Research Methods - Statistical Testing and Experimental Design

Question 1

How to remember the 8 Statistical Test Names.

Answer 1

Carrots (Chi-Squared)
Should (Sign Test)
Come 
Mashed (Mann Whitney)
With  (Wilcoxon)
Swede (Spearman's Rho)
Under (Unrelated T -Test)
Roast  (Related T - Test)
Potatoes (Pearson's R)

Question 2

What is Nominal Data?

Answer 2

Where you put the people/participants in groups.

Example - Height (Tall or Short)

Question 3

What is Ordinal Data?

Answer 3

When you put people in order. You are ranked from highest to lowest.
Example - Shortest = 1 and Tallest = 18

Question 4

What is Interval Data?

Answer 4

It is a precise measurement.

Examples - Weight, Time, Blood Pressure, Height (cm)

Question 5

What are the 3 Experimental Designs.

Answer 5

Independent Groups
Repeated Measures
Matched Pairs

Question 6

Independent Groups

Answer 6

Separate groups of participants per condition of the study.
Participants take part in either the CONTROL or EXPERIMENTAL condition.
Example - Uses the acrostic to learn or doesn’t.

Question 7

Repeated Measures

Answer 7

Same groups of participants to each condition of study.
Participant will take part in BOTH conditions of the study.
Example -Participants have almonds and then do a test, after they have no almonds and do a test.
They repeat this another time to see if they have improved.

Question 8

Matched Pairs

Answer 8

Each participant in one of the experimental conditions is matched as closely as possible with a participant in another condition (control condition.
Example -
Participant 1 (Experimental condition)= Age 24, Male
Participant 2 (Control condition) = Age 24, Male
Participant 3 (Experimental condition) = Age 46, Male
Participant 4 (Control condition) = Age 46, Male

Question 9

Advantages of Independent Groups

Answer 9

No Order Effects (Participants won’t get better the second time having done the test)
If doing a memory test for example, the same memory test can be used for both groups.

Question 10

Disadvantages of Independent Groups

Answer 10

2x more people (More difficult for researchers)
Participant Variables (Differences between the groups as there are different participants in each condition).

Question 11

Advantages of Repeated Measures

Answer 11

No Participant Variables (All participants are tested under both conditions)

Less participants needed (Easier for researcher)

Question 12

Disadvantages of Repeated Measures

Answer 12

Order Effects (Having done the test once participants may do better the second time)

Question 13

Advantages of Matched Pairs

Answer 13

No Order Effects (Having done the test once, participants won’t do better the second time)
Participant Variables Reduced (Shouldn’t make as much difference as if matched pairs hadn’t been used)

Question 14

Disadvantages of Matched Pairs

Answer 14

Very time consuming to match the pairs

Participant Variables not completely eliminated - Difficult to match pairs exactly.

Question 15

Random Allocation?

Answer 15

Ensures that participants have the same chance of being in one condition as any other.
Used in independent groups design and matches pairs design, to control for participants variables.

Question 16

Counterbalancing

Answer 16

Involved half the participants experiencing conditions in one order and the other half experiencing conditions in the reverse order.
Used to counteract Order Effects in Repeated Measures Design.