Question

a. Suppose you are interested in performing an observational study of eating behavior of rats in a laboratory. Describe one method to quantify this behavior; that is, explain how you could convert the observations into numerical scores.

b. The most commonly used single-subject designs are the ABAB design and the multiple-baseline design. Describe the various circumstances for which each of these designs is appropriate.

c. Identify the purpose for a hypothesis test and briefly explain how a hypothesis test accomplishes its purpose.

Answer 1

a. Suppose there is a study which aims to measure the eating behavior differences in hungry rats and satiated rats, the observations can be made of how many food pallets the rats are eating. The frequency method can be used to see how many times the rats are eating the food pallets during the observation and the numerical responses can be recorded.

b. The ABAB design is used when there is a single variable in the study rather than multiple variable to study. It studies the impact of a particular variable on the subject and cannot be generalized to the general population.

The multiple-baseline design is used to show that a particular change has occurred only in response to the intervention. In this design the treatment variable is introduced in temporal sequence to different behaviors and subjects.

c. Hypothesis testing is used when the researcher wants to know if the difference between population parameter and the sample statistic is due to chance. The researcher first states the two hypothesis, from which only one is right. Next, a plan is formulated to evaluate the data and then the data is analyzed. Lastly, after the analysis it is determined whether to accept or reject the hypothesis.