Lesson 2 - Experimental Design

Question 1

What does experimental design mean?

Answer 1

This refers to how participants are organised to take part in research

Question 2

What is independent groups design?

Answer 2

This is where a group of participants are randomly assigned to two different groups where they do tasks for the different conditions, i.e. Group 1 does condition 1 and group 2 does condition 2.
The DV is measured for each group and compared.

Question 3

What is random allocation?

Answer 3

This is where participants names are randomly allocated, i.e pulling names out of a hat

Question 4

Strengths of an independent groups design?

Answer 4

• No risk of order effects

- Reduced chance of demand characteristics as participants do not see whole experiment.

Question 5

Weaknesses of an independent groups design?

Answer 5

• Individual differences could effect the result

- More participants are needed to take part in the experiment

Question 6

What is a repeated measures design?

Answer 6

Where a group of participants do the tasks for both conditions and the results are compared.

Question 7

What are order effects?

Answer 7

This refers to how the positioning of tasks in an experiment will influence the outcome. This could be due to boredom or fatigue.

Question 8

How do you reduce order effects?

Answer 8

By counterbalancing.

Question 9

What is counterbalancing?

Answer 9

Divide the group into two smaller groups and make group 1 do condition 1 first and group 2 do condition 2 first, and then swap.

Question 10

Strengths of a repeated measures design?

Answer 10

• No individual differences will effect the result

- Fewer participants are needed in order to conduct the experiment

Question 11

Weaknesses of a repeated measures design?

Answer 11

• Increased risk of order effects

- Increased risk of demand characteristics

Question 12

What is a matched pairs design?

Answer 12

This is when a researcher will recruit two groups of participants with similar personalities. Each group will do one condition and the results will be compared.

Question 13

Strengths of a matched pairs design?

Answer 13

• No order effects
• Reduced chance of demand characteristics
• Reduced chance of individual differences

Question 14

Weaknesses of a matched pairs design?

Answer 14

• Matching is time consuming and difficult

- More participants are needed

Question 15

What is a pilot study?

Answer 15

This is a small-scale trial run of the experiment. Can be considered as a ‘dress rehearsal’.

Question 16

Advantages of pilot studies?

Answer 16

• They make it possible to see if the standard procedures and general design of the experiment is working well before investing time and money into the actual experiment