Instructor Resource
Treadwell and Davis, Introducing Communication Research: Paths of Inquiry, 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
Chapter 10: Experiments: Researching Cause and Effect
Test Bank
Multiple Choice
1. Which of the following is a threat to internal validity?
a. ecological isomorphism
b. spurious relationships
c. sample sizes
d. chi-square
2. Which of the following is a threat to external validity?
a. the experimental situation
b. spurious relationships
c. attrition
d. chi-square
3. Which of the following is NOT a threat to internal validity?
a. ecological isomorphism
b. spurious relationships
c. selection bias
d. attrition
4. Which of the following is NOT a threat to external validity?
Instructor Resource
Treadwell and Davis, Introducing Communication Research: Paths of Inquiry, 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
a. the experimental situation
b. the Hawthorne effect
c. operationalization of constructs
d. attrition
5. In experimental design, diffusion refers to ______.
a. people leaving a study
b. people changing over time
c. a treatment effect spreading from group to group
d. a treatment having less and less effect
6. In experimental design, attrition refers to ______.
a. people leaving a study
b. people changing over time
c. a treatment effect spreading from group to group
d. a treatment having less and less effect
7. Which one of the following is common to all experimental designs?
a. sophisticated statistical analysis
b. doing something to see what happens as a result
c. interviewing participants
d. replicating real-world conditions
Instructor Resource
Treadwell and Davis, Introducing Communication Research: Paths of Inquiry, 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
8. Which of the following approaches is best suited to assess whether there are
causal relationships among variables?
a. focus groups
b. surveys
c. experiments
d. content analysis
9. To be satisfied that X does cause Y, which of the following does not need to
happen?
a. X must precede Y in time.
b. X and Y must vary together.
c. Y must demonstrably be caused by X and not by something else.
d. Y must precede X in time.
10. Random assignment of individuals into experimental groups ______ the
experiment’s level of sophistication.
a. randomizes
b. improves
c. reduces
d. has no effect on
11. We can reduce or eliminate the influence of possibly relevant variables in an
experiment by ______.
a. conducting interviews with participants
b. observing participants closely
c. randomly assigning participants to each experimental group
d. repeating the experiment
Instructor Resource
Treadwell and Davis, Introducing Communication Research: Paths of Inquiry, 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
12. The term “ecological isomorphism” refers to the extent to which the ______.
a. people in the experiment are similar
b. researcher engages in environmentally sound experimental practices
c. experimental conditions replicate real-life conditions
d. experiment’s results match results from real life
13. Good experimental design does not require ______.
a. random assignment
b. a control group
c. a pretest
d. nonprobability sampling
14. Which of the following is the most sophisticated experimental design?
a. ex post facto
b. ad hoc
c. Solomon Four-Group
d. pretest posttest
e. random assignment
15. Experimental designs that manipulate three or more variables are referred to
as ______.
a. bivariate designs
b. monovariate designs
c. factorial designs
d. manipulated designs
Instructor Resource
Treadwell and Davis, Introducing Communication Research: Paths of Inquiry, 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
16. An experimental design testing the hypothesis that group A will score higher
on a measure than group B would use a ______ test to test for differences
between the two groups.
a. zero-tailed
b. one-tailed
c. two-tailed
d. three-tailed
17. A problem with experimental designs can be ______.
a. finding a sufficient number of people to participate
b. reliability of the experimental measures
c. lack of statistical analysis software
d. ex post facto design
18. Which of the following experimental designs has a control group?
a. field experiment
b. ex post facto design
c one-group pretest, posttest design
d. two-group pretest, posttest design
19. A two-by-two experimental design with 10 people per experimental condition
would require ______ participants.
a. 20
b. 40
Instructor Resource
Treadwell and Davis, Introducing Communication Research: Paths of Inquiry, 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
c. 60
d. 80
20. The most sophisticated experimental designs include all EXCEPT ______.
a. manipulation of a variable
b. random assignment
c. control group
d. basic experimental design
21. What is the reason online experiments have been slower to gain popularity
when compared to online surveys?
a. Experimental design often requires that participants don’t do more than
responding to questions.
b. Experimental design often requires that participants do something more active
than responding to questions.
c. It is much easier logistically to do experiments online as opposed to surveys.
d. Online experiments are cheaper but take less time.
22. What is one way to reduce the number of dropouts in online experiments?
a. Use the most sophisticated technology you can find.
b. Avoid gaming features.
c. Be vague in instructions so respondents read further.
d. Put barriers such as instructions and practice tasks up front.
Instructor Resource
Treadwell and Davis, Introducing Communication Research: Paths of Inquiry, 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
True/False
1. In asking about the validity of an experiment, a researcher is asking whether
the experiment captured the concepts the researcher intended to capture.
2. The focus of internal validity is on experimental design.
3. The focus of external validity is on whether the experiment has captured the
external world the researcher is investigating.
4. A spurious relationship occurs where a relationship between variables has
been found but is actually explained by another variable the researcher was not
focused on.
5. Selection bias occurs when experimental groups are not comparable.
Instructor Resource
Treadwell and Davis, Introducing Communication Research: Paths of Inquiry, 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
6. Attrition occurs when people return repeatedly to a study.
7. Repeated testing can be a threat to internal validity as group participants
become more and more familiar with a test.
8. In experimental research, maturation means that people change over time.
9. In experimental research, diffusion means that a treatment effect spreads from
group to group.
10. Experimenter bias is a threat to internal validity stemming from the
experimenter’s own judgments.
11. Experimental settings are not a threat to external validity because they reflect
external reality.
Instructor Resource
Treadwell and Davis, Introducing Communication Research: Paths of Inquiry, 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
12. The Hawthorne effect refers to increases in worker productivity explained by
workers apparently interpreting research by management as management taking
an interest in them.
13. Manipulation checks provide a check on whether research participants
interpreted experimental conditions as the researcher intended.
14. The goal of experimental design is to determine correlations.
15. To determine causation, the dependent variable must be caused by the
independent variable.
16. A problem with the one-group pretest–posttest design is many other variables
might be playing a part.
Instructor Resource
Treadwell and Davis, Introducing Communication Research: Paths of Inquiry, 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
17. Control, for the purpose of experimental design, limits the movement of
participants.
18. Control groups are not exposed to the experimental variable(s).
19. Random assignment assumes the probability of something occurring in one
group is the same as the probability of it occurring in another group.
20. Factorial designs are experimental studies that manipulate two or more
variables.
21. A within-subject design is one in which each person participates under one
set of conditions.
22. A within-subject design is one in which participants are exposed to more than
Instructor Resource
Treadwell and Davis, Introducing Communication Research: Paths of Inquiry, 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
one experimental condition.
23. Spurious relationships are when the relationship between variables has been
found and it is the relationship the researcher is seeking.
24. Selection bias occurs when experimental groups are comparable.
25. Attrition occurs when people slowly leave a study.
26. Maturation, for the purpose of experimental design, means that people mostly
stay the same over time.
27. Diffusion helps ensure internal validity.
Instructor Resource
Treadwell and Davis, Introducing Communication Research: Paths of Inquiry, 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
28. The biggest test of external validity is the ability to generalize to a broader
population.
29. To date, the Internet has been used to host surveys far more than
experiments.
30. Experimenter bias can be reduced by using online experiments.
Essay
1. Explain, with examples, the idea of spurious relationships.
2. List at least one advantage and one disadvantage of online experiments.
Instructor Resource
Treadwell and Davis, Introducing Communication Research: Paths of Inquiry, 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
3. Explain the concept of random assignment in experimental design and why it
is important.
4. Identify and explain the conditions that need to be met before we can
confidently state that changes in variable A cause changes in variable B.
5. Explain, with examples, the concept of “control” in experimental design.
Instructor Resource
Treadwell and Davis, Introducing Communication Research: Paths of Inquiry, 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
6. Which of the two research methods—surveys and experiments—is best
situated to answer questions of causality? Explain why.
7. Explain, with examples, the concepts of attrition, maturation, and diffusion.
8. Explain, with examples, the difference between internal and external validity in
experimental design.
9. “You must have a specific hypothesis before you can design an experiment.”
Support or refute that statement.
Instructor Resource
Treadwell and Davis, Introducing Communication Research: Paths of Inquiry, 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020