Variables

Question 1

What is an extraneous variable?

Answer 1

Any variable other than the IV that must be dealt with so that it doesnt influence the DV and make results inaccurate.

Question 2

What is a confounding variable?

Answer 2

Same as an EV but moves alongside the IV so cannot be recognised until usually after the experiment.

Question 3

What is a participant variable, what are some examples?

Answer 3

Related to the participants
Examples: gender, age, intelligence, motivation

Question 4

What is a situation variable, what are some examples?

Answer 4

Related to the research situation that may influence participant behaviour
Examples: noise, temperature, time of day

Question 5

What are demand characteristics?

Answer 5

Participants are conscious of the fact that they are taking part in an experiment and therefore may try to produce behaviours that the think the researcher is expecting/demanding.

Question 6

What are investigator effects?

Answer 6

Anything the researcher does that has an effect on the participants performance. Researchers may also be biased in their recording of data.

Question 7

What are order effects.

Answer 7

The order in which participants complete conditions may affect the results. E.g they may get bored, lose motivation or become better.

Question 8

What are the four ways to control EVs and CVs?

Answer 8

1) Standardisation - makes sure everything is kept the same = controls situational variables
2) Counterbalancing = controls order effects (ABBA)
3) Randomisation - picking materials e.g order of words for a memory test or order of the conditions = controls order effects
4) Random allocation - randomly allocated to each condition = controls participant variables

Question 9

What is a single blind design? What does this reduce?

Answer 9

Participants are not aware of the research aim or condition they have been placed in.
Reduces demand characteristics.

Question 10

What is a double blind design? What two things does this reduce?

Answer 10

Neither the participants nor the researcher are aware of the aim of the research or the conditions taking place.
Reduces demand characteristics and investigator effects.
Needs a research assistant to meet with the participants during the procedure.

Question 11

What are four things researchers look at in piglet studies?

Answer 11

1) Whether participants understand instructions
2) Whether participants guess the aim of the study
3) Whether participants get bored because they are asked to do too many tasks
4) Timing and difficultly of tasks