Pilot studies and Experimental design

Question 1

what are pilot studies?

Answer 1

they are small scale practice investigations, carried out prior to research

Question 2

what are the aims of piloting

Answer 2

They aim to identify potential problems with the design, method or analysis
Aim to see if there is a chance of significant results being found.

Question 3

What are the 3 types of Experimental Design

Answer 3

Repeated Measures
Independent groups
Matched Pairs

Question 4

What are repeated measures?

Answer 4

where the participants are the same for all conditions of an experiment

Question 5

eval of rm

Answer 5

S: No participant variables between the conditions
More Data is produced with a fewer amount of participants - compared to Independent
W: Order Effects - fatigue, boredom
Demand characteristics
takes more time

Question 6

How can we stop order effects

Answer 6

Counterbalancing - half p’s do ConditionA then ConditionB and other half do Condition B then Condition A

Question 7

What are independent groups?

Answer 7

When there is a different participant for each of the conditions. This means one participant only takes part in one condition

Question 8

eval of IG

Answer 8

S: no order effects
demand characteristics less- only doing one condition means they are less likely to guess purpose of experiment
Less time consuming than RM

W: More participants needed than RM
Group differences - can be minimised by random allocation

Question 9

What are Matched Pairs ?

Answer 9

where pairs of participants are matched in terms of key variables.
One member of the pair is then put in one condition and the other pair is put in another

Question 10

eval of matched pairs?

Answer 10

S: No order effects
Demand Characteristics - less likely than RM
Group differences
W: More participants required
Matching can be difficult - impossible to match all variables and one pair might have different moods
Time consuming