic average
ii. median/50th percentile – number in the middle
iii. mode – number that occurs the most often
b. Spread/Variability
i. Range – subtract highest from lowest
ii. Standard deviation – how far groups lie from average
iii. Variance - the standard deviation squared
15. What does it mean to manipulate a variable?
16. Verbally explain the standard deviation.
17. Correlations have two independent qualities, Magnitude and Direction. -.95 is still a very
strong correlation. It just happens to be negative. The weakest correlation would be 0, which is
actually no correlation at all.
18. Know what a z-score is. It is also called a standardized score. Such conversions allow us to
compare scores that are on different scales with different means and standard deviations or even
different units of measure. For example we might say that since your z score for height is.67
while your z score for weight is .80, you are heavier than you are tall.
a. z-score is specific score – mean of specific score divided by the standard deviation (+1
to -1)
19. Understand the third variable problem and the directionality problem as they relate to
correlational studies.
a. Third Variable problem: a factor, related to each of the other two, might account for a
relationship between the two factors that does not exist
b. Directionality problem: question of which variable is causing the other to change
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20. In the book, read about research methods other than true experiments and correlational
studies.
a. Case study – in-depth exploration of either single/small group of subjects who are
examined individually
b. Surveys and Questionnaires – representative group of people questioned about
behaviors/attitudes. Representative sample is the ideal sample where subjects accurately
represent larger population about which we want to draw conclusions. Random sample selected
by randomization to assure every member of population of interest has equal chance of being
selected.
c. Observational – researchers observe their subjects as they go about activities, naturalistic
observation
22. Know the Primary Visual Cortex (PVC) and the Visual Association Cortex (VAC) and what
each region does.
a. Primary Visual Cortex – geography of visual field retained here (if looking straight at spot in
the back of the room, in your visual clock you see the clock, podium in visual field – all of that
retained in PVC)
b. Visual Association Cortex – where you recognize things (oh, that’s a clock…)
Perception
23. There are lots of terms in this chapter. Know them all, but also notice how they fit
together. In college it is not enough to know every term. You also have to understand
the organization. Why do certain terms go together? For example, what do
convergence and binocular disparity have in common? Spend some time studying the
organization or outline of every lecture
24. Be sure to look in the book for the several different visual illusions mentioned there. Know the
names of each illusion.
a. Ames Illusion – person on one side of the room looks huge compared to the other
(conflicting environmental cues)
b. Muller-Lyer illusion – two vertical lines with arrows on top in different directions the
same length even though one looks longer (p.127) (size constancy)
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c. Moon illusion – when moon is low on the horizon it looks bigger than when it is
overhead, but it’s really the same size on the retina (size constancy)
d. Ponzo illusion – two horizontal lines (p.130) are equal even though we perceive the
distant one as longer (illusion of perspective)
e. Poggendorff illusion – looks like two diagonal lines wouldn’t cross if they continued
but they would (p.130) (shape constancy)
f. Stereogram – illusion of depth created from flat 2D images
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