Week 4 Lecture Research Reliability and Variability Flashcards
Reliability
Consistency of measurement.
- Would we get the same outcome if the experiment was conducted again?
Validity
Strength of our conclusions.
- Does the study measure what it is intended to measure?
What are threats to research validity?
- internal validity
- confound variable
- Demand characteristics
- Experimenter expentancy effects
internal validity
Degree that experiment supports clear causal explanations
- extent to which a study establishes a trustworthy cause-and-effect relationship between a treatment and an outcome
- also reflects that a given study makes it possible to eliminate alternative explanations for a finding
Confounding variable
- A rival variable that effects the dependent variable, but which has not been accounted for in the study
- Prevents Cause-Effect Interpretations
Demand characteristics
- When participants alter their behavior because they think that’s what the experimenter wants
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Experimenter Expectancy Effects
- Unintentional ways experimenters influence participants
- E.g., Rosenthal’s “smart” and “dumb” rats
What is the step by step peer review?
external validity
Generalizability, or degree to which experimental results can be applied to other people, settings, & conditions
meta-analysis
statistical procedure for combining results of different studies on the same topic
How is external validity ensured?
- meta-analysis
- replication
replication
Repeating a study to see if the results can be duplicated
- Are we confident that our results would show up again?
What are the two types of replication?
- exact replication
- conceptual replication
exact replication
exactly recreate the scientific methods used in conditions of an earlier study to determine whether the results come out the same
conceptual replication
confirm the previous findings using a different set of specific methods and measures that test the same idea
