Exam 1: Research Questions Flashcards
Translational research
“…the transformation of knowledge through successive fields of research from a basic science discovery to public health impact—a complex process that requires both research (e.g., bench-work and clinical trials) and nonresearch activities (e.g., implementation)”
How could you generate new research ideas?
• Identify gaps or weaknesses in the literature
• Extend study new a new population, set of
materials, setting
• Apply different outcome measures
• Assess social validity of the research
• Use state-of-the art testing and analytical approaches
Topic/Broad Problem
• Introduces the reader to the importance and context of the research study
• Examples • How do children learn to identify speech sounds in their native language? • How do adults identify speech sounds? • Do noise-reduction algorithms in hearing aids improve speech understanding?
Theory
• Motivates/provides a framework for the current experiment (though you may ultimately disprove it)
- Organizes, explains, and account for data
- Describe relations among concepts to explain a phenomenon
• Example: Auditory Theory of Speech Perception (e.g., Fant, 1960; Stevens & Blumstein, 1978)
Listeners identify acoustic patterns or features by matching them to stored acoustic representations
Theory and Data
good research should go both ways - cycle to drive scientific method and constant improvements
Data driven research- reasoning from the data to the general theory
Theory driven - reasoning from a general theory to the data
Evaluating Theories
list the 4 ways
Some criteria for good theories:
- Comprehensiveness
- Precision and testability
- Parsimony
- Heuristic value
Comprehensiveness
- Broad enough to account for as much data as possible
- If there are data relevant to a theory that it cannot for: Either adapt the theory to account for the new data or Develop a new theory that incorporates the new data
- Example: Can the auditory theory account for perceptual phenomena, such as categorical perception, phonemic restoration?
Precision and testability
- A good theory should have concepts that are clearly and explicitly defined: Contains rational, logically related statements
- Empirically testable hypotheses
- Some ESP believers argue that the presence of a disbeliever can prevent someone with ESP from being able to perform.
- We aim to disprove theories (not prove them) never “prove” a hypothesis
Beware of Omnipotent Theories
- So powerful, general, or flexible that they can account for everything
- Not testable/falsifiable
- Freudian theory isn’t falsifiable (Sir Karl Popper)
- Behavior with a clear sexual or aggressive motivation is proof of the presence of the Id.
- If this behavior isn’t displayed, you have a reaction formation against it.
•Must tread carefully between explaining a lot of data and too much!
need a plausible null that could be true
Parsimony
Occam’s razor
The explanation of any phenomena should make as few assumptions as possible.
All things being equal, the simplest explanation tends to be the best
the fewer assumptions made the better
Heuristic Value
•Makes (basic or applied) predictions, generates new knowledge, stimulates future research
theory is only useful if it can make predictions
important to generate new knowledge and stimulate future research
line of best fit - relates the points and makes predictions
Empirical research
Gather new information through observation/
measurement maybe through sample surveys, test scores, OAE responses, etc.
non-empirical research
• Uses existing information rather than collecting new information
ex: literature reviews
quantitative research
- Numerical data or data to which statistics can be applied
- Quantify attitudes, opinions, behaviors, etc.
- Generalize results from a sample to a population
- Methods include surveys, structured interviews/observations, systematic experiments
qualitative research
• Primarily exploratory: Aim to reveal underlying reasons, opinions, motives, trends
• Often used to generate hypotheses to be tested in
subsequent quantitative research
• Methods include unstructured/semi-structured
techniques, verbal measures
•Focus groups, individual interviews, observations, field-work
• Sample size is typically small