A cognitive scientist uses the student research participant pool at his university because they are easily accessible. This is an example of

• A. Purposive sampling
• B. Convenience sampling
• C. Snowball sampling
• D. Quota sampling

Answer: (B)

Choosing participants who are readily accessible is convenience sampling. Using the university’s student research participant pool because it’s easy to reach is exactly what this method describes. It makes recruitment quick and inexpensive, but it can bias results if students differ in important ways from the broader population, limiting generalizability. Purposive sampling would involve selecting people with specific characteristics the study needs, snowball sampling relies on participants to recruit others, and quota sampling aims to fill predefined subgroups to match population proportions. The defining idea here is recruiting based on ease of access rather than targeted characteristics, referrals, or quota structure.