3B Midterm Study Guide for 2017

Exam Format: The 3B midterm will consist of multiple choice questions and short answer
questions based on material presented in readings, lectures, in-class videos and sections. The
goal is for you to integrate your understanding of the topics presented so far in 3B.

Study Questions: In general, the following study questions indicate which areas of the material
covered in this class will be highlighted on the exam. It is definitely in your best interest to
prepare detailed and thoughtful answers to all of these questions in studying for the exam,
carefully choosing specific examples of research findings to illustrate particular points in each
essay.

Writing out a detailed outline in advance for the answer to each question is a highly
effective way to prepare. Please note: it is often helpful to study in groups, but it is a mistake
to think that someone else can write an outline for you! Well-documented scientific finding: It
is the act of reviewing and testing yourself on the material and outlining answers yourself that
integrates the material in your own mind. You cant bring these outlines to the exam, but the fact
that you have gone through the process of organizing and testing yourself on the material while
studying will be a great help in writing good responses in the limited time available during the
exam.

Short-answer Questions: There will be several extended SAQs on the exam, most of which
will be derived from or similar in logic to the questions below. However, portions of these
questions may also be based on material presented in the text and lectures not necessarily
covered by this study guide. Note that you will not be expected to identify studies based just on
the authors names (unlike in problem set questions where you can refer to your notes). Any
exam question that asks about the design or results of a particular study will also provide you
with relevant contextual information, as well as the authors name (for example: Lozoffs
longitudinal study of children with IDA in Costa Rica). We will release two practice SAQs for
you to study with as well.

Multiple-choice Questions: A majority of the MC questions will also be derived directly from
the Study Questions below, but others will relate to material from the text and lectures not
necessarily covered by this study guide. To be fully prepared, you should use your lecture and
section notes and notes on the other readings (including those not explicitly mentioned here, but
listed in the syllabus) to organize your review of the material from the course.
 STATISTICS

Note: These questions contain data that may require the use of a calculator. You will NOT need
a calculator on the midterm. Any mathematical calculations required will be simple enough to do
by hand.

A. Ash and Gary are eternal rivals who attended the same university. Ash majored in Economics
and Gary majored in Chemistry. They are fiercely competitive and want to compare results from
the midterm exams in their core classes. Ashs midterm was a multiple choice with 70 questions,
each worth two points. Garys midterm was an in-class lab worth 25 points. Given the data
below, what statistical methods would Ash and Gary use to compare their scores? Who did
better? Explain your rationale for making the comparisons.

Economics:
Ashs score = 130
Class mean = 110
S.D = 25
Class Size = 30

Chemistry:
Garys Score = 21
Class Mean = 18
S.D. = 2.1
Class Size = 20

B. Gary argues that he might have done better on his midterm if he hadnt had so many hours of
rugby practice the week before the exam. He tells Ash that his exam scores are negatively
correlated with the amount of rugby practice he attends the week before an exam. He shows
Ash the following table of his exam scores and rugby practice history:

Exam # Score (%) Hrs/Wk of

Rugby Practice

1 85 6

2 92 4

3 77 12

4 86 8

Consider the following questions:

Is Gary right about the relationship between hours at rugby and exam scores? Calculate the
correlation coefficient r to express the strength and magnitude of this relationship.
Why do we use z-scores to calculate r? (Why cant we just use raw scores?)
 Which has more variance: Garys exam scores or his hours/week of practice? How do you
know? In general, you should be able to calculate, use/manipulate, and describe conceptually:
means, z-scores, and standard deviations/variances.
How much of the variability in Garys test scores are explained by the hours of rugby practice he
has that week? What statistical tool did you use to determine this?

C. Ashs professor, in an effort to improve exam grades, decides to begin hosting 1-hour review
sessions the week before the exam. In order to see if these review sessions are helpful, she
randomly assigns half of the class to attend the review sessions, and does not allow the other
half of the class to attend. After this intervention, she looks at the mean and standard deviation
for each group:

ATTENDED REVIEW SESSION:

Mean = 130
Population Standard Deviation = 6
# of Students = 15

DID NOT ATTEND REVIEW SESSION:

Mean = 110
Population Standard Deviation = 10
# of Students = 15

Consider the following questions:

What is the standard error of the mean for each group?
What is the effect size in terms of mean difference? Considering a 95% confidence interval, is
this mean difference statistically significant?
Would you recommend having more review sessions in the future?
Based on your calculations of 95% confidence intervals, what might you infer about the p-value
of this experiment?

RESEARCH DESIGN AND TERMINOLOGY

A. Stanfords BeWell program offers free aerobics classes to employees. One year after the
classes start, after the annual health exam, Stanford Health Services finds that those who had
chosen to participate in the class had lower blood pressure than the other employees. At a
meeting with President Tessier-Lavigne, the BeWell managers announce their program has
resulted in significant health improvements and propose spending $50,000 to expand the
aerobics program, claiming that it will result in long-term savings for the university.

What was the hypothesis tested by this study?

What were the predictor and outcome variables?
How was health improvement operationalized?
As a cost-conscious tuition payer, how would you evaluate their claim? (What are the potential
confounds in the study as described? How do those confounds relate to both the predictor and
outcome variables?)
 Propose a design that would have higher internal validity and justify the design you propose.

B. Many people believe that taking a vitamin C supplement like Emergen-C helps prevent colds.
Researchers at Stanford decide to test this claim first with a correlational study, followed by an
experimental study, and hire you as a consultant to design the studies. Address all of the
following in making your recommendations for each study:

What will the predictor/outcome or independent/dependent variables be, and how will you
operationalize them?
How will you select a representative sample?
If you chose to conduct this study as a within-subjects study, how would you control for order
effects?
If you chose to conduct this study as a between-subjects study, how would you decide which
participants are in the control group and which participants are in the experimental group?
What will your control group be?
What confounding variables will you need to consider?
Is your study internally valid? Externally valid? Explain how and why.
Do your results allow you to infer causality? Explain how and why.
How would you determine if there is a statistically significant difference between the outcomes
for the two groups (experimental and control)? What statistical tool (or tools) would you use?
What do they tell you?
What does it mean for your results to be reliable?

C. Studies in which experimental conditions are tightly controlled (i.e. high internal validity) are
often less satisfying in terms of external validity. Why is this the case? For each of the following
studies, specify the hypothesis tested and whether the researchers used a correlational or
experimental design. Which of these studies provided strong evidence for inferring cause- and-
effect, and why? How did these studies increase the external validity of their results?

Kramer et al. study of breastfeeding and cognitive development

Gibbs & Forste study of breastfeeding and cognitive development
The 4 studies focused on in Professor Fernalds lecture on iron deficiency (Lozoff,
Alagrin, Beard, Stoltzfus)
Diamond et al. (2007) reading on executive functions in children

D. The following conclusions are based on correlational data. In each case, identify potential
confounds that could plausibly justify an alternative explanation, and clearly explain why this
would undermine the original claim of causality. Explain how these confounds are related to
both the predictor and outcome variables.

Ice cream sales and shark attacks are positively correlated, so ice cream sales cause shark
attacks.
Heavy smoking leads to low infant birth weight.
Diets that are rich in nuts decrease the prevalence of coronary heart disease.
Wine drinking increases household income.
 Infants of mothers who are obese during pregnancy have higher mortality rates in childhood
and adulthood.
Eating tofu reduces the prevalence of breast cancer

E. In general, and throughout all of the topics covered in class, take each graph and be sure you
can explain the axes, describe the findings, and relate the graph to the contextual material
around it.

BRONFENBRENNER AND HERTZMAN

Use the Bronfenbrenner framework of nested contexts of development to illustrate how a

particular individual from the list below could be influenced directly or indirectly both by proximal
factors (i.e. the inner circles) and also by distal factors (the outer circles) at several different
levels. Make sure you can tie each factor, proximal or distal, to a particular level from the
Bronfenbrenner model (Micro, Meso, Exo, Macro, and Chronosystem). Now consider the same
child in the context of Hertzmans model of biological embedding. Both of these models
attempt to capture something important about causal factors, but from slightly different
perspectives.

a child with iron deficiency anemia

a child with cognitive impairment due to early exposure to rubella
a child with FASD
a mother who breastfeeds her infant for 12 months

Based upon your knowledge of the Hertzman reading, The Biological Embedding of Early
Experience and its Effects on Health in Adulthood, what role does the HPA axis play in biological
embedding of vulnerability to disease? What support is there from animal and human studies
to support this proposed role?

BREASTFEEDING

Describe how human breastfeeding has been and continues to be influenced by biological and
cultural forces on many different levels:

from an evolutionary perspective, what features of mammalian milk are adaptive for particular
species with particular feeding habits?
from a physiological perspective, how might human breast milk influence development, and
what components contribute to these effects? Consider what aspects of breastfeeding besides
the content of breastmilk could influence development.
What conclusions can you draw from the Kramer studys data about the benefits
of breastfeeding?
What conclusions can you draw from the Giibs and Forste studys data about the
benefits of breastfeeding?
from a cultural perspective, what kind of social factors have historically influenced mothers
inclination to breastfeed their infants? The Bronfenbrenner model is a good way to help
structure this line of thinking. In particular,
 in what ways do economic and political factors influence breastfeeding? Consider the changes
in breastfeeding norms over the 20th and 21st centuries and their origins.
What factors influenced breastfeeding campaigns during this time period?

CRITICAL PERIODS / VISUAL DEVELOPMENT

For each of the following examples you've learned about in 3B, 1) discuss the main research
findings, 2) evaluate how well they meet (or do not meet) the criteria for critical/sensitive period
effects, and 3) think about their implications for development over the lifespan (cascade effects).

Effects of prenatal exposure to rubella

Effects of prenatal exposure to thalidomide
Effects of prenatal iron deficiency
Consequences of breastfeeding
Early visual experience (ocular dominance) in cats
Practice analyzing data presented to support the existence of sensitive periods for ocular
dominance.
Early visual experience in humans (e.g. congenital cataract)
Practice analyzing data presented to support the existence of sensitive periods for correcting
congenital cataracts.
What cues do humans use to see depth?

Readings:

According to Bruer, what are the two criteria for valid sensitive period studies and how do his
criteria apply to the four specific examples of sensitive-period claims he considers? (Monocular
deprivation kittens, second language learning, string instrument learning, abecedarian study)
According to Beard (2008), what are the likely biological mechanisms behind the persistent
effects of IDA?
What are the main takeaways from the IDA studies presented in lecture? (Lozoff,
Alagrin, Beard, Stoltzfus)

FASD/PRENATAL ALCOHOL EXPOSURE

The effects of prenatal exposure to alcohol can be both biological and behavioral, as discussed
in lecture. For each of the following, provide support for your answer with specific findings from
lecture and readings. Particular studies to be familiar with are Goodlett & Horn (2001), Kelly,
Day, & Streissguth (2000), and the Seattle Longitudinal Study.

At what points during pregnancy can alcohol affect the developing fetus?
What makes alcohol unique in comparison to other teratogens discussed in 3B?
Describe physical and behavioral features that may be present in individuals affected by FASD.
Describe the relationship between FAS and FASD.
What are the advantages and limitations of using experimental studies as opposed to
correlational studies in studying FASD?
 What are the advantages and limitations of using animal models as opposed to human subjects
in studying FASD?
What can we learn from animal models about prenatal alcohol exposure and its effects?
You read the following claim on a website: The critical period for the negative effects of alcohol
exposure is the third trimester of pregnancy. Write a short response to this misinformation
based on what you have learned about FASD.