methodology

Question 1

what is an independent variable?

Answer 1

the factor that will be changed in an experiment

Question 2

what is a dependent variable?

Answer 2

the factor that will be measured/observed

Question 3

what is an extraneous variable?

Answer 3

factors that may impact the experiments results unintentionally
e.g. demand characteristics, situational variables

Question 4

what are confounding variables?

Answer 4

extraneous variables that vary with the IV so we cannot be sure of the true source of change to the DV

Question 5

what does it mean to operationalise variables?

Answer 5

clearly describing the IV and the DV in terms of how they will be manipulated and measured

Question 6

what is a hypothesis?

Answer 6

a formal statement/prediction of what the researcher expects to find. needs to be testable.

Question 7

what is a directional one-tailed hypothesis?

Answer 7

this predicts the effect of the IV on the DV e.g. ‘adults will recall more words than children’

Question 8

what is a non-directional two-tailed hypothesis?

Answer 8

this predicts that the IV will effect the DV but does not specify a direction e.g. ‘there will be a difference in the amount of words recalled by children and adults’

Question 9

what is a null hypothesis?

Answer 9

this predicts there will be no relationship between the two variables - one will not effect the other. Any correlation is due to chance factors

Question 10

what are the types of participant design?

Answer 10

• independent measures
• repeated measures
• matched pairs

Question 11

what is an independent measures pt design?

Answer 11

different participants are used in each condition of the experiment/study

Question 12

what is a strength of independent measures pt design?

Answer 12

PTs are less likely to guess the aim of the study

PTs will not grow fatigued and do worse on later conditions

Question 13

what is a weakness of independent measures pt design?

Answer 13

more people are needed for the study, time and money consuming
differences between PTs are more likely to effect results

Question 14

what is a repeated measures participant design?

Answer 14

the same participants are used in each condition

Question 15

what is a strength of repeated measures pt design?

Answer 15

pt variables are reduced

fewer people need to be recruited

Question 16

what is a weakness of repeated measures pt design?

Answer 16

practice effect (learn the experiment so do better in later conditions)
fatigue effect (tired so do worse later)

Question 17

what is a matched pairs participant design?

Answer 17

different participants are used in each condition, but they are matched on all important characteristics e.g. age, gender, intelligence

Question 18

what is a strength of matched pairs pt design?

Answer 18

reduced participant variables, without practice or fatigue

Question 19

what is a weakness of matched pairs pt design?

Answer 19

very time consuming matching pairs so specifically

Question 20

what is a sample?

Answer 20

a group of people from the target population to take part in a study

Question 21

what are the different types of sampling that can be used?

Answer 21

• random
• stratified
• volunteer
• opportunity

Question 22

what is random sampling?

Answer 22

participants are chosen at random from the population, everyone has equal chance of being selected

Question 23

strength of random sampling

Answer 23

eliminates sampling bias

Question 24

weakness of random sampling

Answer 24

difficult - time, effort, money

Question 25

what is stratified sampling?

Answer 25

groups of participants are selected in proportion to their frequency in the target population

Question 26

what is a volunteer sample?

Answer 26

participants put themselves forward to take part in research, often by answering an advertisement

Question 27

what is an opportunity sample?

Answer 27

participants are chosen because they are easily available e.g. people from your college