Arobbery has just been committed at the corner market in the downtown area of the city. the market owner was able to activate the alarm, and the robber fled on foot. police officers arrived a few minutes later and asked the owner, "how long ago did the robber leave? " "he left only a few minutes ago," the store owner responded. "he's probably 10 blocks away by now," one of the officers said to the other. "not likely," said the store owner. "he was so stoned on drugs that i bet even if he has run 10 blocks, he's still only within a few blocks of here! he's probably just running in circles! "

perform a simulation experiment that will test the store owner's hypothesis. assume that at each corner of a city block there is an equal chance that the robber will go in any one of the four possible directions: north, south, east, or west. simulate for five trials and then indicate in how many of the trials the robber is within 2 blocks of the store.

Reliability and validity reliability and validity are two important considerations that must be made with any type of data collection. reliability refers to the ability to consistently produce a given result. in the context of psychological research, this would mean that any instruments or tools used to collect data do so in consistent, reproducible ways. unfortunately, being consistent in measurement does not necessarily mean that you have measured something correctly. to illustrate this concept, consider a kitchen scale that would be used to measure the weight of cereal that you eat in the morning. if the scale is not properly calibrated, it may consistently under- or overestimate the amount of cereal that’s being measured. while the scale is highly reliable in producing consistent results (e.g., the same amount of cereal poured onto the scale produces the same reading each time), those results are incorrect. this is where validity comes into play. validity refers to the extent to which a given instrument or tool accurately measures what it’s supposed to measure. while any valid measure is by necessity reliable, the reverse is not necessarily true. researchers strive to use instruments that are both highly reliable and valid.

Summarize the specific methods used by interest groups in order to influence governmental decisions making in all three branches of government. provide at least two examples from each branch.

Advertisers are usually very conscious of their audience. choose an issue of a popular magazine such as time, sports illustrated, vanity fair, rolling stone, or the like. from that issue select three advertisements to analyze. try to determine the audience being appealed to in each advertisement and analyze the appeals used to persuade buyers. how might the appeals differ is the ads were designed to persuade a different audience.