Unit 4: Hypothesis and Research Tools - Practice Quiz

1 What is a hypothesis in research?

2 Which of the following is a quality of a good hypothesis?

3 A good hypothesis should be stated in a manner that is:

4 A hypothesis that can be shown to be false through evidence is said to be:

5 A good hypothesis should be based on which of the following?

6 The null hypothesis is usually denoted by which symbol?

7 What does a null hypothesis typically state?

8 The alternative hypothesis is commonly symbolized as:

9 Which statement best describes the alternative hypothesis?

10 When the null hypothesis is rejected, the researcher generally accepts the:

11 The null and alternative hypotheses are described as being:

12 Which of the following is an example of a research database?

13 The main purpose of using academic databases in research is to:

14 Which database is primarily focused on biomedical and life sciences literature?

15 Which of the following is a popular academic search engine?

16 A research gateway mainly helps users to:

17 Which of the following is an example of a research networking gateway for academics?

18 A Gantt chart is primarily used to represent:

19 In a Gantt chart, the horizontal axis usually represents:

20 What does each bar in a Gantt chart typically indicate?

21 A researcher states: "Better teaching improves outcomes." A methodology reviewer rejects this as a poor hypothesis. Which quality is it most clearly missing?

22 Two competing hypotheses explain the same data equally well. According to the principle of parsimony, which should a researcher prefer?

23 Which hypothesis best demonstrates the quality of being specific and stating a clear relationship between variables?

24 A hypothesis is described as "falsifiable." What does this quality require?

25 A researcher writes a hypothesis so broad it cannot be completed within the available time and resources. Which quality of a good hypothesis is violated?

26 A study tests whether a new drug changes average blood pressure. The null hypothesis is most appropriately written as:

27 A researcher predicts that a training program will increase productivity. The alternative hypothesis should be written as:

28 In hypothesis testing, a Type I error occurs when a researcher:

29 A test yields a p-value of with a significance level of . What is the correct decision?

30 Why do researchers test the null hypothesis rather than directly proving the alternative hypothesis?

31 A two-tailed test uses the alternative hypothesis . What does the two-tailed form indicate about the prediction?

32 A student needs peer-reviewed, full-text journal articles on clinical medicine. Which resource is most appropriate?

33 A researcher wants to retrieve records containing both "climate" and "agriculture." Which Boolean operator should be used?

34 In a database search, applying the truncation symbol as in educat* will retrieve which set of terms?

35 A researcher gets 40,000 results for a query. Which strategy will most effectively narrow the results?

36 How does an academic search engine like Google Scholar mainly differ from a general search engine like Google?

37 A research gateway (subject portal) is most useful to a researcher because it:

38 Which practice best helps a researcher evaluate the credibility of a source found through a web search engine?

39 In a Gantt chart, the horizontal length of a bar most directly represents:

40 Two tasks in a Gantt chart overlap on the timeline. What does this overlap indicate?

41 A researcher sets and obtains , rejecting . A colleague later reveals the researcher ran the analysis five separate times on subsets, reporting only the significant result. What is the most accurate critique of this conclusion?

42 Which pairing of hypotheses is logically invalid for a two-sample mean comparison?

43 A study with finds a statistically significant difference () between two groups, but the effect size is Cohen's . What is the correct interpretation?

44 Consider the hypothesis: "Improved wellbeing leads to better outcomes in society." Which quality of a good hypothesis does it most fundamentally violate?

45 Two hypotheses explain the same phenomenon equally well and both fit available data. Hypothesis A assumes three interacting mechanisms; Hypothesis B assumes one. On what principle should a researcher prefer B, and what is the key caveat?

46 A hypothesis states: "There either is or is not a relationship between diet and heart disease." Why does this fail as a scientific hypothesis?

47 A researcher fails to reject at . Which statement about this outcome is correct?

48 In a clinical trial, the cost of a Type II error (missing a truly effective drug) is judged far more severe than a Type I error. What adjustment best reflects this priority?

49 A one-tailed test uses . During analysis the sample mean turns out to be well below 100. The researcher then switches to to capture significance. Why is this invalid?

50 A researcher needs peer-reviewed, indexed articles with citation-tracking and impact metrics across multiple disciplines. Which resource type is most appropriate, and why not a general web search engine?

51 In a search engine, the query education AND (online OR remote) NOT primary will return records that contain:

52 A researcher's search returns thousands of irrelevant results because a keyword has multiple meanings (e.g., "depression" as mood vs. economics). Which combined strategy best improves precision?

53 Which statement best distinguishes a research gateway (subject portal) from a general search engine?

54 A systematic reviewer searches only one database and reports comprehensive coverage. What is the primary methodological flaw?

55 In a Gantt chart, Task C cannot begin until both Task A and Task B finish. Task A takes 4 weeks, Task B takes 6 weeks, and they start simultaneously at week 0. When can Task C start?

56 A project has a critical path of 20 weeks. A non-critical task has 5 weeks of slack (float). If that task is delayed by 7 weeks, what is the effect on the project's overall duration?

57 Which feature of a Gantt chart is essential for identifying which task delays will directly push back the project deadline?

58 A student builds a Gantt chart where every task starts on day 1 and all run in parallel with no dependencies. What is the most serious planning defect this reveals?

59 A researcher proposes a hypothesis so broad it predicts a relationship among dozens of loosely defined variables at once. Beyond testability, which quality is most compromised?

60 A meta-analyst notes that a body of studies overwhelmingly reports significant results supporting , with almost no null findings published. What bias most threatens the validity of pooling these results?