Unit 7: Data Collection Methods - Practice Quiz

1 What is observation as a data collection method?

2 In participant observation, what does the researcher do?

3 Which observation method uses predetermined categories for recording behavior?

4 What is a common limitation of observation?

5 What is the variable deliberately changed by a researcher in an experiment?

6 What does the dependent variable represent in an experiment?

7 What is the main purpose of a control group?

8 Which research method is most suitable for studying cause-and-effect relationships?

9 What is a survey mainly used to collect?

10 Which method is commonly used to conduct a survey?

11 What is the population in survey research?

12 What is a questionnaire?

13 Which type of question allows respondents to answer in their own words?

14 Which type of questionnaire item asks respondents to choose from given answers?

15 What should be done first when designing a questionnaire?

16 Why is a questionnaire pretested before full distribution?

17 Which wording is most appropriate for a questionnaire?

18 What does coding questionnaire responses mean?

19 If "Yes" is coded as 1 and "No" as 0, what does the code 1 represent?

20 What is a codebook used for in questionnaire research?

21 A researcher studies how nurses respond to emergency alarms by watching them during actual hospital shifts without joining their activities. Which observation method is being used?

22 Two observers classify the same classroom behaviors but frequently assign different categories. Which action would most directly improve the reliability of the observations?

23 Shoppers alter their behavior because they notice a researcher recording how they move through a store. What problem does this illustrate?

24 A researcher wants to compare how often students ask questions during lectures. Which recording approach is most appropriate?

25 A company randomly assigns employees to either a new training program or the existing program and then compares productivity. What is the main purpose of random assignment?

26 In an experiment on whether room temperature affects test performance, all participants receive the same test under identical time limits. What role do the test and time limit serve?

27 A researcher compares an existing class using digital textbooks with another existing class using printed textbooks. Students were not randomly assigned. Which design best describes this study?

28 Participants improve their scores on a second memory test partly because they have already taken a similar test. Which threat to internal validity is present?

29 A university needs estimates from first-year, second-year, third-year, and final-year students. Which sampling method best ensures representation from every year?

30 A mailed customer survey receives responses mainly from people with very strong positive or negative opinions. Which type of error is the greatest concern?

31 A researcher measures voter preferences once, two weeks before an election, using a representative sample. Which survey design is being used?

32 A researcher needs respondents to describe unexpected reasons for leaving a job. Which question format is most suitable?

33 A questionnaire asks, "How satisfied are you with the speed and accuracy of our service?" What is the main weakness of this item?

34 Which response scale best measures the extent to which respondents agree with the statement "Online classes improve my learning"?

35 Before drafting questionnaire items, a researcher defines "customer loyalty" as repeat purchase intention and willingness to recommend. Which design task has been completed?

36 A pilot test shows that respondents interpret "regular exercise" in several different ways. What is the best revision?

37 A questionnaire begins with detailed questions about personal debt, causing many respondents to stop immediately. Which design change is most appropriate?

38 Respondents who answer "No" to owning a car should bypass questions about fuel expenses. Which questionnaire feature should implement this requirement?

39 A satisfaction item has responses coded as 1 = Very dissatisfied through 5 = Very satisfied. One respondent leaves the item blank. How should the blank normally be coded?

40 A questionnaire includes the negative item "The website is difficult to use," rated from 1 = Strongly disagree to 5 = Strongly agree. To combine it with positively worded usability items, which recoding is required?

41 Researchers record helping behavior in a railway station. After noticing the observers, passengers initially help more often, but their behavior returns to baseline after several days. Which design response most directly addresses the validity threat illustrated here?

42 Two observers classify behavior as present or absent. Their observed agreement is . Observer A records presence in of cases, while Observer B records presence in . What is Cohen's ?

43 Aggressive incidents are rare, brief, and unevenly distributed across school playground periods. Researchers need both an accurate incident count and a rate that permits comparison across playgrounds. Which strategy is most appropriate?

44 Observers achieved high agreement during training, but agreement declined gradually during a six-month study even though the coding manual did not change. Which procedure best addresses the likely problem?

45 A experiment manipulates training (absent or present) and workload (low or high). Training improves mean performance by 10 points under low workload but reduces it by 4 points under high workload. Which conclusion is most defensible?

46 In a Solomon four-group design, the treatment effect is large among pretested participants but negligible among participants who were not pretested. What does this pattern most strongly indicate?

47 Participants are randomized to receive either a high- or low-autonomy instruction. A manipulation-check item shows no difference in perceived autonomy, although the outcome differs significantly between groups. Which interpretation is most appropriate?

48 In a randomized trial, of participants assigned to the intervention do not comply, while some controls independently obtain a similar intervention. Which primary analysis best preserves the causal benefit of random assignment?

49 An online survey samples exclusively from a complete registry of licensed physicians, but younger physicians respond at much higher rates than older physicians. Registry age totals are available. Which adjustment most directly targets the resulting bias?

50 In a randomized-response survey, each respondent answers "Yes" with probability regardless of truth and otherwise answers the sensitive question truthfully. If of recorded responses are "Yes," what is the estimated prevalence of the sensitive characteristic?

51 A probability sample has a response rate. Respondents and nonrespondents have similar distributions on known demographic variables, but the outcome of interest is unavailable for nonrespondents. Which conclusion is justified?

52 A researcher wants to measure household material deprivation as an index formed by lacking food, heating, transportation, and internet access. Removing one component changes the construct's substantive coverage. Which measurement model is most appropriate?

53 A survey asks respondents to report the number of medical consultations they had during the previous five years. Many respondents omit routine visits and misplace older visits in time. Which error combination is most directly involved?

54 A questionnaire about household finances is completed by one adult on behalf of every household member. For which variable is proxy reporting most likely to produce serious measurement error?

55 A draft item asks, "How satisfied are you with the speed and fairness of the university's admissions process?" Cognitive interviews show that respondents satisfied with speed but dissatisfied with fairness choose the midpoint. What is the best revision?

56 A researcher suspects that asking about unemployment immediately before a life-satisfaction item makes employment concerns unusually salient. Which design provides the strongest test of this context effect?

57 Experts agree that an item accurately represents a construct, yet cognitive interviewing reveals that respondents interpret its key term in three incompatible ways. Which stage should occur next?

58 A question about employment status is intentionally skipped for respondents younger than 16. Among eligible respondents, some refuse and others answer "Don't know." Which coding scheme best preserves analytically meaningful distinctions?

59 Respondents may select any number of six information sources, including selecting none. Which coding structure is generally most suitable for analysis?

60 A five-point scale uses strongly disagree and strongly agree. One negatively worded item must be aligned with positively worded items before computing a score. Which transformation is correct while retaining missing values as missing?