Research Methodology Questions and Answers

Importance of Ethics Approval in Research involving Human Participants

Please answer all the questions briefly

Q1  Give THREE reasons why researchers working with human participants are required to obtain ethics approval.

Q2  In 2008 Helen Xiang and Trevor Barker published a (fictitious) paper in “The Journal of Computer Science” Volume 26, issue 3, pages 126 to 132.  The paper was entitled “Using artificial intelligence techniques to grade essays”.

a) Give the correct citation for this paper as it might appear in the text of a thesis using the Harvard style  

b) Write a correct reference for this paper as it might appear in the reference section of a thesis, formatted in the Harvard style. 

c) Briefly explain TWO differences between a Reference Section and a Bibliography in a thesis, book or paper. 

Q3  In one sentence briefly define the following terms

a) Random sample

b) Quota sample

c) Population

d) Statistic

e) Parameter

f) Mean

g) Median

h) t test

i) p value

j) Significant difference

Q4   a)   Explain what is meant by the term “confounding variables”

b) Give FOUR ways in which you could reduce the effect of confounding variables in an experiment

Q5   What is meant by the following two terms, giving ONE example of each

a) Quantitative research  (1 Mark)

b) Qualitative research     (1 Mark)

Q6  

You are undertaking research into the relationship between video download times and bandwidth  over a computer network.  You are required to produce a project plan.  You decide to conduct an experiment where you vary the bandwidth and record the download time.  You undertake a pilot sudy in which you use a 200 MB video file and obtaing the results shown in the following table (based on 30 trials for each condition).  

a)  What would be a suitable research question that you would attempt to answer with this study?  (1 Mark)

b) List suitable aims and objectives for the study (1 Mark)

c) Provide a suitable null hypothesis that you would test in this study (1 Marks)

d) Identify the independent variable (1 Mark)

e) Identify the dependent variable  (1 Mark)

f) Give ONE reasons why a pilot study was used

g)  Give ONE reason why 30 repetitions of each condition are used

h) Give TWO potential confounding variables that might affect this study

i) In two sentences describe how your TWO confounded variables might  be controlled

j) Explain why is is a good practice to consider
    i)    legal,
    ii)   social,
    iii)  ethical, and
    iv)  professional issues of this project?
(ONE sentence for each issue) (4 marks)

k)  Describe ONE possible economic impact of the above project (One sentence)

Feedback will be the score a student obtained and a set of the worked answers attached as a file