Quantitative

Question 1

4 important considerations for research topics

Answer 1

• Impact
• Environment
• Cost/Benefit trade off
• Personal interest/development

Question 2

4 important considerations for research Q

Answer 2

• How unknown is the Q? (answer unknown/different perspective on debate offered)
• Impact
• Practicality
• Literature reviews

Question 3

How to ensure generalisability

Answer 3

Size - the bigger the better

Representativity - think demographics, an accurate picture of society (not e.g. Western centric)

Question 4

How to ensure causality

Answer 4

Correlation is NOT causation

- Manipulation of variables, either through repeated measures or between measures set up

Question 5

Repeated measures v between measures

Answer 5

e.g. within experiment run - sit - walk (heart rate measurement)
RM = same participant used
BM = separate participants

Question 6

What is operationalisation?

Answer 6

Describes when a variable is defined by the researcher and a way of measuring that variable is developed for the research.

Question 7

What should you consider within operationalisation?

Answer 7

Reliability
= the extent to which it produces similar measurements under similar conditions
- Can be combatted by increasing sample size and averaging

Validity
=the extent to which procedure measures what it is truly meant to measure)
- Can’t be combatted by increased sample size

Question 8

What the 3 types of variables to consider in qual. methods

Answer 8

• Musical variables
• Scientific variables
• Psychological variables

Question 9

Musical variables

Answer 9

• Computational (algorithm generated)
• Human (human evaluation of music e.g. theory)
• Symbolic (discrete symbols)
• Audio (direct analysis of audio)

Question 10

Scientific variables

Answer 10

Ordinal (finite set of values with an intrinsic order)
Categorical (finite set of values without an intrinsic order e.g. T/F)
Continuous (numeric values within a continuous range)
- Can be interval (+ & - meaningful e.g. time of day) or ratio (multiplication meaningful e.g. money)

Question 11

Psychological variables

Answer 11

Manipulations
Physical behaviour
Neural responses
Physiology
Latent traits (e.g. personality - usually expressed through questionnaires)
Demographics

Question 12

Ways of measuring neural responses (+ comparison)

Answer 12

EEG
- electric
- high temporal sensitivity
- good to record temporal responses to stimuli
- not very precise in location
MEG
- magnetic
- high temporal sensitivity
- greater precision
fMRI
- changes in blood flow in brain
- better location
- lower temporal sensitivity

Question 13

comparison of quant v qual

Answer 13

quant
- expressed in numbers/graphs 
- acoustics
- generalisable
- test/confirm hypothesis
- researcher should be neutral (aim for objectivity)
qual
- expressed in words
- researcher integral
- understand concepts/ further info (in-depth insights)

Question 14

advantages/disadvantages of quant

Answer 14

+ generalisable
+ tests hypothesis
+ rapid analysis
+ objectivity

• size
• context
• confirmation bias (search to prove a hypothesis)