Psychology 205 Article Report #1

Due: Wednesday, 10/4

Article: Gamble, T. & Walker, I. (2016).Wearing a Bicycle Helmet Can Increase Risk Taking and Sensation Seeking in Adults. Psychological Science, 27(2), 289-294.

For this assignment you are to carefully read the article, and then answer the questions below. The aim of this assignment is 1) to expose you to the style and mechanics of writing a scientific article (as opposed to an essay or other types of writing you are familiar with) and 2) to review and apply several of the concepts we have discussed so far in this class.

  • Your answers must be typewritten and stapled together (if there is more than one page).
  • You may consult classmates regarding issues on which you need clarification, but all of yourwriting must be your own. Do NOT under any circumstances look at anyone else’s answers to these questions. Plagiarism, whether intentional or not, will result in failing the course and notification of the judicial review board.
  • Your answers should be brief and to the point.

Questions (total=22 points)

  1. In onebrief sentence, summarize the main issue they are studying as described in the first paragraph (not the Abstract, but the first paragraph of the main body of the paper). [2 pts]
  2. The second paragraph describes what the current experiment did that previous experiments on safety equipment and risk taking had not done. What did they do that was new?[2 pts]
  3. What was the independent variable? (remember to be precise in your wording)[2 pts]
  4. How did the researchers operationally definerisk-taking?[2 pts]
  5. What is the scale (level) of measurement of the risk-taking variable? [1 pt]
  6. Copy the underlined statement in the Discussion on page 291 (retype the entire underlined portion, including the citation, in your answer). Note thatthe article needs to be viewed on a regular computer; phones and tablets may not show the underlining. [1 pt each]
  7. Where it gives the authors’ names in the parentheses at the end of the underlined statement, are the first names given or just the last names?
  8. Is the title of the cited article written anywhere in the underlined statement?
  9. Is the affiliation of the authors (where they work) written anywhere in the underlined statement?
  10. Is the year of the publication written anywhere in the underlined statement?
  11. What is used in place of the word “and” between the authors’ names in parentheses?

[These questions are as simple as they look – simple one or two word answers are fine here.]

  1. In the Results section, they write: “These effects cannot be explained by the helmet affecting anxiety, as anxiety did not change significantly as a function of condition…” What type of variable are they concerned about here?Explain your answer. [2 pts]
  2. Was this a within-groups or between-groups (independent groups) experiment? Explain why. [1 pt]
  3. What are twopossible issues with the external validity of this study?[2 pts]
  4. Assess the beneficence of this study: Discuss the potential benefits and the potential harm.[2 pts]
  5. The participants were deceived into thinking that their eye movements were being monitored, when in fact the researchers were just using that as a cover story for why the participants wore the hat/helmet. Why wasit ok to use this deception in this case? [1 pt]