Research Issues (EV's, CV's, Demand Characteristics, Investigator Effects...)

Question 1

what is an extraneous variable?

Answer 1

a variable aside from the IV that can interfere with the DV and potentially the IV

Question 2

what are examples of extraneous variables?

Answer 2

• lighting in the lab
• age of ppts

Question 3

what are confounding variables?

Answer 3

variables that systematically change with the IV

Question 4

what are demand characteristics?

Answer 4

• ppts are likely to be spending time trying to make sense of the experiment
• ppts figure out aim of investigation, changing behaviour
• participant reactivity

Question 5

what are the two effects associated with demand charactersitics?

Answer 5

• please-U effect
• screw-U effect

Question 6

what is the please-U effect?

Answer 6

• ppts acts in a way that they think is expected and over-perform to please the experimenter

Question 7

what is the screw-U effect?

Answer 7

participants may deliberately under perform to sabotage the results of the study

Question 8

what can lead to investigator effects?

Answer 8

participant reactivity

Question 9

what are investigator effects?

Answer 9

refers to any unwanted influence of the investigator on the research outcome
- e.g leading questions

Question 10

what is randomisation?

Answer 10

• use of chance methods to reduce the researcher’s unconscious biases when designing an investigation
• control investigator effects
• minimise the effect of extraneous/confounding variables

Question 11

what is standardisation?

Answer 11

all ppts should be subject to the same environment, information and experience
- includes standardised instructions