BM CH2

• comparison group


  a group in an experiment whose level on the independent variable differs from those of the treatment group in some intended and meaningful way
• confederate


  a person who is given a role to play in a study so that the social context can be manipulated
• probabilistic


  results of behavioural research are often probabilistic- meaning findings do not explain all cases all of the time
• availability heuristic


  states that things that

  pop up easily in our mind tend to guide our thinking
• present/present bias


  when testing relationships, we often fail to look for absences; in contrast, it is easy to notice what is present. reflects our failure to consider appropriate comparison groups
• confirmation bias


  a tendency to search for information that confirms our beliefs
• cherry picking


  seeking and accepting only the evidence that supports what we think and want to think
• skepticism


  scientists should make a habit of questioning everything and seek evidence both for and against their ideas
• bias blind spot


  the belief that we are unlikely to fall prey to cognitive biases
• empirical journal articles


  a scholarly article that reports for the first time the results of a research study
• review journal articles


  summarize and integrate all the published studies that have been done in one research area
• meta analysis


  a "study of studies" that combines the findings of multiple studies to arrive at a conclusion
• effect size


  the magnitude of a relationship between two or more variables
• predatory journals


  journals that intentionally engage in deceitful and unethical practices and fail to meet basic standards of publicised research
• impact factor


  measure of frequency with which the average article in a journal has been cited in a particular year
• paywalled


  subscription only
• open access


  online research output free of any and all restrictions on access
• components of an empirical journal article

  abstract, intro, method, results, discussion, references
• disinformation


  the deliberate creation and sharing of information known to be false
• motives of disinformation


  Propaganda, passion, politics, provocation, profit, parody