Ch 7: Experience Carefully Planned - Experimental Research Designs

Question 1

What is a manipulation?

Answer 1

A manipulation occurs when an experimenter systematically alters the levels of a variable (i.e., the independent variable).

Question 2

What is random assignment?

Answer 2

Random assignment is when all the participants have an equal opportunity to be assigned to the control or experiment group.

Question 3

What are the two elements needed to make an experimental design?

Answer 3

1. Manipulation
2. Random assignment

Question 4

What is matching?

Answer 4

Matching was an approching to assigning participants in the “old days”. The researcher would match each participant in an experimental condition to a very similar participant in a control condition. The hope was to guarantee the experiment and control groups would be equal prior to the manipulations.

_{This method is still used today, mainly in medical research. It is used because the medical researchers need to know <em>exactly</em> the important traits of the participants in each group.}

Question 5

What are the strengths of true experiments?

Answer 5

1. True experiments eliminate individual differences
2. True experiments eliminate other kinds of confounds
3. True experiments pull researchers into the laboratory
4. True experiments allow researchers to observe the invisible
5. True experiments provide information about statistical interactions
6. True experiments minimize noise

Question 6

What is a procedural confound?

Answer 6

Procedural confounds occur when an experimenter unwittingly manipulates two or more things at once.

_{<u>Example</u>: An experimenter interested in stereotyping wants to manipulate the ethnicity of a person who asks strangers for a favor. He has three research assistants, a White man, a Black woman, and a Latino man. They go to a busy shopping mall and all ask the exact same favor to people. The White confederate is helped more than the Latino confederate, but the Black confederate is helped the most. The results suggest that peoples attitudes toward Blacks is the most favorable, however the Black confederate was the only woman. The results could <em>actually </em>be showing that people are more favorable to <em>women</em> not <em>Blacks</em>.}

Question 7

What is semantic priming?

Answer 7

Semantic priming refers to the finding that people recognize most words more quickly than usual if you have just been exposed to words that have a similar meaning.

_{<u>Example</u>: You should be able to identify the word “money” more quickly than usual if you have just been exposed to the word “bank.”}

Question 8

What is mundane realism?

Answer 8

Mundane realism is when the researcher makes a study as similar as possible to the real-world setting they are looking at.

_{Example: If you are studying gambling behavior you might set up a mini “casino,” or if you are studying drinking behaviors you could create a bar setting.}

Question 9

What is expertimental realism?

Answer 9

Experimental realism refers to the degree to which a research study is psychologically meaningful to research participants. This could also be refered to as psychological realism.

_{If a study is high in mundane realism when it <em>looks</em> just like the real world, a study is high in <strong>experimental realism</strong> when it <em>feels</em> just like the real world.}

Question 10

What are manipulation checks?

Answer 10

A manipulation check is a measure designed to see if a manipulation truly puts people in the psychological state that the experimenter wishes to create.

_{Example: If you are trying to manipulate the physical attractivness of a confederate who asks participants for a favor, you could ask participants to report how psysically attractive they find the confederate with whome they interact.}

Question 11

What are the three types of independent variables?

Answer 11

1. Environmental - Changes in the environment
2. Instructional - Specific instructions
3. Invasive - Something swallowed