2.2 Cognitive methods Flashcards
What is a laboratory experiment?
An experiment conducted in a controlled environment.
What is a field experiment?
A piece of research that takes place in the setting where the behaviour being studied would naturally occur.
What is operationalisation?
Defining the variables specifically so that they are directly tested.
What the variables are and how you will measure them.
What is an alternative hypothesis?
A statement that lays out what a researcher predicts will be found. This also known as an experimental hypothesis when the research methodology adopted is experimental.
What is a directional hypothesis?
A directional hypothesis predicts the direction of difference or relationship that the results likely to take.
What is a non-directional hypothesis?
A non-directional hypothesis predicts that a difference or relationship will be found, but not the direction that the difference or relationship will take.
What is a null hypothesis?
Predicts no difference/relationship will be found or that any difference/relationship is due to chance factors.
What is an independent variable?
The variable that is manipulated or changed by the researcher in order to demonstrate a difference between the experimental conditions.
What is a dependent variable?
The variable that is measured or the result of the experiment.
The dependent variable measures any changes that occur because of the independent variable.
This allows causality to be established.
What is an extraneous variable?
A variable that may have affected the dependent variable but that was not the independent variable.
What is a confounding variable?
A variable that affects the findings of a study directly, so much that you are no longer measuring what was intended.
What is the Hawthorne effect?
The presence of a researcher affects performance in a task.
What is a single-blind procedure?
To control for demand characteristics, participants maybe unaware that they are part of an experiment, or may have been deceived as to the true nature of the study.
What is a double-blind procedure?
Neither the participant nor researcher knows the aim the study.
What is a control group?
A group of Pps that does not experience the experimental situation but acts as a baseline against which to judge any change.