Compare and contrast cross-sectional and longitudinal designs. How do developmental researchers decide which to use?
What will be an ideal response?
Ans: Varies.
Cross-sectional designs measure the responses of people of different age groups and compare those responses. This is a timely and useful way to collect data and make inferences related to developmental stages. However, cross-sectional designs are subject to both cohort effects and period effects. A longitudinal design follows the same group of participants over time, avoiding the problems of cohort effects and period effects. However, longitudinal studies have their own disadvantages. People can leave the study (attrition), and secular trends are a problem (changes in society that explain the results instead of age). Because developmental studies require so many resources, researchers need to weigh the pros and cons of each method, consider their resources, and make the best decision they can: ideally combining features of both, such as in a cross-sectional design, the increase the internal validity of their studies.
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According to the special mechanism approach to speech perception,
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An informant brings a tip to the police department about suspicious activity at the docks. After detectives meet and process this information, they decide that the best course of action is to send undercover officers to the scene. If the police department were a neural network, the detectives would be functioning as:
A) sensory neurons. B) motor neurons. C) dendrites. D) interneurons.
Which student of Wilhelm Wundt eventually developed the school of psychological thought known as structuralism?
a. Max Wertheimer b. William James. c. John Locke d. Edward Titchener
Iconic and echoic memories are both types of ________ memory
A) sensory B) long-term C) immediate D) short-term