ASHA ASHA Research and Evidence-Based Practice 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which research design is most appropriate for studying the prevalence of a communication disorder in the general US population?
- Cross-sectional epidemiological survey (Correct answer)
- Single-subject experimental design
- Randomized controlled trial
- Case study
Correct answer: Cross-sectional epidemiological survey
Cross-sectional surveys allow researchers to estimate the prevalence of a disorder in a defined population at a single point in time.
Question 2: In a single-subject experimental design (SSED), what serves as the control condition?
- The baseline phase (A phase) (Correct answer)
- A matched control participant
- A randomized comparison group
- A placebo intervention
Correct answer: The baseline phase (A phase)
In an SSED, the baseline (A) phase, during which no intervention is applied, serves as the control against which treatment effects are measured.
Question 3: What is the purpose of calculating effect size in clinical research?
- To indicate the magnitude of a treatment's impact independent of sample size (Correct answer)
- To determine the cost-effectiveness of an intervention
- To establish statistical significance at p < 0.05
- To compare the reliability of different measurement tools
Correct answer: To indicate the magnitude of a treatment's impact independent of sample size
Effect size quantifies the practical or clinical significance of a finding by measuring how large the treatment effect is, regardless of sample size.
Question 4: Which database is most commonly recommended by ASHA for searching peer-reviewed speech-language pathology and audiology literature?
- PubMed / MEDLINE (Correct answer)
- ERIC
- PsycINFO
- CINAHL
Correct answer: PubMed / MEDLINE
PubMed/MEDLINE is the primary biomedical literature database and is widely recommended for searching communication sciences research.
Question 5: What distinguishes a randomized controlled trial (RCT) from a quasi-experimental study?
- Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups in an RCT (Correct answer)
- RCTs use larger sample sizes than quasi-experimental studies
- Quasi-experimental studies always include a placebo condition
- RCTs are conducted only in laboratory settings
Correct answer: Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups in an RCT
The defining feature of an RCT is random assignment of participants to conditions, which controls for confounding variables and strengthens causal inference.
Question 6: Which term describes the degree to which an assessment tool produces consistent results across repeated administrations under the same conditions?
- Test-retest reliability (Correct answer)
- Content validity
- Criterion validity
- Construct validity
Correct answer: Test-retest reliability
Test-retest reliability measures how stable a test's scores are when the same individual is tested more than once under equivalent conditions.
ASHA ASHA Research and Evidence-Based Practice 2
Which research design is most appropriate for studying the prevalence of a communication disorder in the general US population?