Experiments Flashcards

1
Q

Lab exp?

A

A laboratory experiment is an experiment conducted under highly controlled conditions, where accurate measurements are possible.

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2
Q

Field exp?

A

A study that is conducted outside the laboratory in a “real-world” setting.

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3
Q

Quasi exp?

A

An experiment with a naturally occurring IV.

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4
Q

Control condition?

A

A condition that does not involve exposure to the treatment or intervention under study.

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5
Q

Independent variable?

A

A variable that is manipulated by a researcher to investigate whether it consequently brings a change in another variable.

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6
Q

Dependent variable?

A

The variable, which is measured and predicted to be dependent upon the IV

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7
Q

Extraneous variable?

A

Any variable that you’re not investigating that can potentially affect the outcomes of your research study.

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8
Q

Independent measures design?

A

An experimental design where different participants are used in each condition of the independent variable.

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9
Q

Repeated measures design?

A

An experimental design where the same participants take part in each condition of the experiment.

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10
Q

Matched groups design?

A

An experimental design where pairs of participants are matched in terms of key variables, such as age and IQ.

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11
Q

Controls?

A

A condition that does not involve exposure to the treatment or intervention under study.

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12
Q

Order effects?

A

The order of the conditions having an effect on the participants’ behaviour or/and outcome.

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13
Q

Counter balancing?

A

A technique used to deal with order effects when using a repeated measures design.

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14
Q

Advantages and disadvantages of repeated measures design?

A

ADV:
- Half the number of participants is needed to get the same amount of results as other designs

  • Eliminates participant variables

DVNTG:
- Order effects

  • Participants may eventually work out the aim/ purpose of the study and demand characteristics may arise.
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15
Q

Advantages and disadvantages of independent measures design?

A

ADV:
- No order effects

  • Decreases the likelihood of demand characteristics

DVNTG:
- Results can be affected by participants variables.

  • Twice as many participants needed to get the same sample of results as in other designs
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16
Q

Advantages and disadvantages of matched participant design?

A

ADV:
- Avoid order effects (participants only take part in one condition)

  • Participants’ variables are reduced ( partic. are matched in conditions).

DVNTG:

  • More complicated/time-consuming (pre-tests need to be carried out, to find matching characteristics)
  • Not everything can be matched
  • Twice as many participants are needed as in a repeated measures design, just to get the same amount of results
17
Q

Advantages and disadvantages of Lab experiments?

A

ADV:
- Highly controlled

DVNTG:
- Low ecological validity

18
Q

Advantages and disadvantages of Field experiments?

A

ADV:
- Increased ecological validity

DVNTG:
- Lack of control

  • Ethical issues as sometimes participants may not know they are being assessed
19
Q

Advantages and disadvantages of Quasi-experiments?

A

AD:
- Usually high levels of eco validity, due to the involvement of a naturally occurring IV.

  • Can study the effects of variables that cannot be manipulated (weather).

DVNTG:
- cannot control extraneous variables

20
Q

How can Participant variables be controlled?

A
  • matched participant design or repeated measures.
  • allocate participants to conditions randomly so that participant variables are more likely to be distributed evenly between conditions.
21
Q

How can Situational variables be controlled (order effects) (environmental factors like times of day)?

A
  • having different people in each condition (repeated, matched-participant design)
  • if repeated measures design is used, then this should be counter-balanced. This is where the partic. are split into two groups: group 1 does condition A first then conditions B, while Group 2 does condition B first then A
  • introduce controls on the experiment to ensure there are as few differences as possible between conditions (e.g. do them in the same room, at the same time, etc)
22
Q

How can Demand characteristics be controlled?

A
  • Single-blind procedure
23
Q

Advantages and disadvantages of Self-selecting sample?

A

ADV:
- Consent

  • Reduces researcher bias

DVNTG:
- more likely to end up with a smaller sample

  • partic. may share similar personality traits (i.e confident to join in, eager to please) reducing population validity
24
Q

Advantages and disadvantages of opportunity sampling?

A

ADV:
- often allows for a larger sample
- more cost-effective

DVNTG:
- researcher bias
- sample could be ethnocentric

25
Advantages and disadvantages of random sampling?
ADV: - reduces researcher bias - increases population validity DVNTG: - often not possible to have access to the whole target population. - by chance, there can be an imbalance of genders/ages/personalities, reducing population validity.
26
Advantages and disadvantages of snowball sampling?
ADV: - access to a wider sample, that researchers may not know (increases reliability) ( reduces researcher bias) DVNTG: - participants may only find individuals who are too similar in occupation/ lifestyle, which reduces the reprisentativness of the sample (reduces population validty).
27
Advantages and disadvantages of working out the MEAN?
ADV: - Takes into consideration all data (nothing is missed out in the calculation) DVNTG: - Can be heavily skewed by outliers (may not represent the general score)
28
Advantages and disadvantages of working out the MEDIAN?
ADV: - Less affected by extreme scores, so results won't be skewed DVNTG: - Can take very long to calculate if working with a large set of data (results have to be put in order first)
29
Advantages and disadvantages of working out the MODE?
ADV: - Easy to calculate - Can be used for non-numerical data, e.g what is the average color of a cat? DVNTG: - Impossible to calculate if all the data is different
30
Advantages and disadvantages of working out the RANGE?
ADV: - quick to calculate --even if using a large data pool-- how dispersed results are DVNTG: - doesn't consider the entire data set - can be skewed by outliers - doesn't give any indication as to whether the spread of scores is evenly distributed (i.e. if there is a cluster of scores towards the top of the data set)
31
How do you calculate VARIANCE and what is it?
- measure of dispersion that indicates how spread apart the data is within each condition from the average score - 1) calculate the mean score per condition - 2) for each participant, subtract the mean score from their score - 3) square each score - 4) add all the squared numbers together - 5) calculate the mean of these scores added together by dividing by the number of partic. in condition -1
32
How do you calculate STANDARD DEVIATION?
- square root of the variance
33
Advantages and disadvantages of VARIANCE?
ADV: - takes account of all the values in a data set, and, as such, it is not affected by outliers o the same extent DVNTG: - figure that is calculated is not expressed in the same units that the data in the original data set is
34
Advantages and disadvantages of standard deviation?
ADV: - expressed in the same unit as the original data set - takes into consideration the entire data set DVNTG: - time-consuming and more difficult to work out compared to the range score