Intro to experimental methods 4.2

Question 1

What are methods?

Answer 1

Procedures for collecting and analyzing data

Question 2

Materials and Stimuli

Answer 2

• The images, words, objects, etc. that participants are exposed to
• Stimuli are the actual items used to represent your operational definitions

Question 3

Stimulus norming

Answer 3

Evaluating construct validity through norming

Have a different group of participants (not those in your experiment)
rate or evaluate the stimuli

Use a pre-normed set of stimuli

Question 4

Between and in group manipulations

Answer 4

Between group (between subjects) manipulation designs 
•Participants exposed to level A or level B (not both)

Within group (within-subjects) manipulation designs
•Participants exposed to levels A and B
•Factorial designs
•More than one factor (IV or subject variable

Question 5

Trials

Answer 5

•A single trial is a single instance of the
procedure* that is used to collect a single
measurement of your DV

Question 6

How many trials per condition?

Answer 6

The more error that is associated with the measure, the more stimuli
needed
Best bet: look to prior literature

Question 7

Blocks

Answer 7

Groups of trials* that are presented together.
•*If the trials take a long time, there might just be one per
block

Question 8

Manipulation checks

Answer 8

Not all experiments include them, Validate that your manipulation worked as
intended