Cognitive Research methods Flashcards

1
Q

Types of experiments

what is a laboratory experiment and the advanages and disadvantages? (give examples)

A
  • The IV is directly manipulated, all other extraneous variables are controlled and participants are randomly allocated to conditions
  • e.g. Milgram, Baddeley

Advantages:
- high controlled confident in control of extraneous variables. So we know that only the IV has affected the DV. Claim a cause and effect relationship

Disadvantages:
- more artificial environment: behaviours observed may be less natural, they are less representative of everyday behaviours

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2
Q

Types of experiments

what is a field experiment and the advanages and disadvantages? (give examples)

A
  • The researcher controls the IV but the experimenter cannot control other extraneous variables to the same extent that one can in the laboratory
  • participants are not necessarily randomly allocated to conditions
  • e.g. sebastian and gill

advantages:
- more natural environment: behaviours more representative of everyday instance of the behaviour, therefore the findings of the study can be applied

disadvantages:
- difficult to control: hard to control all the confounding variables. Therefore, factors other than the IV may have affected the DV. More difficult to conclude changes in DV are due to IV manipulation

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3
Q

Potential issues of experimental designs

what are the potential issues for experimental designs?

A
  • order effects - occurs when participants’ reponses in the various conditions are affected by the order of conditions to which they were exposed
  • demand characteristics - cues in an experiment that can lead participants to change their behaviour or responses based on what they think they research is about
  • participant variables - (individual differences between participants) affecting the results between conditions, rather than solely manipulation of the independent variable
  • number of participants required in a sample - matching participants is a more complex process it is difficult to find a large number of participants that match each other identically
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4
Q

potential issue management of experimental designs

how do you control the issues faced by each design?

A

Independent group design:
- crucial that participants are randomly allocated to the different conditions
- differences should be quite small using randomisation

Repeated measures design:
- order effects can be controlled through counterbalancing
- means that the participants go through the conditions in different orders
- there should be an equal number of participants going through each order
- this mean that the order effects are removed, of each group and condition cancels each other out

Matched paird design:
- monozygotic twins (identical) provide researchers with a very close match for participants variables, so are favoured
- not possible, so researchers must start with a large group of participants to increase chances of getting suitsbly matched pairs

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5
Q

evaluation of experimental designs

evaluate a strength of repeated measures design

A

it is possible to remove participant effects. For example, if a person has 5 years driving experience in condition A (no alcohol) then they also have 5 years’ experience in condition B (alcohol), the participant variable is the same for both conditions. Therefore, any difference in their driving is due to the alcohol and not their experience

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6
Q

evaluation of experimental designs

evaluate a weakness of repeated measures design

A

Repeated Measures design Order effects may occur when participants take part in more than one experimental condition. Order effects can confound the results in two ways - either negatively through the effects of fatigue or boredom, or positively through the effects of learning or practice.

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7
Q

evaluation of experimental designs

evaluate a strength of matched pairs design

A

there are no order effects and there is a good attempt at controlling participant variables.

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8
Q

evaluation of experimental designs

evaluate a weakness of matched pairs design

A

matching pairs of participants can be difficult and time consuming: It depends on the use of reliable and valid procedures for pre-testing participants to identify the matched pairs. Complete matching of participants on all variables that might affect performance can rarely be achieved.

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9
Q

evaluation of experimental designs

evaluate a strength of independent groups design

A

avoids order effects altogether and also participants less likely to guess aims of study and show demand characteristics as they only take part in one condition.

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10
Q

evaluation of experimental designs

evaluate a weakness of independent groups design

A

has no control for participant variables, which could influence experiment’s results

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11
Q

How do you choose the correct test?

A

Independent group experiment
- Nominal = Chi-squared (x^2)
- Ordinal (at least) = Mann Whitney (U)

Repeated measures/ matched pairs
- Nominal = N/A
- Ordinal (at least) = Wilcoxon (T)

Relationship (correlation)
- Nominal = N/A
- Ordinal (at least) = Spearman’s Rank (rho)

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