RESEARCH METHODS- Control of extraneous variables

Question 1

What are demand characteristics?

Answer 1

Are extraneous variables where the demands of a study make participants behave in ways they wouldn’t behave outside of the study. This reduces the study’s ecological validity.

Question 2

What are investigator effects?

Answer 2

Are another extraneous variable where the characteristics of the researcher affect the participant’s behaviour. Again, this reduces the study’s ecological validity.

Question 3

What are participant variables?

Answer 3

Are differences between participants. These can be controlled for by random allocation.

Question 4

What are situational variables?

Answer 4

Are the environment the experiment is conducted in. These can be controlled for by standardisation.

Question 5

What is a task order?

Answer 5

In a repeated measures experiment, researchers may use counterbalancing to control for the order in which tasks are completed.