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Based strictly on the principles of the number-of-examples theory, what specific outcome should the researcher expect regarding the self-evaluations of the two groups, and what is the theoretical justification for this expectation?

Case context: A research methodologist is designing a study to examine how undergraduate psychology students evaluate their own academic diligence. The researcher divides participants into two experimental groups. Group A is instructed to list a high quantity of specific instances where they studied diligently. Group B is instructed to list only a very small quantity of such instances. Following this task, all participants are asked to rate their overall level of academic diligence on a standardized scale.

Question: Based strictly on the principles of the number-of-examples theory, what specific outcome should the researcher expect regarding the self-evaluations of the two groups, and what is the theoretical justification for this expectation?

Sample answer: According to the number-of-examples theory, the researcher should expect participants in Group A to rate their academic diligence higher than participants in Group B. The theoretical justification is that people base their self-evaluations on the sheer quantity of relevant examples they can bring to mind. Because Group A brings a larger quantity of examples to mind compared to Group B, their subsequent self-judgments of diligence will be higher.

Key points:

  • Expects Group A to rate their diligence higher than Group B.
  • Explains that self-evaluations are driven by the sheer quantity of examples brought to mind.
  • Links the manipulated quantity of recalled instances directly to the differing predicted outcomes between the groups.

Rubric: Full credit requires clearly stating that Group A will report higher self-evaluations than Group B, and justifying this outcome by explaining that the theory relies on the sheer quantity of recalled examples to inform self-judgments.

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Updated 2026-05-27

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KPU

Research Methods in Psychology - 4th American Edition @ KPU

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