Research Methodology for IB - Oefententamen 2018/2019

MC-questions

Question 1

The airport is typically busier in holiday periods than in regular working weeks. A marketing manager fears passengers are annoyed by waiting times during holiday periods. She therefore wants to know whether more complaints are made by passengers during holiday periods than during regular working weeks. She wants to test the hypothesis that the number of complaints made by passengers is higher during holiday weeks than during regular working weeks. Which test should she use?

1. Paired-samples t-test
2. Independent samples t-test
3. Mann-Whitney test
4. Cross table with Chi-square of independence

Question 2

Which statement about the following output is true?

Reliability statistics

Item Statistics

Item-Total Statistics

1. The three items form an unreliable scale that can be improved
2. Recoding Test2 will improve the reliability of the scale
3. Test1 and Test3 can be combined to form a reliable scale
4. None of the above

Question 3

Which of the following statements about questionnaire construction is/are true?

1. I is true, II is not true
2. I is not true, II is true
3. Both statements are true
4. Both statements are not true

Question 4

You are investigating the financial situation of car dealerships in the Netherlands. Thousands of car dealerships are scattered all over the country, so you need to select a sample of dealerships for your study. To draw your sample, you select three municipalities in different parts of the country and you pick a random sample of dealerships from these municipalities.

Which type of sampling are you using?

1. Stratified sampling
2. Structured sampling
3. Systematic sampling
4. Cluster sampling

Question 5

Modern cars are increasingly equipped with gadgets that improve traffic safety. One such gadgets is an eye-tracking device that monitors your eye movements to detect whether you are falling asleep. If you do, it sounds an alarm. However, in testing it appeared that every time drivers diverted their eyes from the road, the alarm went off. Which description fits the performance of the gadget best?

1. Validity was high, reliability was low
2. Validity was low, reliability was high
3. Validity and reliability were both high
4. Validity and reliability were both low

Question 6

Which set of hypotheses for an independent samples t-test are correct?

1. H0: B = 0, H1: B > 0
2. H0: B > 0, H1: B = 0
3. H0: µ1 = µ2; H1: µ1 > µ2
4. H0: µ1 > µ2; H1: µ1 = µ2

Question 7

You have been asked to study employee satisfaction at a Dutch supermarket chain. In total, this chain has 14.000 employees. The supermarket chain has given you contact details from 1.000 randomly selected employees. From this list, you chose 200 employees to send a survey to. A total of 143 employees completed the survey, the other 57 did not respond.

What is the sample you used in this study?

1. The 143 employees who filled out the survey
2. The 200 employees who received the survey
3. The 1.000 randomly selected employees
4. The 14.000 employees of the supermarket chain

Question 8

Which of the following statements about explained variance is/are true?

1. I is true, II is not true
2. I is not true, II is true
3. Both statements are true
4. Both statements are not true

Question 9

What should you do when cases have missing values?

1. Delete all cases with missing values from the analysis
2. Delete all questions (variables) which contain missing values
3. Replace the missing values with the median on this variable
4. All of the above are appropriate strategies in case of missing values

Question 10

You conduct an experiment into ways to promote pro-environmental behavior at work. Specifically, you are trying to reduce energy use. You divide the employees of an office into two groups: A group that receives information about various ways to save energy, and a group that does not receive any information. After two weeks, you compare the energy use in the two groups over the past two weeks to see if the information was effective. Which type of experiment did you use here?

1. Pre- and post-test design
2. Pre-test post-test control group design
3. Post-test only design
4. Post-test only control group design

Question 11

Which of the following statements is/are true?

1. I is true, II is not true
2. I is not true, II is true
3. Both statements are true
4. Both statements are not true

Question 12

You want to measure the concept ‘empathy’ in a study into management styles. For this particular concept, the sentence ‘The extent to which a manager is perceived as caring, attentive, and genuinely interested in others’ is an example of a…

1. Conceptual definition
2. Operational definition
3. Indicator
4. Question

Question 13

Imagine you are running an experiment on the effect of music volume on sales in supermarkets. A supermarket allowed you to change the volume of the music in the supermarket for a period of three weeks. You compare three different volume settings: no music in week 1, soft music in week 2, and relatively loud music in week 3. At the end of the experiment, you compare the sales results for each volume level to measure the effects of music volume on sales.

Which type of experiment are you conducting here?

1. Quasi experiment
2. True experiment
3. Field experiment
4. Double-blind experiment

Question 14

In a survey about advertising and household appliances, you asked participants to indicate agreement with the following three items to measure ‘purchase intention’:

Assuming Cronbach’s alpha is sufficient, are you theoretically allowed to create a new sum variable ‘purchase intention’ with any of these items?

1. Yes, you can sum items 1 and 2
2. Yes, you can sum items 1 and 3 if you recode item 3.
3. Yes, you can sum all three items if you recode item 3
4. No, you cannot sum any of these items, even after recoding.

Question 15

You were disappointed to find that only 143 employees participated in your study (see previous question). After checking the characteristics of the people who refused to participate, you find that males were more likely to refuse to participate than females (a case of systematic non-response). How does systematic non-response affect the accuracy and precision of your sample?

1. The accuracy of the sample is reduced while the precision remains the same
2. The precision of the sample is reduced while the accuracy remains the same
3. Both the accuracy and the precision of the sample are reduced
4. Both the accuracy and the precision of the sample remain the same

Question 16

Which of the following statements about experiments is/are true?

1. Using a blind experiment helps to reduce researcher (measurer) error
2. Using a blind experiment helps to reduce participant error
3. In a blind experiment, the researcher does not know if he/she is giving the treatment to the experimental group or the control group.
4. All of the statements listed above are true

Question 17

What can you conclude based on the following output?

Correlations

1. Ambition was a significant predictor of motivation
2. The reliability of both variables is high
3. At least one of the variables is measured on an ordinal datatype
4. None of the above

Question 18

Consider the following MultiTrait MultiMethod Matrix. What do you conclude regarding the validity of the two new measures of curiosity and openness?

1. The convergent validity of Curiosity New is high
2. The convergent validity of Openness New is high
3. The discriminant validity of Curiosity New is high
4. The discriminant validity of Openness New is high

Question 19

One way to test if cognitive tests administered to children in primary school are useful is to check whether their results on these tests are related to their study performance in high school. Which type of validity are you testing in this situation?

1. Predictive validity
2. Content validity
3. Convergent validity
4. Concurrent validity

Question 20

Which of the following measures provides an example of an interval datatype?

1. The number of menu options available in the restaurant
2. The different types of fish served in the restaurant
3. The waiting time (in minutes) before the first dish arrives
4. None of the above

Answer indication

1. B

2. D

3. A

4. D

5. B

6. C

7. B

8. B

9. A

10. D

11. A

12. B

13. C

14. B

15. C

16. B

17. C

18. A

19. A

20. D