Lab Experiments Flashcards
What is a standardised procedure?
The procedure used should be the same for all participants. If the procedure is not the same reliability will be affected.
What is a controlled setting?
A structured environment where the variables are managed.
What is the independent variable?
A factor directly manipulated by the experimenter in order to look at the effect on the dependent variable.
What is the dependent variable?
Measured by the experimenter to assess the effects of the independent variable.
What is an extraneous variable?
Any other variable than the IV that might affect the DV and therefore confuse the results.
What are participant variables?
Extraneous variables can relate to participant e.g. their mood, age and experience.
Experimenters may control participant variables through careful control of the design of the experiment.
What are demand characteristics?
Cues in a research situation that communicate to participants what is expected of them and may then unconsciously affect the participants behaviour.
What is internal validity?
Whether a study/experiment/questionnaire assesses what it is meant to assess.
What is ecological validity?
The extent to which findings can be generalised beyond that particular study.
What is task validity?
Many of the tasks used in a laboratory experiment to test participants behaviour are not natural and are often artificially created by the experimenter. This, therefore, lowers validity.
What is objectivity?
Researcher should not be influenced by their personal emotions, opinions or expectations. It should be free from bias.
