Essay: Decoding Academic Research and Research Methods

In the multiple choice questions below, choose only one answer:

1. Which of these descriptions BEST describes what is meant by academic research?

a. Searching the Internet for articles and writing a literature review

b. Carrying out an experiment and writing it up in a paper

c. Looking at data and forming conclusions

d. Answering a research question using a recognised method of inquiry and

reporting the results in a standard way

2. The abstract of an academic paper should contain

a. Information about the research done

b. The name of the authors of the paper

c. The name of the journal that the work is being published in

d. All of the above

3. Which of the following is NOT a hypothesis?

a. It will rain tomorrow

b. Do people trust apps made by the government

c. Mozilla is faster than Internet Explorer

d. Texting while standing is less error prone than texting while walking

4. Which of the following reasons is NOT a good reason to carry out a literature

review?

a. To locate a specific paper with a known title and author

b. To find out if someone has done the work you are planning to do

c. To discover what methods others have used in doing similar research to your

own

d. To find out what has not been studied in a given area

5. One of these suggested studies needs an ethics review – which is it?

a. A study of the speed with which images transmit in Internet Explorer

b. A review of literature about children and technology

c. An experiment to test speed of texting while sitting and standing

d. A survey of school students asking about their privacy settings on their

laptops

6. An ANOVA test can appropriately be used on which data?

a. Any data that is represented by numbers

b. Data that is normal and parametric

c. Any data that has been gathered in an experiment

d. Data that has been coded by at least two coders

7. In the following statement, ‘After completing the design activity, participants

reported increased confidence in their ability to contribute (Z=-2.775, p=.006)’ what

can be understood from the value for p?

a. There is a significant difference found

b. There is no significant difference found

c. There is a difference found that is only accounted for by chance

d. There is nothing that can be said about any difference

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8. The method section of an experimental academic paper is most accurately described

as the section where

a. The author writes about what happened on the day

b. The author presents the results in graphs

c. The author explains the variables and the experimental set up

d. The author writes about future work that could be done

9. Which of the following sets of data would NOT be considered interval?

a. Ages of participants in a study

b. Transmission rates in bits per second (bps)

c. Ratings given for modules from 1 (didn’t like) to 5 (loved)

d. Number of phones per household

10. For the set of numbers, 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 6, 6, 6, which of the following statements is

WRONG

a. The mean of the numbers is 4

b. The mean of the numbers is 6

c. The mode of the numbers is 4

d. The median of the numbers is 4

11. Select the sentence that needs citations.

a. Climate change is an issue of increasing concern to both the developing and

industrialised world

b. The results of two recent studies suggest that the brain may have greater

capacity to repair itself than previously thought

c. In 2020 coronavirus COVID-19 was declared a pandemic

d. To investigate our hypothesis, we ran an independent-samples t-test

12. In a study you ask participants to enter multi-tap text first and then predictive text

on the same phone. What kind of variable is the order in which they do actions?

a. A dependent variable

b. A controlled variable

c. A confounding variable

d. An independent variable

13. What is an ethical dilemma?

a. An ethical dilemma is conflict between different principles of moral conduct

b. An ethical dilemma is agreement of the different principles of moral conduct

c. An ethical dilemma is agreement of the different principles of immoral

conduct

d. An ethical dilemma is conflict between the different principles of immoral

conduct

14. Look at the reference below. What does the term ‘Human Factors?’ refer to?

Norman, D. A. and Fisher, E., Why alphabetic keyboards are not easy to use:

Keyboard layout doesn't much matter, Human Factors, 24, 1982, 509-519.

a. The Article title

b. The Journal name

c. The Book title.

d. The Chapter title.

15. Which of the following is NOT a core ingredient of a research paper?

a. References

b. Research plan

c. Research methods

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d. None of the above

16. What is confirmation bias?

a. When our results confirm that the hypothesis is true

b. When our results focus only on true evidence

c. When our results confirm that the hypothesis is wrong

d. When our results focus only on evidence in favour of our hypothesis

17. What is the first thing to do when planning an experiment?

a. Allocate samples to different experimental conditions

b. Select samples from known populations

c. Define a hypothesis

d. Split groups to control versus experimental group

18. A deductive theory is one that:

a. Allows theory to emerge out of the data

b. Involves testing an explicitly defined hypothesis

c. Allows for findings to feed back into the stock of knowledge

d. Uses qualitative methods whenever possible

19. Which of the following is NOT an ethical issue?

a. Intrusiveness of data collection

b. Emotional vulnerability

c. Order of testing of variables

d. Power asymmetries

20. A characteristic of pseudoscience is that

a. It changes with new evidence

b. It starts with a conclusion, then works backwards to confirm

c. It embraces criticism

d. It follows the evidence wherever it leads

The next five questions relate to this scenario

In a research study, 10 children came to the lab and used either a pen or a tablet to write some words about their holidays. The children were split in two groups. The researchers measured how many words they wrote and the time taken to derive an EFFORT score which The children were also asked if they were happy doing what they did in order for the researchers to understand their satisfaction with the task.

21. What is the independent variable being tested in the experimental task?

a. The Effort score

b. Satisfaction level

c. Number of children

d. Entry method

22. What is the dependent variable being tested in the experimental task?

a. The Effort score

b. Satisfaction level

c. Number of children

d. Entry method

23. What is the dependent variable being tested when ASKING the children?

a. The Effort score

b. Satisfaction level

c. Number of children

d. Entry method

24. Based on the number of participants this study can be considered

a. A Case study

b. A Survey study

c. A Pilot study

d. A Simulation study

25. The most important ethical issue that must be taken into consideration when

designing the proposed study is

a. Informed consent

b. Power asymmetries

c. Information security

d. Dignity

The next five questions relate to this scenario

A research study aims to discover if online teaching results in improved marks for students.

The method planned is to compare results from year 1, when teaching was face to face with

year 2, when teaching was online. There are 152 results from year 1 and 172 results from year

2.

26. Which of the following BEST describes this sort of research?

a. Exploration

b. Description

c. Experimental

d. Case study