Planning and conducting research (Variables and how they are operated) Flashcards
What is an independent variable?
An independent variable is a factor that is manipulated or controlled in an experiment to test its effects on the dependent variable.
Definition of The dependent variable
is the variable that is measured in an experiment.
What is an extraneous variable?
An extraneous variable is an outside influence that can affect the outcome of an experiment, potentially leading to erroneous conclusions, lower construct validity
Two types of extraneous variable
Participants, variable
Situational variable
Definition of partition variable,e.g.
Characteristic of the individual participants that may influence the result
Age, intelligence, motivation skills, experience, gender
Definition of situational variable, e.g.
Any feature of the research situation, which may influence our participants behaviour and therefore the result
Order effect
If doing the same activity twice, participant may do better the second time because of practice or worse because of boredom
Environmental factors, such as time of the day, temperature and noise
Demand characteristic
These are clues in an experiment, stat, communicate to participant what is expected of them, which may unconsciously affect the behaviour of participant
How can participants variable controlled?
Either have the same people in each condition by having a repeated measures design or extremely similar people in each condition by having a matching participants design
If using an independent group design, make a point of a locating participants to condition on the random basis, so that participant variables are more likely to be evenly distributed between condition
How can the order effect be controlled?
Having different people in each condition will avoid this problem, which would be a benefit of using either independent measure. Design or matching participant design.
If a repeated measures design is used than this should be counterbalanced
This is the weather the participant or split into two groups one group do condition. A first then condition B. Group 2 do B first then condition a
How can environmental factor be controlled?
Impulse control on the experiment to ensure that there are a few different as possible between the two condition
Do you both condition in the same room with the same temperature level same colour war scene, light level et cetera
How can demand characteristic be controlled
How do you know what a participant the aim of the investigation (single-blind procedure)
Definition of double blind
Research is double blind, when neither the participant northern people carrying out the research know the aim of it
