Variables Flashcards
1
Q
What is the independent variable?
A
- The thing that is manipulated/changed.
- E.g. the different groups, different conditions.
2
Q
What is the dependent variable?
A
- The thing that is measured / will be affected by the changes.
3
Q
What is operationalisation?
A
- Means how we are going to measure our variables. We must define how we intend to measure IV + DV.
- E.g. time in minutes or seconds, distance in meters or km, amount of water in ml or litres.
4
Q
What are the different controls?
A
- Random allocation
- Counterbalancing
- Randomisation
- Standardisation
5
Q
What is randomisation?
A
- The use of chance in order to control for the effects of bias when designing materials and deciding the order of conditions.
6
Q
What is standardisation?
A
- All participants should be subjected to the same environment, info and exp, also the same instructions.
7
Q
What are extraneous variables and how can they be controlled?
A
- Anything that could impact the dependent variable that is not the independent variable (anything outside the experiment)
- E.g. ppts mood, weather etc.
- You design experiment taking into consideration when and where ppts complete the experiment in order to control extraneous variables.
8
Q
What are confounding variables?
A
- Anything other than the IV which has actually influenced your results which has not been accounted for before the experiment begins.
- possible examples include: personality, mood.