Practice Exam Questions and Research Study Analysis

Practice Exam Questions (with answers)

1.Complete the following. The four levels of research are, in ascending order, exploration,

2.What is an experiment?

3.What is an independent variable?

4.What are order effects?

5.What sort of chart(s) is/are preferred for nominal data?

6.How does a sample differ from a population?

7.What is randomisation and why is it important in some types of research?

8.Write out a hypothesis for a study comparing revising online and revising from a book as methods for remembering core details

9.What is a pilot study? What is the purpose of pilot studies?

10.What is a case study?

11.Identify two things that can make a survey go wrong?

12.Name – and describe – three measures of central tendency

13.When is the median preferred over the mean

14.What are the three things that are needed for the data to be tested using parametric tests?

Where in the Cloud is my Data? Location and Brand Effects on Trust in Cloud Services

While cloud services offer many benefits, especially in affording remote storage of files, they also pose challenges to the privacy of users’ personal data. When users sign up for cloud services, they inevitably give up control over the security of their personal data [10]. The lack of control and trust in cloud services have been among the common reasons why users are hesitant to save their information in the cloud [7].

Answer the following questions

1.What is the purpose of an abstract for an academic paper?

2.In the abstract – what is meant by ‘Brand authority of the hosting company had a positive effect’

3.What is the purpose of including references to literature in a research paper?

The following research question was examined: Are Picture Gesture Authentication (PGA)s a good alternative and viable authentication solutions for mixed reality contexts? For doing so, we designed an in-lab study in which participants used a picture password similar to PGA. Specifically, we investigated usability aspects of PGA in mixed reality in terms of task execution and likeability, and security in terms of guessing attacks. In addition, we have compared these metrics with a traditional desktop version of PGA in order to compare whether the technology shift affects the factors under investigation.

Null Hypotheses

H01. There is no significant difference in the time needed to create a picture password between users that utilize a mixed reality device vs. a desktop computer;

Sampling and Procedure

A total of 30 participants were recruited (10 females), in the age range of 22 to 40 (m=31.7; sd=6.1). No participant was familiar with picture passwords and all had no or limited prior experience with mixed reality devices. Following a between-subjects design, we formed two groups; half of the participants interacted with the picture password in HoloLens (Mixed Reality Group), and the other half with a traditional desktop-based PGA (Desktop Group). Considering that image complexity affects password strength [17] and gesture combinations [18, 19], we provided the same image to keep image complexity the same across users.

Analysis of Results and Main Findings

Differences in Picture Password Creation Time. To investigate H01, we ran an independent-samples t-test, with the user group (mixed reality vs. desktop) as the independent variable, and the time to create the picture password as the dependent variable. The analysis revealed that password creation times between the two groups were not significant (Mixed Reality: 16.69 sec vs. Desktop: 12.88 sec) with a mean difference of 3.81 ± 3.02 seconds (95% CI, -1.39 to 10.01), t(27)=1.261, p=.218.

Answer the following questions

1.Why is the mean age and the standard deviation of ages reported?

2.Why do you imagine the researchers used a between-subjects design rather than a within-subjects design?

3.Why was the same image used in both conditions?

4.What was the t-test being used for?  what other test could have been used?

5.Why was a paired t test not used?

6.What does the word significant mean in relation to the findings?