सSaral Shiksha Yojna
Courses/Behavioral Research: Statistical Methods

Behavioral Research: Statistical Methods

CG3.402
Vinoo Alluri•Monsoon 2025-26•4 credits
Sample Papers/100-mark mock paper · Paper 5

100-mark mock paper · Paper 5

Duration: 120 min • Max marks: 100

Section A — MCQs (20 × 1 = 20 marks)

20 marks
  1. 1.Which scale of measurement permits saying "Person A's response is exactly twice Person B's"? (a) Nominal (b) Ordinal (c) Interval (d) Ratio1 m
  2. 2.A study with very large n yields p = 0.001 and r = 0.05. Conclusion: (a) Strong evidence of a large effect (b) Real but tiny effect, practical importance limited (c) Probably p-hacking (d) Computation error1 m
  3. 3.A demand characteristic is: (a) A statistical assumption (b) Participants guessing the hypothesis and behaving accordingly (c) Sampling bias (d) An ANOVA assumption1 m
  4. 4.The χ² test of independence compares: (a) Observed vs theoretical means (b) Observed vs expected cell frequencies (c) Sample variances (d) Ranked values1 m
  5. 5.A binomial distribution has parameters (n, p). Its mean is: (a) p (b) np (c) n + p (d) p/n1 m
  6. 6.In Bayesian inference, "uninformative prior" means: (a) Strong prior beliefs (b) Prior with little impact on the posterior (c) Posterior with no data (d) A point mass1 m
  7. 7.The R command `qnorm(0.975)` returns approximately: (a) 0.975 (b) 1.96 (c) 2.58 (d) 0.0251 m
  8. 8.A regression with high VIF for X₁ indicates: (a) X₁ is unimportant (b) X₁ is strongly collinear with other predictors (c) X₁ has high effect size (d) X₁ is missing data1 m
  9. 9.An "interaction effect" in a two-way ANOVA means: (a) Both main effects are significant (b) The effect of one factor depends on the level of another factor (c) Sample sizes are unequal (d) Sphericity is violated1 m
  10. 10.A confidence interval that excludes the null value: (a) Cannot exist (b) Implies the result is significant at the corresponding α (c) Has 100% coverage (d) Means H₀ is proven false1 m
  11. 11.The "fishhook" anomaly in a residual-vs-predicted plot most likely indicates: (a) Constant variance (b) Linearity (c) Misspecified non-linearity (d) Independence1 m
  12. 12."Hawthorne effect" refers to: (a) Drift in instrument calibration (b) Behaviour change due to awareness of being observed (c) Outlier removal (d) Order effect1 m
  13. 13.Operationalization is: (a) Computing means (b) Defining a measurable instance of an abstract construct (c) Choosing a test (d) Sampling1 m
  14. 14.A study reports "Cronbach's α = 0.91" for a 10-item scale. This indicates: (a) Strong internal consistency (b) Strong construct validity (c) Large effect (d) High Type I error1 m
  15. 15.Which of these refers to a sample with deliberately oversampled rare subgroups? (a) Simple random sampling (b) Stratified sampling (c) Cluster sampling (d) Convenience sampling1 m
  16. 16.A factor analysis suggests 3 factors based on parallel analysis. The next step is typically: (a) Confirmatory factor analysis on independent data (b) Re-run with more factors (c) PCA instead (d) Increase α1 m
  17. 17.A power = 0.5 study finds p = 0.07 with a small effect. Most likely interpretation: (a) No effect (b) Small effect possibly missed due to low power (c) Strong evidence (d) Sampling error1 m
  18. 18.A Bayes factor of 1 indicates: (a) Strong evidence for H₁ (b) Strong evidence for H₀ (c) No evidence either way (d) Posterior = Prior1 m
  19. 19.Which of the following is an example of "external validity"? (a) Random assignment (b) Reliable measurement (c) Generalizing to a different population (d) Pre-registration1 m
  20. 20.In ANOVA, "df_between" for k groups equals: (a) k − 1 (b) N − k (c) N − 1 (d) k + 11 m

Section B — MSQs (10 × 2 = 20 marks)

20 marks
  1. 1.Which are advantages of pre-registration? (a) Prevents HARKing (b) Distinguishes confirmatory from exploratory (c) Eliminates all bias (d) Increases transparency (e) Improves replicability2 m
  2. 2.Which sources of variability are partitioned in one-way ANOVA? (a) Between-group variability (b) Within-group variability (c) Total variability (d) Interaction variability (e) Subject variability2 m
  3. 3.Which of these increase statistical power? (a) Larger sample size (b) Larger effect size (c) Smaller variance (d) Smaller α (e) Within-subjects design (vs between)2 m
  4. 4.Which qualify as descriptive statistics? (a) Mean (b) Median (c) Standard deviation (d) p-value (e) Interquartile range2 m
  5. 5.Threats to internal validity include: (a) History (b) Maturation (c) Selection (d) Sampling from a single university (e) Mortality/attrition2 m
  6. 6.Methods to deal with multicollinearity: (a) Drop one of the correlated predictors (b) Use ridge regression (c) Combine into a composite via PCA (d) Increase α (e) Center/standardize variables (for interactions)2 m
  7. 7.Which apply to the binomial distribution? (a) Discrete (b) Two possible outcomes per trial (c) Fixed n (d) Constant probability p (e) Trials independent2 m
  8. 8.Which would be appropriate to summarise a heavily skewed dataset? (a) Mean (b) Median (c) IQR (d) Boxplot (e) Standard deviation2 m
  9. 9.Which of these are limitations of frequentist NHST? (a) Binary reject/fail-to-reject thinking (b) Cannot quantify evidence for H₀ (c) Sensitive to optional stopping (d) Provides explicit prior beliefs (e) Often relies on threshold α = .052 m
  10. 10.Which of these are correct uses of regression? (a) Predicting an outcome from predictors (b) Estimating the strength of associations (c) Establishing causation from observational data alone (d) Testing whether a coefficient differs from 0 (e) Forecasting2 m

Section C — Short Descriptive (6 × 5 = 30 marks)

30 marks

    Section D — Long Descriptive (3 × 10 = 30 marks)

    30 marks

      Track your attempt locally — score and time are recorded in your browser. (Coming soon: timed-attempt mode.)