A Researcher Interested in the Effects of Humor on Memory

question 146

Multiple Choice

A researcher interested in the effects of humor on memory randomly assigns 16 participants to either the humor group or the no-humor group.The humor group reads humorous sentences and the no-humor group reads non-humorous sentences.On a later memory test, the researcher finds that in terms of the direction of the means, the humor group had better memory than the no-humor group, but this effect was not significant (p = 0.06) .What should this researcher do?

• A) She can attempt to increase her statistical power by using a two-tailed hypothesis test rather than a one-tailed hypothesis test.
• B) She can abandon the study of humor on memory because given her results it is obvious that humor has no effect on memory.
• C) Because the effect looks as though it is barely missing significance, she can just treat it as though the effect exists and communicate this exciting effect to her colleagues.
• D) Because the effect looks as though it is barely missing significance and her sample size is fairly small, she can increase her sample size to increase her statistical power to detect the effect.

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Definitions:

Catching Emotions

The process by which an individual's emotions influence or are influenced by the emotions of others, often described in the context of emotional contagion.

Inconsistencies

Describes situations where there is a lack of alignment or congruence between elements or behaviors within an organization.

Project

A planned set of interrelated tasks to be executed over a fixed period and within certain cost and other limitations.

Cheerfulness

A state of being noticeably happy and optimistic.