2011 VN'ers Psychology U3 Questions Thread

[iNerd]

while others do have an unwanted affect on the DV (or results) and these are confounding variable as they "confuse" the results of the experiment.

Quote textbook "a confounding variable produces a measurable change in the IV". I think I'm confused...doesn't the confounding variable produce a measurable change in the DV therefore making it impossible to determine which of the variables affected the DV.

Yes. It should be the confounding variable affects the DV. Must have been a typo.

I'm disappointed with Grivas et al - Slumdawg should write the textbook

[iNerd]

What is the purpose of the sympathetic nervous system:

1. Inhibiting digestion? Is it to conserve energy?
2. Relaxing the bladder?...:S

[Russ]

heh, bio question in the psych thread

If your SNS activates then you're generally in a fight/flight response. In that case, blood needs to be diverted away from the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) in order to supply your skeletal muscles to best prepare you to respond to whatever danger stimulus you've encountered. So digestion is slowed as a side effect of this (blood is also diverted from other organs/areas of the body).

If the sympathetic nervous system relaxes the bladder, it allows it to expand further and thus fill further with urine. Not entirely sure on whether or not there's another purpose here that's more relevant

[iNerd]

True or False?

The observation that people consistently sleep longer after a particularly active day provides support for restorative theories of sleep function.

I put True.

Answer is False.

Why?

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A random sample of VCE students in a school could be achieved by selecting:

A - students whose VCE candidate number ends in an even number
B - student who walk to school
C - every tenth student walking out of a VCE assembly
D - all students who are enrolled in three or more science studies.

My answer is C - their answer is A.

How can it be A? By choosing only those who end in even numbers isn't a biased sample produced by discrimanting against those students whose VCE number ends with an odd number?

[burbs]

I'm gonna take a stab at that:


No because it ensures everyone has an equal chance, there could be other factors with kids walking out of assembly, like not being present (0 chance) or maybe only the nerds go to assembly. VCE numbers do not have any info about the person really, so its unbiased etc.

[Russ]

It's not a biased sample at all, assuming numbers are computer generated/assigned. The whole point of using even numbers is to discriminate against the odd numbered students, because you only want a sample, not the whole community

And as outlined, there are conflicting factors with the assembly

The observation that people consistently sleep longer after a particularly active day provides support for restorative theories of sleep function.

I put True.

At a guess, because there's no evidence that they're sleeping longer because it will aid recovery as opposed to sleeping longer because they're tired.

[iNerd]

^^
There's zero chance of obtaining an odd-numbered student. How on earth is that random sampling? Going by the definition, random sampling ensures that every member of the population of research interest (VCE students) has an equal chance of being picked.

I see how the assembly is wrong now leaving option A as being the "best" answer - but it's still wrong? -.-

[Russ]

They have an equal chance of being picked - if they were assigned an even student number, then they'll be picked.

There are two major assumptions, one that there are equal numbers of even/odd student numbers and the second is that the numbers were assigned randomly

[burbs]

Because the numbers initially given out were random, so therefore taking only the even is still random.

[leona0123]

I am having trouble answering the following question:

"Explain why consciousness is considered to be a psychological construct."

Could someone please help me out or direct me to a website or other resource that might help?
Thanks

[iNerd]

A psychological construct is a concept that is constructed to describe specific psychological activity or a pattern of activity that is believed to occur or exist but that cannot be directly observed or measured.

So consciousness is a psychological construst because it can't be observed or measured since it isn't physical and doesn't take up space.

Hope that helped

[totaled]

True or False?

The observation that people consistently sleep longer after a particularly active day provides support for restorative theories of sleep function.

I put True.

Answer is False.

Why?

---------------------------------------------------

A random sample of VCE students in a school could be achieved by selecting:

A - students whose VCE candidate number ends in an even number
B - student who walk to school
C - every tenth student walking out of a VCE assembly
D - all students who are enrolled in three or more science studies.

My answer is C - their answer is A.

How can it be A? By choosing only those who end in even numbers isn't a biased sample produced by discrimanting against those students whose VCE number ends with an odd number?

aha what you have to be careful of is not thinking it
similarly, if you assign every person with a number from 1-100,
and select al lthe even numbered participants, you coudl say the odd numbered participants have no chance
but in your case, with their last digit ending in either odd/even
it doesnt' reflect a certain characteristic

whereas every 10th peron leaving the room,
some people might bunch into groups of 4-5, and leave at the same time
so then they all wouldn't have a chance of being selected together
similarly, some ppl might naturally like leaving the room early,
or staying around, until everyone else leaves so its more convenient.

hope it helps

[CaptainAwesome]

I don't have my textbook for this year yet, and I have tried looking in the old textbook, as well as Google, but I can't find sufficient information.

Is someone able to give me a run-down of the content limitations, ability to do controlled/automatic processes, cognitive/perceptual distortions, emotional awareness, level of self control and time orientation of the states of consciousness, particularly total awareness, anaethesia and coma?

Also, whereabouts on the continuum would an alcohol/drug induced state lie?

[Eriny]

True or False?

The observation that people consistently sleep longer after a particularly active day provides support for restorative theories of sleep function.

I put True.

Answer is False.

Why?

---------------------------------------------------

A random sample of VCE students in a school could be achieved by selecting:

A - students whose VCE candidate number ends in an even number
B - student who walk to school
C - every tenth student walking out of a VCE assembly
D - all students who are enrolled in three or more science studies.

My answer is C - their answer is A.

How can it be A? By choosing only those who end in even numbers isn't a biased sample produced by discrimanting against those students whose VCE number ends with an odd number?

The first students walking out at assembly might all be students who are all in a similar class or who all don't like assembly or may well be united by some unknown characteristic. Meanwhile, people aren't given numbers on the basis of their characteristics, it's completely random.

[iNerd]

What are some limitations of the retrieval failure theory of forgetting?

(chapter 7)