1. The following are important considerations when implementing evidence based practice:
a) Best research evidence
b) Patient values
c) Patient circumstances
d) Clinical expertise
e) All of the above
2. The third component of the 5-step evidence based practice process relates to:
a) Clinical reasoning
b) Accessing information
c) Asking a question
d) Application of the information found
e) None of the above
3. Evidence based practice (EBP) can be practiced by anyone:
a) TRUE
b) FALSE
4. As an evidence based practitioner, the evidence which would be most indicative of the effectiveness of treatment would be that:
a) Experienced colleagues were supportive
b) Everyone has the right to make their own decisions
c) The improvements detected in participants after intervention were better than those of equivalent participants who received a different intervention
d) Participants were willing to pay money to receive the intervention
e) Participants were paid to be part of the intervention
5. The purpose of evidence based practice is to:
a) Use research to guide clinical decision-making
b) Apply a surcharge to patient/client treatment
c) Rely solely on advice from senior practitioners to make decisions about treatment or interventions
d) Make better use of the findings from Google searches
6. A published review of the evidence in an area of practice is considered a form of primary research
7. As a health professional, the need to engage in evidence based practice for life is important because:
a) Many of us do not retain the research knowledge we learnt as students
b) We can’t believe everything we read
c) It will improve the care provided to our patients/clients
d) It maintains our currency of knowledge
8. The PICO mnemonic is a concept that is used in:
a) Citing evidence
b) Critically appraising evidence
c) Developing a practice-related question
d) Evaluating whether or not evidence is applicable in practice
e) Determining the progress of a given intervention
9. In the PICO mnemonic, the P is used to represent the:
a) Problem
b) Patient
c) Population
d) Client
10. When using the truncation symbol “ * ” the word inflam* will search for articles containing the keywords:
a) Unhappy, unimpressed
b) Inflammation, inflamed, inflammatory
c) Joint, elderly
d) Elderly, shocked, appalled
e) Disgruntled, disgusted, flammable
2. The following is an example of a background question:
a) What causes sore joints?
b) Is bed rest more effective than exercise in improving the mobility of an adult who had a stroke?
c) Are mini-strokes in older adults a risk factor for more severe stroke in future?
d) Does reducing high blood pressure to normal levels prevent strokes in adults?
e) Is vision therapy more effective than wearing glasses in children?
3. This practice-related question contains all of the 4 PICO elements: “Does eating chocolate reduce stress levels?”
4. Developing PICO questions from scenarios is a critical skill to learn. Using the PICO process is of use in searching for evidence because it:
a) Creates efficiency in the search process
b) Indicates which database you should use to search
c) Turns a clinical scenario into an unanswerable question
d) Does not allow for comparisons to be made
5. A good PICO question is one where:
a) All elements are included all the time
b) Each element is clearly written
c) The question is answerable some of the time
d) Ambiguous terms are included
6. The Boolean operator OR is used to combine the following:
a) Truncations
b) Wildcards
c) Synonyms
d) Databases
e) Articles
7. The wildcard symbol # is used in searching Medline. Below is an example of its proper use:
a) Specialisation#
b) H#emoglobin
c) Organi#ation
d) #Kardashian
8. The wildcard symbol ? is used in searching CINAHL. Below is an example of its proper use:
a) Speciali?ation
b) H?emoglobin
c) P?ediatric
d) ?Kardashian
9. Quotation marks are used in database searching. Below is an example of their proper use:
a) “TBI”
b) “Traumatic Brain Injury”
c) Traumatic “brain” injury
d) Traumatic brain “injury”
e) “Traumatic” brain injury
10. Truncation in keyword searching is used to retrieve multiple terms. Below is an example of its use for the term bruise:
a) Bruis*ng
b) Br*ised
c) Bruised*
d) Bruis*
e) *Bruises*
1. The community health centre where you work produces a monthly newsletter and it’s your turn to write the next feature article. With the incidence of obesity in children increasing in your region, you think an article on the risk factors for this condition would be a good focus. Before writing, you need to do a literature search to find the best evidence. What main concepts (for P) are best to start with for your search strategy?
a) Evidence, risk factors, fast food
b) Risk factors, obesity
c) Children, child, obesity
d) Evidence, diabetes, children
e) Children, fast food, sedentary lifestyle, risk factors
2. The hypothesis can be described as a statement:
a) That is an “educated guess” about what an investigation might find
b) Include a proposed cause and a proposed outcome
c) Which cannot be tested
d) a) & b)
e) a) & c)
3. When constructing a search strategy it is important to identify alternative terms and synonyms (e.g. self-management or self-care) because this approach:
a) Identifies other words used to describe a single concept
b) Increases the number of articles retrieved in a search result
c) Helps to search for phrases in a specific order
e) b) & c)
4. A peer-reviewed or refereed journal is most appropriately described as a journal that publishes articles:
a) That have been appraised by other experts in the field
b) In an open-access format for everyone to freely access
c) Which have a reference list to show the peer input included in the piece
d) That have more than one author
5. Which one of the following citations refers to a journal article?
a) Farnsworth, E. R., & Champagne, C. (2010). Production of probiotic cultures and their incorporation into foods. In R. R. Watson & V. R. Preedy (Eds.). Bioactive foods in promoting health: Probiotics and prebiotics (pp. 3-18). Amsterdam: Academic Press/Elsevier.
b) Janssen, M., Vincken, K., Kemp, B., Obradov, M., de Kleuver, M., & Viergever, M. (2010). Pre-existent vertebral rotation in the human spine is influenced by body position. European Spine Journal, 19(10), 1728-1734. doi: 10.1007/s00586-010-1400
c) Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency. (2013). The Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency. Retrieved from http://www.climatechange.gov.au.
d) Cancer Council Australia. (2010). Stop smoking [fact sheet]. Retrieved from http://www.cancer.org.au/file/HealthProfessionals/Factsheets/FS_StopSmoking.pdf
e) Smith (1997)
6. From the list below, choose the section of the journal article that details the literature of the topic under investigation:
a) Key words
b) Methods
c) Introduction
d) Results
e) Acknowledgement
7. If you wanted to undertake a study investigating the relationship between sleep deprivation and weight gain, your hypothesis could be stated as such:
a) That sleep deprivation might cause weight gain
b) That sleep deprivation causes weight gain in some people and not others
c) That sleep deprivation causes weight gain
d) That sleep deprivation and weight gain co-exist
e) That sleep deprivation causes people to eat larger quantities
8. If a study is said to be “replicable” this means that:
a) Enough detail is provided so another researcher can attempt to conduct the study using the same methods
b) Reptiles were used as participants
c) The investigator/s were biased in their approach
d) The data appears in different formats – e.g., as a table and a graph
9. The “Method” section of a research article will give information about the following
a) Materials, participants, procedure
b) The PICO concept map
c) Study findings
d) Whether the hypothesis was supported
e) Why the study is important
10. Quantitative research studies use a research design that puts emphasis on:
a) Flexible designs and subjective methods
b) Using statistical software packages to analyse the data
c) Testing hypothesis/es about whether predicted results cause predicted effects
d) Solely using questionnaires to collect data from human participants
e) The “O” in the PICO concept map
1. In quantitative research, assessing the reliability of measurements might include looking at the:
a) agreement of measurements
b) consistency of measurements
c) dependability of measurements
2. In quantitative research, validity is concerned with the:
a) date the research was published
b) the impact factor of the journal it is published in
c) integrity of the research findings from a given study
d) number of authors involved with the study
3. You would expect that given IQ is a relatively stable characteristic, an IQ test should provide similar results on two separate occasions. This is an example of:
a) Test-retest reliability
b) Repeat-rater reliability
c) Repeated measures reliability
d) Inter-rater reliability
e) Testing reliability
4. You recently read an article comparing the accuracy of new x-ray body scanners used at airport screening checkpoints with the current best practice body scanners. This article is reporting on which type of validity?
a) Content
b) Construct
c) Criterion
d) Face
e) Note-taking
5. In a research study two judges were asked to independently listen to 10 speech samples and measure how many syllables were spoken in each. Their measurements were then compared. This is an example of:
a) Intra-rater reliability
b) Informed-rater reliability
c) Inter-rater reliability
d) Repeated-rater reliability
e) Independent-rater reliability
6. When assessing a study’s internal validity, we are seeking to understand whether the:
a) Independent and dependent variable/s have been defined
b) Ethics committee approved the study
c) Results are generalisable to other similar situations
d) Dependent variable was measured using a ratio scale
e) Study shows there is a casual relationship between the independent and dependant variables
7. A threat to a study’s internal validity can be brought about by a number of measures. These can include:
a) Bias in allocating participants to groups
b) Differences in testing conditions between or within groups
c) Participant expectation of outcomes
d) Researcher/experimenter expectation of outcomes
8. External validity refers to whether a study’s findings are:
a) Trustworthy
b) Valid in external environments
c) Generalisable
d) Consistent
e) Statistically significant
9. If you were to undertake a study investigating how stress affects heart rate, your independent variable would be:
a) Heart rate
b) Stress
c) Exercise
d) Heart rate & stress
10. If you undertook a study which looked at the effects of different blood alcohol levels on ability to walk in a straight line, your dependent variable would be:
a) Vodka
b) Distance walked in a straight line
c) Alcohol and walking in a straight line
d) Adult
e) Blood alcohol concentration (BAC)
1. Journal articles are comprised of various sections. The correct sequence of the sections is:
a) Title, abstract, keywords, acknowledgement
b) Abstract, keywords, introduction
c) Methods, results, discussion
2. Qualitative research produces findings that:
a) Are arrived at through the combination of statistical research and non-statistical information
b) Are reached via non-statistical approaches
c) Apply to non-clinical research
d) Have only analysed matters of quality
3. Qualitative research is appropriate to undertake when:
a) You seek to explore an event in detail and depth
b) There is no research question to answer
c) Statistical analysis is required
d) Data measurement is structured and precise
4. Suitable data collection methods when undertaking qualitative research include:
a) Note-taking
b) Photographs
c) Unstructured discussions
d) Telephone interviews
5. It would be correct to say that qualitative research:
a) Is less rigorous than quantitative research
b) Cannot be undertaken alongside quantitative research
c) Would include a randomised control trial
d) Can discover motivations behind certain behaviours
e) Requires a very large population size to enable the study to be generalizable
6. Undertaking a qualitative research study is appropriate when:
a) Rich detail is not sought about the topic
b) Little is known about the area being explored
c) There is no interest in the lived experience
d) The hypothesis is narrow and specific
e) Statistical analysis is required
7. Select the reference in APA 6th format from those below:
a) Smith, K., Dean, D., Ronald, N. (2014). A qualitative study in emotional break-ups. Investigative Science, 16(5), 739-749.
b) Smith, K., Dean, D., & Ronald, N. (2014). A qualitative study in emotional break-ups. Investigative Science (italicised), 16(5), 739-749.
c) Smith, K., Dean, D., Ronald, N. (2014). A qualitative study in emotional break-ups. Investigative Science, 16(5), 739-749.
d) Smith, K., and Dean, D., and Ronald, N. (2014). A qualitative study in emotional break-ups. Investigative Science, 16(5), 739-749.
e) Smith, K., Dean, D., Ronald, N. (2014). A qualitative study in emotional break-ups. Investigative Science, 16(5), 739-749.
8. Phenomenological research focuses on:
a) The researcher spending considerable time observing a group of people, their cultures and rituals
b) Prolonged observation of a group
c) Reporting statistical outcomes
d) The collection of visual materials such as photographs
e) The meaning of the lived experience in those being assessed
9. The purpose of a descriptive study is to:
a) Conduct a true experiment
b) Identify a cause and effect relationship
c) Eliminate multiple explanations of a phenomenon
d) Explain the statistical patterns related to the phenomenon in question
e) Document and describe the population or phenomenon of interest
10. Traditional approaches to qualitative research do not include:
a) Ethnography
b) Visual ethnography
c) Narrative enquiry
d) Randomised Control Trials (RCTs)
e) Phenomenology
1. You may find it useful to apply a different critiquing framework to qualitative research from that used for quantitative research for which of the following reasons?
a) It provides variety when critiquing research articles, especially in assignments.
b) It develops your skill in critiquing different types of research.
c) Qualitative research is so different from quantitative research that it is difficult to apply the same criteria for judging the quality of each type of study.
d) It illustrates your ability to use more than one framework.
2. Assessing the quality of qualitative research is referred to as assessing the study’s……….
a) Trustworthiness
b) Reliability
c) Appropriateness
d) Integrity
e) Both a) and b)
3. In the eResource, Ruddock-Hudson (2012) discusses her research about exploring AFL players’ psychological response to injury. She notes that she increased the credibility of her work by:
a) Administering an IQ test to all players in the study prior to selection
b) Only including players with multiple leg injuries
c) In randomly selected cases, sending a copy of the transcript from the semi-structured interview to the same interviewed player so that they could check that the interview accurately reflected what they had said
d) Selecting players who received family support during their recovery stage, so that the family could also be interviewed
e) Buddying injured players up with another injured player so that all injured players at the club felt supported and this would normalise their psychological response to injury and increase accuracy
4. In the eResource, Ruddock-Hudson (2012) discusses her research about exploring AFL players’ psychological response to injury. In her work, she discusses how the results have limited transferability because the:
a) AFL players were male
b) Data had been acquired from many Victorian clubs, but not interstate ones
c) Semi-structured interviews were not an appropriate method of collecting data – in retrospect, they should have chosen to undertake focus-groups
d) Players had received payment for their interview time with the researcher
e) Players had been interviewed from one club only
5. To enhance confirmability in qualitative research, the following approach could be included in the study design:
a) The researcher should already have established their own opinion about how the data will appear before the data is acquired
b) An independent audit of the original transcripts and the thematic analysis undertaken, to determine whether any discrepancies exist between the auditor and investigator
c) When focus groups are used, the interviewer should strongly steer the discussion in a particular direction, so as to “confirm” their own beliefs
d) a) & c)
6. Which of the following are terms often associated with qualitative research:
a) Reliability
b) Measurement
c) Bias
d) Internal validity
7. The type of qualitative research that describes the culture of a group of people is called ____.
a) Phenomenology
b) Ethnography
c) Scientology
d) Case study
e) Grounded theory
8. In a study, observers collected, coded and interpreted data from observations, questionnaires and focus groups. When compared, the results presented similar conclusions about the data. This is an example of:
a) Triangulation
b) Test-retest reliability
c) Generalisability
d) Prolonged observation
e) Peer support mechanisms
9. In qualitative research, the components of trustworthiness are:
a) Credibility
b) Transferability
c) Dependability
d) Confirmability
10. A researcher would use the term ‘interpretive rigour’ to refer to the:
a) Amount of literature used to guide the development of the research question
b) Diagnostic accuracy of the technique used to analyse the data
c) Methodological approach that guided the interpretation of the data
d) Population group studied
e) Type of referencing system used in the publication of the research
1. The internal validity of a study relates to the degree to which:
a) Cause and effect can be accurately ascertained
b) Random error is minimised
c) The study's results can be generalised
d) The study shows a clinically or practically important effect
2. External validity relates to:
a) The validity of the study design
b) The generalisability of findings
c) How consistent measurement was
d) The degree of influence of fixed factors
3. In a research study, the impact of bias can result in:
a) Reduced internal validity
b) Reduced consistency
c) Reduced efficiency
d) Reduced continuity
Which of the following is a measure of the consistency of ratings from two independent raters:
c) Criterion validity
d) Content validity
e) Inter-rater reliability
Which of the following statements is true regarding quantitative and qualitative research?
a) Only a qualitative approach can assess quality of life
b) Quantitative data is concerned with the measurement of numbers and values
c) It is always preferable for researchers to use a quantitative approach
d) Quantitative data mainly consists of words spoken by participants
e) Qualitative research is more valid than quantitative research
6. Which of the following is not a general feature that characterizes most qualitative research?
a) Inflexible design
b) Naturalistic inquiry
c) Flexible design
d) Holistic perspective
e) Personal contact and insight
7. Mixed-method designs:
a) Are almost impossible to carry out
b) Are a quantitative research design
c) Combine quantitative and qualitative methods
d) Are philosophically unjustified
e) Result in contradictory findings
8. Researchers study just one individual, classroom, school, or program in which approach to qualitative research?
a) Case study
b) Case control study
c) Ethnography
d) Biography
9. When a qualitative researcher attempts to ensure the neutrality and objectivity of the data, she/he is enhancing:
e) Reliability
10. Which of the following is a characteristic of qualitative research?
a) Generalization to the population
b) Random sampling
c) Measurement
d) Standardized tests and measures
1. Below is a ladder of the top 5 Australian Football Leagues. This would be an example of the following type of measurement scale:
Position Club 1 Sydney Swans 2 Hawthorn 3 Geelong Cats 4 Freemantle 5 Port Adelaide
a) Nominal
b) Ordinal
c) Ratio
d) Interval
e) Categorical
8. In the eResource, Professor Geoff Cumming talks about the frequency distribution. In relation to the number of bins you should choose when constructing your frequency histogram, he recommends that the number is:
a) Dependent upon your judgement
b) The result of a formula you use to calculate it
c) The maximum number of bins the graphing software allows you to use
d) The minimum number of bins the graphing software allows you to use
e) 2
9. When considering a set of data that has a low standard deviation (SD), it would be true to say that the data :
a) Are spread very far from the mean
b) Has not been collected appropriately
c) Has not been analysed correctly
d) Are very close to the mean
10. In the eResource, Professor Geoff Cumming talks about descriptive statistics. When describing the data in a frequency distribution, he noted that:
a) The data is always positively skewed
b) Most of the data typically lie within 2 standard deviations above and below the mean
c) The mode is the most important measure of central tendency when describing the data you see
d) Nominal data are best displayed on a frequency histogram
e) The frequency distribution should not be used if there are outliers in the data
1. When analysing data, we can take a sample of the population. The sample is:
a. An exact replica of the population being studied
b. Best if it is small in size compared with the size of the population
c. A selection or a subset of individuals from within a statistical population
d. Equivalent to the mode of the population
e. Not required for analysis, because large population sizes are generally easy to recruit and analyse
2. A La Trobe based researcher investigating student perceptions of teamwork in a learning context used a sample of La Trobe students as her participants. The sample is considered to be:
a. One which produces results which are highly generalisable to the population
b. Non-biased
c. Convenient
d. Randomly selected
e. Equivalent to the wider population
3. When using inferential statistics, what are we aiming to do? (Choose the MOST correct definition)
a. Measure some variables to see what happens
b. Measure as many people as possible
c. Prove our experimental hypothesis right
d. Measure a sample to understand the population
e. Directly measure a population
4. Professor Cumming recommends that when deciding whether our results have supported the research hypothesis, we should examine what to help us make this decision?
a. The sample Means
b. The Standard Deviation in the sample
c. The Margin of Error
d. Whether the sample was big enough
e. How many papers report the same result
5. You are considering how large a sample to use in your experiment. In general, a large N is likely to:
a. Increase the margin of error of your results
b. Decrease the precision of your estimates
c. Decrease the margin of error of your estimates
d. Decrease the testing time for each participant
e. Improve the matching between groups
6. The Null Hypothesis is supported when ________, the Alternative Hypothesis is supported when _____________.
a. An effect was observed, no effect was observed
b. No effect was observed, an effect was observed
c. The correlation coefficient is positive, the correlation coefficient is negative
d. The correlation coefficient is negative, the correlation coefficient is positive
e. The first experiment failed, the second experiment was successful
7. In Null Hypothesis Significance Testing, what p value boundary is most commonly used as the criteria for determining support for the Alternative, experimental hypothesis (H1)?
a. p < .05
b. p < .50
c. p > .05
d. p < .005
e. p < .10
8. According to Cohen’s rule of thumb, a correlation coefficient of .34 could be considered to be a _________, _________ relationship:
a) medium, negative relationship
b) medium, positive relationship
c) strong, positive relationship
d) weak, positive relationship
e) weak, negative relationship
9. A researcher examining the relationship between hours spent practicing progressive relaxation and anxiety levels reported the following finding:
Correlation analysis for a sample of 100 participants revealed a significant relationship between hours spent practicing relaxation and anxiety levels, r = -.46, p = .004.
This means that:
a) The Null hypothesis was supported
b) There was a positive relationship between training and anxiety, as the time spent practicing relaxation increased, anxiety levels increased
c) Progressive relaxation causes anxiety to decrease
d) There was a negative relationship between training and anxiety, as the time spent practicing relaxation increased, anxiety levels decreased
e) There is not enough information to interpret this finding
10. The type of Figure traditionally used to represent a correlation analysis of the relationship between 2 variables is called a______ and usually contains ___________:
a) Scatterplot; a Line of Best Fit
b) Pie chart; mean percentages for scores
c) Bar graph; Means with Standard Deviation bars
d) Boxplot; a measure of interquartile ranges
e) Relationships between variables cannot be represented graphically
1. What type of distribution is observed when most of the scores cluster around the lower end of the scale?
a. Bimodal distribution
b. Positively skewed distribution
c. Negatively skewed distribution
d. Cannot be defined
e. None of the above
2. Descriptive statistics __________.
a. represent conventions for summarizing and organizing data
b. are based on the principles of probability
c. represent conventions for planning research
d. are essential for analysing both qualitative and quantitative data
e. tell us whether our hypothesis is supported
3. In Independent group designs, the simplest way to make groups statistically equivalent is to:
a. randomly assign treatments to groups
b. pre-test participants in each group
c. start with a larger sample and remove the extremes
d. randomly assign participants to groups
e. find the most convenient sample of participants
4. A Type 1 Error is:
a. Improper measurement techniques on the part of the researcher
b. The result of a small sample size
c. Failing to reject the null hypothesis when, in fact, it is true
d. Incorrectly rejecting the null hypothesis
e. Incorrectly accepting the null hypothesis
5. In his eResource video, Professor Geoff Cummings tells us about a statistic that provides a “rule of thumb” to help us roughly know where 95% of measurements fall on either side of the mean. He is referring to what piece of statistical information?
a. The t value
b. The p value
c. The standard deviation
d. The correlation coefficient
e. The standard error of the mean
6. The outcome of a statistical analysis is found to be p = .02. This means that:
a. the alternative hypothesis was directional
b. we can reject H0 at α < .05
c. we must conclude that the alternative hypothesis is true
d. we had a big effect in our study
e. all of the above
7. Statistical tests are used:
a. only in experimental designs
b. to increase the internal validity of experiments
c. to prove your research question is correct
d. to establish the probability of the outcome of an investigation being due to chance alone
e. to torture students who never wanted to do math again
8. The 95% confidence interval for the sample mean is best defined as:
a. Describing the spread of the data points in your sample
b. Having a total width approximately 2 x SE
c. Having a total width equal to the margin of error (MOE)
d. Telling us a range of plausible values for the population mean
9. A researcher examining the effect of memory training on the recall abilities of patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) reported the following result:
Independent Groups t-test analysis revealed a significant difference between the recall abilities of MCI patients who participated in memory training compared to patients who did not participate in training, t(98) = 23.86, p = .012. This means that:
a. The Null hypothesis was supported
b. Patients who received training appeared to perform better on recall tasks in comparison to patients who had not received training
c. There was no difference in the recall abilities between groups of patients, irrespective of whether they had training or not
d. There is a significant correlation between memory training and recall ability
e. There is not enough information to interpret this finding
10. If you read this statement in a research article: “Recovery times were faster for patients who received treatment than those who did not (p = 0.07).” It would mean that there is a:
a. 70% chance that the observed difference would be due to chance
b. 7% chance that other researchers would find the same result
c. 7% chance that the observed difference would be due to chance
d. 7% difference between groups/observations
e. 7% difference between groups/observation