When are cross-tabulations called contingency tables?
A. Anytime
B. When used for statistical testing
C. When used for display purposes
D. When presented with percentages rather than raw counts
E. When used to present data
In a restaurant complaint study, Dr. Jackson used deception to avoid biasing the
participants. In this situation, what should Dr. Jackson do once the research is
complete?
A. Apologize
B. Pay the participants
C. Debrief the participants
D. Seek psychological attention for the participants
E. All of the above
What type of data is produced by summated rating scales?
A. Nominal
B. Ordinal
C. Interval
D. Ratio
E. Nominal and interval
What type of research do trade associations generally conduct?
A. Basic research
B. Practical research
C. Applied research
D. Ad hoc research
E. All of the above
Which term below refers to a trained interviewer used for group interviews such as
focus groups?
A. Therapist
B. Inquisitor
C. Moderator
D. Discussion guide
E. Probe
Participants tend to _____ when they make an error of central tendency.
A. be easy raters
B. give extreme judgments
C. choose the central or neutral point
D. rate objects consistently from question to question
E. procrastinate in making choices
All of the following components are included in the overview section of a research
report except _____.
A. problem background
B. findings from secondary sources
C. research design
D. procedures
E. recommendations
A cognitive basis for an attitude means that the attitude is based on a _____.
A. feeling
B. behavior
C. value
D. culture
E. belief
All of the following are ways of combating the halo effect except _____.
A. reveal only one trait at a time
B. reverse the terms that anchor the endpoints of the scale
C. adjust the strength of descriptive adjectives
D. all of the above
E. none of the above
Questions in Web surveys often use drop-down boxes as a manner of displaying the
response choices for a question. This type of display method is particularly prone to
_____.
A. halo effects
B. leniency effects
C. primacy effects
D. recency effects
E. presumption effects
A(n) _____ uses a single instance to clarify a complex concept.
A. story
B. demonstration
C. example
D. fact
E. flow aid
A _____ study combines one or a few questions from several business decision makers
who need information from the same population.
A. syndicated
B. proprietary research
C. omnibus
D. sampling
E. full-service
Jason is conducting research to better understand how consumers respond to the
atmosphere and environment in restaurants. He visits several restaurant locations and
uses a checklist to record the behaviors he observes in each restaurant. Which
classification best fits Jason’s observation study?
A. Unstructured/natural
B. Unstructured/laboratory
C. Structured/natural
D. Structured/laboratory
E. Direct/participant
The district attorney’s office wants further evidence of the results found in the
bystanders and thieves study. It decides to conduct a study using data from reported
thefts over the past 5 year period. Police records indicate whether bystanders who
report a crime are alone when the crime is observed or are accompanied by one or more
people. The district attorney’s office will assess whether more theft reports indicate that
the witness was alone or with other people.
Which type of study is being conducted by the district attorney’s office?
A. Survey
B. Experiment
C. Ex post facto
D. Interview
E. Observation
Which of the following is the first step in an exploratory study?
A. Identifying the target population
B. Choosing a sample
C. Interviewing experts
D. Conducting a literature search
E. Writing interview questions
Hilton Hotels wishes to conduct a study on the determinants of brand loyalty among
Hilton Hotel customers. The Hilton organization estimates that 10% of its 2, 600,000
Hilton Honors club members are loyal to the Hilton brand wherever they travel.
However, the remaining members may choose other hotel brands at times. The
organization wants to understand how to increase loyalty among the other 90% of club
members.
In the Hilton example, the Hilton Honors membership list represents the _____.
A. sample
B. sample frame
C. population
D. population element
E. target population
Which of the following trends is increasing the refusal rate associated with telephone
surveys?
A. Penetration of mobile telephones
B. Replacement of land line telephones with mobile telephones
C. Caller id systems
D. Negative attitudes toward survey participation
E. Voice mail
Which type of chart uses bars to represent data values such that each value occupies an
equal amount of area within the enclosed area?
A. Bar chart
B. Pie chart
C. Histogram
D. Stem-and-leaf display
E. Line chart
Which of the following measures is useful for detecting the presence of
multicollinearity in a regression equation?
A. Variable inflation factor
B. Standard error
C. Correlation coefficient
D. Beta
E. Alpha
The list of elements in a population from which the sample is actually drawn is known
as the _____.
A. sample frame
B. population extent
C. database
D. sampling base
E. population directory
Which term below refers to a controlled, randomized procedure that assures that each
population element is given a known, nonzero chance of selection into a study’s
sample?
A. Census
B. Nonprobability sampling
C. Probability sampling
D. Element selection
E. Purposive sampling
A(n) _____ question is a measurement question the sequence of which is determined by
the participant’s previous answers.
A. administrative
B. screen
C. target
D. branched
E. classification
Which of the following techniques to control pace in a written report is thought to
create a positive psychological effect on the reader?
A. Use of headings
B. Use of ample white space
C. Use of visual aids
D. Use of well-known vocabulary terms
E. Use of italics
Which sampling method includes elements from each of several mutually exclusive
strata within a population?
A. Simple random
B. Systematic
C. Stratified
D. Cluster
E. Double
Statistics are numerical data useful and expected for oral research presentations. Which
of the following statements about the use of statistics is TRUE?
A. To be a credible source of support, the listener needs to know if a statistic is valid
and reliable, used correctly, properly interpreted, and relevant to the point.
B. Statistics used in abundance have little effect on audience fatigue.
C. Visuals are essential in research presentations to facilitate understanding of statistics.
D. All of the above.
E. All but “B” above.
To assess the equivalence of the groups 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
At what level does the variable inflation factor (VIF) index suggest the presence of
collinearity?
A. 10
B. 20
C. 40
D. 50
E. 80
An experience survey is a type of _____.
A. interview
B. survey
C. monitoring study
D. statistical study
E. observation
One restaurant was experimenting with lowering the cholesterol level of recipies by
substituting different cooking oils/fats in their restaurants. They chose olive oil, canola
oil, and margarine. Different patrons received the recipe prepared with one of the three
oils/fats and then were asked for their evaluation of texture, flavor, and overall
satisfaction, intention to repurchase the entree. The experiment involved three ____.
A. dependent variables
B. treatment levels
C. moderating variables
D. control groups
E. none of the above
In a study of grocery shopping behavior, one of the questions on the instrument asked,
“To what extent are you comfortable with and willing to use self-serve checkout lines at
grocery stores?” This question should be redesigned because it is _____.
A. leading
B. sensitive
C. subject to memory decay
D. too general
E. double-barreled
Which of the following outcomes is roughly the equivalent of committing a type I
error?
A. Finding a guilty person guilty
B. Finding a guilty person not guilty
C. Finding an innocent person not guilty
D. Finding an innocent person guilty
E. None of the above
Multidimensional scaling is a statistical technique that _____.
A. identifies homogeneous subgroups
B. identifies patterns underlying combinations of the original variables capable of
summarizing the original set
C. develops a perceptual map of the locations of some objects relative to others
D. predicts or explains the value for a dependent variable using the values of
independent variables
E. uses two or more independent, metric variables to classify observations into
categories of a nominal, dependent variable
All of the following are sources of error in communication research except _____.
A. measurement questions
B. observers
C. survey questionnaires
D. interviewers
E. participants