Laboratory studies: examples from the lab Flashcards
What is the definition of a laboratory study?
An experiment conducted in a highly controlled environment. Here, all the variables are regulated (and not necessarily to be conducted ina laboratory).
What are three primary reasons to perform a laboratory study?
- Attain control (isolate external influences)
- Implement a manipulation (increased control, easier to implement manipulation)
- Construct a setting (same planned sequence of events, in the same setting)
What is the definition of:
- independent variable
- dependent variable
- control variable
- independent variable → variables which can be changed or manipulated (causal variables)
- dependent variable → variables which are dependent upon independent variables (effect variables
- control variable → variables which need to be controlled so that their effect can not be seen upon the dependent variable
What are strenghts of a laboratory study?
- Valid and accurate results → controlled situation
- Easier to replicate → meaningful pattern (not a one-off chance result)
- Helps to understand cause and effect of relationship between variables
- High internal validity → risk of experimental findings being altered by confounding variables are reduced
What are limitations of a laboratory study?
- Results from experimental situations cannot be generalized to other experiments, people, real life situations (low external validity).
- Subjects can be aware of experiments, which can affect the results (aware of what researcher expects to find or how participants are expected to behave).
What is the definition of:
- in silico
- in vitro
- in vivo
- in silico → virtual setting
- in vitro → test tube
- in vivo → living organism
You would like to determine the effect of exposure to classical music on the test scores in
math.
To see the changes in the test score you divide students into two groups. Students in Group A listened to classical music for an hour every day for two months. Students in Group B were not instructed to listen to classical music. After two months students of both groups were given a math test.
What are the dependent and the independent variables in above described experiment?
Example exam question
In the experiment, test score in math exam was the dependent variable and the exposure or
lack thereof to classical music was the independent variable.
What are the three primary reasons to perform a laboratory study?
Example exam question
- attain control
- implement a manipulation
- construct a setting
What factors determine the selected approach for research?
- nature of research question
- setting in which the research is conducted
- background and disciplinary orientation of the researcher
Describe characteristics of field research.
- Research conducted in the real world or a natural setting
- Observe, analyse and describe what exists.
- Setting resembles the situations encountered in daily living, preserving naturalness of the setting
- Participants may know/not know that they are being studied.
Describe characteristics of controlled laboratory research.
- Research conducted ina setting specifically designed for research.
- Tightly controlled research
- Manipulation of certain factors to study their effects
- Subject selection and placement in certain setting
- Subject usually knows that they are participating in research
What is an advantage of field research, which also can be misleading?
- Since field studies represent a greater variety of situations and environments, it is generalizable to real-life contexts.
- Misleading because the lack of control and impossibility of precisely characterizing the field environment may make it difficult to judge the generalizability of the study.
Note: Sometimes, the code of ethics
would have an impact on the decision on where to locate the study. Researchers often prefer the laboratory design to the field because of problems with informed consent and privacy of the participants.
What is more likely to represent a true experimental design?
- A laboratory setting
- A naturalistic setting
- A laboratory setting, due to the greater control within a laboratory setting.
What are advantages of laboratory studies?
- Greater control of irrelevant variables
- If all variables can be controlled, any change observed in the subjects is likely to be caused by the manipulated variable.
- Reproductibility (conditions can be controlled and documented)
What advantage of laboratory research can also be misleading (think of two)?
- The control of variables/the controlled variables that can help establish a cause-effect relationship. There is always a chance that there is an uncontrolled outside influence and a likelihood that the results were caused by chance.
- Since a laboratory setting can be controlled, it may represent an artificial environment that may influence the way subject behave, which alters results.
