Scott’s Lawn Care has hired Henry Associates to find out whether home improvement
warehouse stores communicate the benefits of various brands of lawn care products
differently than smaller stores. Henry Associates needs to know what is communicated
to consumers in the actual settings of the stores and wants to ensure that the message
isn’t filtered. Only behavioral data is required. Which type of data collection method is
most appropriate in this situation?
A. Communication
B. Observation
C. Surveys
D. Experimental
E. Causal
A restaurant was evaluating the popularity of its various menu items in preparation for
introducing seasonal menu alternatives by studying patron orders over the last 4
months. It wanted to be sure it was preserving its most popular items. This is an
example of ______.
A. indirect observation
B. linguistic behavior
C. record analysis
D. physical traces
E. process (activity) analysis
Which psychological principle that influences visualization is defined as: your
audience’s attention is drawn to large perceptible differences?
A. Principle of discriminability
B. Principle of salience
C. Principle of informative changes
D. Principle of capacity limitations
E. Principle of appropriate knowledge
All of the following have a greater opportunity to obscure rather than clarify data
EXCEPT _____.
A. 3-D surface line charts
B. Multiple line chart
C. Spider (Radar) chart
D. Column chart
E. Column with overlayed line graph
When we take the observed values of X to estimate or predict corresponding Y values,
the process is called ____.
A. Chi-square statistic
B. simple prediction
C. multiple regression
D. proportional reduction in error
E. prediction and confidence bands
One tool for visualizing the matching process of participants in an experiment is ____.
A. CPM
B. the quota matrix
C. random sampling
D. experimental design symbols
E. none of the above
What type of question seeks to address the investigative questions of a specific study?
A. classification questions
B. Target questions
C. Supervisory questions
D. Administrative questions
E. Disguised questions
Brittany is developing a sampling plan for a study of alcohol consumption among
college students at Metro University. She wants to ensure that students from each class
level are represented. She also wants to be able to compare students who are members
of Greek organizations to non-Greeks. Finally, she wants to consider patterns by gender.
Brittany plans to cross-reference Metro University’s student directory with membership
lists from each Greek organization on campus to develop a sample frame.
If Brittany drew a sample of class locations (buildings and classrooms) on campus, and
then sampled all of the students in those buildings, what type of sampling technique
was employed?
A. Convenience
B. Simple random
C. Area
D. Quota
E. Systematic
A _____ is a trial collection of data to detect weaknesses in the design or instrument.
A. test market
B. census
C. sample
D. pilot test
E. sampling frame
Several psychological principles have important implications for oral research
presentations. Which of the following is TRUE?
A. An audience member comes to the presentation with past knowledge of the speaker’s
topic and will judge the presentation based on selective perception.
B. An audience member comes to the presentation with limited knowledge of the topic
and will remain open-minded throughout the presentation.
C. Each audience member organizes his or her unique construct of the content
presented, which is unrelated to listener experience and openness to change.
D. There is no need for the research presenter to attempt to construct imaginatively how
the audience will interpret the message because it is impossible to know in advance.
E. All of the above
When developing a questionnaire, if the researcher is asking him/herself if the word
means what he/she intended; if it has any other meanings; if the word has more than
one pronunciation; or if a simpler phrase is suggested then, he/she is probably
concerned with _____.
A. avoiding leading questions
B. avoiding double-barreled questions
C. choosing shared vocabulary
D. personalizing the questionnaire
E. providing a frame of reference
The quantifiable characteristic, attribute, or outcome on which a choice decision will be
made is called a _____.
A. decision theory
B. decision rule
C. ex post facto evaluation
D. decision variable
E. success probability
_____ are original works of research or raw data without interpretation that represent an
official opinion or position.
A. Secondary sources
B. Primary sources
C. Statistical sources
D. Bibliographies
E. Indexes
Which of the following terms refers to a learned, stable predisposition to respond to
oneself, other persons, objects, or issues in a consistently favorable or unfavorable way?
A. Opinion
B. Attitude
C. Personality trait
D. Construct
E. Behavior
Statisticians recommend that the power of a test equal _____, that is, the probability
that one will correctly reject a false null hypothesis.
A. 5%
B. 10%
C. 50%
D. 80%
E. 95%
The occurrence of errors caused by a halo effect can sometimes be minimized by
choosing observers with a low degree of _____.
A. concentration
B. detail-orientation
C. experience
D. distinctiveness
E. enthusiasm
_____ is a form of reasoning that draws a conclusion from one or more particular facts
or pieces of evidence.
A. Induction
B. Deduction
C. Empiricism
D. Logic
E. Association
Recordings of public proceedings, speeches by elected officials, and information on
agency web sites are all examples of business intelligence available from _____
sources.
A. competitive
B. cultural
C. government
D. demographic
E. technological
The primary benefit of exploratory data analysis is its ability to be _____.
A. conclusive
B. exclusive
C. discriminatory
D. flexible
E. inexpensive
To evaluate the effect of the treatment in a pretest, posttest control group design, _____
is calculated.
A. (O2-O1) – (O4-O3)
B. O1-O3
C. O4-O3
D. O2-O3
E. O4-O2
The primary advantage of the contingency coefficient C is _____.
A. it can only be used on 2 x 2 tables
B. that it can accommodate skewed data
C. it is comparable to phi
D. it replaced chi-square
E. it is asymmetrical
To ride the roller coaster ride at an amusement park, customers must report their weight
to the ride attendant. Which of the following characteristics are exhibited by weight?
A. Classification only
B. Classification and order
C. Classification, order, and distance
D. Classification, order, distance, and origin
E. Classification, order, distance, origin, and exclusivity
_____ is the process by which we test whether a hypothesis is capable of explaining the
fact.
A. Deduction
B. Induction
C. Exposition
D. Empiricism
E. Curiosity
Business research may be considered unnecessary when _____.
A. management has insufficient resources to conduct an appropriate study
B. the risk associated with the decision at hand is low
C. the information is applicable to the critical decision
D. both a and b
E. both a and c
A tendency presenters should AVOID during an oral research report is to ____.
A. turn from the audience to read from a slide
B. maintain good eye contact
C. vary the volume and rate of speech
D. distribute a handout when ready to refer to it
E. all of the above
What is the typical length of a focus group?
A. 30 minutes
B. 1 hour
C. 90 minutes
D. 2 hours
E. 4 hours
With which of the following sampling techniques is the practice of double sampling
typically found?
A. Simple random
B. Stratified
C. Systematic
D. Purposive
E. Quota
Research has concluded that merely codifying ethical values of a profession is of
limited value without _____.
A. training members on the code
B. promoting the code of ethics
C. asking leadership to behave in a manner consistent with the code
D. a significant punishment structure
E. asking for a personal commitment to the code
Which of the following statements is not true of the mode?
A. The mode is the most frequently occurring value
B. There may be more than one mode in a distribution
C. Distributions may not be multimodal
D. Some distributions have no mode
E. The mode is most appropriate for nominal data
Which of the following statistics is not based on the concept of concordant and
discordant pairs?
A. Kendall’s tau b
B. Somers’s d
C. Kendall’s tau c
D. Gamma
E. Spearman’s rho
Common measures of _____ include the range, interquartile range, variance or standard
deviation, and variation.
A. central tendency
B. variability
C. shape
D. location
E. significance
Which of the following is an example of sponsor nondisclosure?
A. Dean and Deluca doesn’t want Whole Foods to know about it is conducting research
on organic wines
B. Whole Foods is studying a potential new location near a large condo complex
C. Bayer seeks to disclose that Vioxx is no more effective than aspirin
D. Vioxx seeks to hide results suggesting that it is equivalent to aspirin in reducing the
pain of arthritis
E. all of the above
A(n) _____ is a study in which the conditions of a system or process are replicated.
A. laboratory study
B. field study
C. mall-intercept study
D. simulation
E. mystery shopping study
Sometimes business research may be unnecessary. Explain when this could occur.
Explain how a researcher should interpret a correlation coefficient.
The exploratory research phase of a research project allows a researcher to accomplish
several objectives. Name three of the objectives common to this stage.
Off-the-shelf Web survey software offers many advantages over traditional
programming for researchers as they build surveys for deployment on the Internet.
Identify five of these advantages.
The exploratory research phase of a research project allows a researcher to accomplish
several objectives. Name three of the objectives common to this stage.
Identify the three sources of error in communication research. Explain how each source
can contribute to error.
What are the four dimensions of extralinguistic activity that can be observed? Explain
the behaviors common to each dimension.
Explain the essential tenets of the scientific method and why this method is important
for business research.
Explain the three types of nonprobability sampling techniques commonly used to select
samples for qualitative research studies.
Explain the difference between a field setting (research under field conditions),
laboratory setting, and simulation.
What characteristics of research are associated with the standards of the scientific
method?
Explain how researchers can address individuals’ right to privacy.