Controlling studies

Question 1

what are demand characteristics?

Answer 1

any cue from the researcher or the situation which may lead to the participant changing their behaviour or guessing the aim of the study.

this leads to screw you or please you effect, which can become a confounding variable.

Question 2

what are investigator effects?

Answer 2

an effect of the RESEARCHERS behaviour on the studies outcome.

e.g. gender, age, body language, expectancy

Question 3

what is randomisation?

Answer 3

use of CHANCE when designing materials or order of conditions.

e.g. order of a word list

Question 4

what is standardisation?

Answer 4

using exactly the SAME procedures in each study for all participants.

Question 5

what is a single blind procedure?

Answer 5

PARTICIPANTS are not told the aims or what condition they’re in, or even that another condition exists.

this controls DC’s

Question 6

what is a double blind procedure?

Answer 6

NEITHER participants NOR the researcher are told the aims or what condition they are in, or that another condition exists.

CONTROLS D.C’s and researcher bias.

Question 7

what is counter-balancing?

Answer 7

Attempts to CONTROL for order effects in RM design.

E.g. Half do A then B and the other half do B then A.

REDUCES order effects but does NOT eliminate them

Question 8

what are pilot studies?

Answer 8

SMALL scale versions of a study that take place BEFORE the real study. Involve FEWER ppts to check for PROBLEMS an CORRECT them before the real thing.