MOD4: Research Techniques variable called the dependent

Experimental Methods variable (DV).

John Stuart Mill  An experiment must have at least

To rule out the "z" variables, he two values, or levels, of the
proposed that an effect should be environment. The point is that at
present when the cause is present and least two conditions must be
that when the cause is absent, the compared with each other to
effect should also be absent. determine if the independent
variable produces a change in a
In other words, the only way to infer behavior or outcome.
causality is through comparing two E.g.,:
controlled situations: one in which the IV- Temperature
cause is present and one in which the Levels:
cause is absent.  Hot- 18°
Cause Effect  Room temperature- 30°
 Cold- 23°
Manipulated Measured
DV- Abstract Reasoning
Independent Dependent
Variable Variable Note: It is important to give the IV
-In true -Something you levels an operational definition
experiments, the can measure, based on the literature.
IV should be not just observe.
something you (can be Advantages of Experiment
can induce. measured  The control of extraneous variables
through self- (variables that may contaminate
reports/ the data, thus altering the results
standardized of the study)
tests..)
 In the ideal experiment, no factors
- Measure: Ratio (variables) except the one being
(absolute zero) studied are permitted to influence
the outcome; in the jargon of
experimental psychology, we say
What is an Experiment? that these other factors are
 Experimental designs are those controlled.
where the experimenter
manipulates one variable called the
independent variable (IV) to see
what effect this has upon another
  Another advantage of experiments
is economy (productive and
efficient)
 The experimenter controls the
situation by creating the conditions
of interest thus obtaining data
quickly and efficiently.
Why Experiments are Conducted
 Critical experiments try to pit
against each other two theories
that make different predictions.
One outcome favors theory A; the
other, theory B.
 Thus, in principle, the experiment
will determine which theory to
reject and which to keep.
 Less often, researchers perform an
experiment in the absence of a
compelling theory just to see what
happens; we can call this a what-if
experiment.
Variables
Most hypotheses can be expressed in
terms of two variables: a proposed
cause and a proposed outcome.
Two Important Variables in Research
1. Independent Variable
- A variable thought to be the cause of
some effect. This term is usually used
in experimental research to describe a
variable that the experimenter has
manipulated.
- Independent variables are selected
because an experimenter believes
they will cause changes in behavior.
Failure of an independent variable to
control behavior, often called null
results, can have more than one
interpretation.
 To avoid this, experimenters
must be careful to produce a
strong manipulation of the
independent variable.
-Failure to do so is a common cause of
null results. Because there is no way
to determine if the manipulation failed
or the null results are correct.
2. Dependent Variable
- A variable thought to be affected by
changes in an independent variable.
You can think of this variable as an
outcome.
-The dependent variable is the
response measure of an experiment
that is dependent on the subject’s
response to our manipulation of the
environment.
- One criterion for a good dependent
variable is stability (replicability; kahit
ulitin sa ibang group yung experiment,
same pa rin ang results)
Floor Effect
Is when most of your subjects score
near the bottom. There is very little
variance because the floor of your test
is too high. (DV is too easy [if test]; low
stability)
Ceiling Effect
Is the opposite, all of your subjects
score near the top. There is very little
variance because the ceiling of your
test is too low. (DV is too hard [if test];
low stability)
Intervening Variable
- Intervening variables are abstract
concepts that link independent
variables to dependent variables.
E.g.,:
IV DV
Mediating
Variable
Ito usually silbi ng conceptual
framework (quanti), a model of your
variables’ relationship. While
theoretical framework (quali), shows
the theory behind your paper.
- An intervening variable (sometimes
called a mediating variable) is a
hypothetical variable used to explain
causal links between other variables.
- Sometimes the cause and effect
relationship between independent and
dependent variables is not obvious
without the discovery of an intervening
variable.
Extraneous Variables
- Extraneous variables are those
variables that might have an impact on
the other variables that we are
interested in but we may have failed to
take these into account when
designing our study.
Confounding Variable
A confounding variable is a specific
type of extraneous variable that is
related to both of the main variables
that we are interested in.
Confounding Variable (Third
Variable)
IV DV
Spurious Correlation
What first looks like a causal
relationship between IV and DV is
ultimately spurious. The confounding
variable is the hidden explanation.
Control Variable
- Is a potential independent variable
that is held constant during an
experiment because it is controlled by
the experimenter.
- In practice, an experimenter tries to
control as many salient variables as
possible, hoping that the effect of
uncontrolled factors will be small
relative to the effect of the independent
variable.
More than One Independent Variable
1. Efficiency – one experiment with
more than one IVs than separate
experiments for each.
2. Experimental control is often better.
3. The results generalized across
several IVs are more valuable.
4. Allows us to study interactions, the
relationships among independent
variables
 When the effects produced by one
independent variable are different
at each level of a second
independent variable, we have an
interaction.
 Remember, an interaction between
two independent variables
indicates that effects produced by
one independent variable (E.g.,
belief in God) are not the same at
each level of a second
independent variable (E.g., source
of the passage- ancient scroll, the
bible).
More than one Dependent Variable
 It indicates how well or poorly the
subject is performing. It permits the
experimenter to score behavior.
The experimenter must decide
which aspects of behavior are
relevant to the experiment at hand.
E.g.,: Let us say we wish to study the
legibility of the texts that you are now
reading.
Possible DVs:
Retention of meaningful information
after reading text,
Time needed to read a fixed number of
words,
Number of errors in recognizing single
letters,
Speed in transcribing or retyping text,
Heart rate during reading,
Muscular tension during reading
 Despite this, the typical experiment
uses only one, or at the most, two
dependent variables
simultaneously.
 The reason why more dependent
variables are not used is probably
because it is statistically difficult to
analyze several dependent
variables at once.
Experimental Designs
Essential characteristics of a true
experiment:
1. Manipulation or Intervention
2. Control
3.Random Assignment- equal
chance to be assigned on either
experimental or control group. Note:
Random assignment is different from
random sampling. Sa random
sampling, lahat ng nasa population
has an equal chance to be chosen
as a sample.
Between-Subjects Design
- Between- group design is an
experiment that has two or more
groups of subjects each being tested
by a different testing factor
simultaneously.
- Assign only some subjects to each
level. (Tested simultaneously)
E.g.,: You have a total of 45
participants to test if room temperature
is causally linked to abstract
reasoning.
For Between-subjects design, you
divide your participants into groups
and expose each group to a different
level of temperature.
Expose 15 to
Hot
Temperature
Expose 15 to
45 Participants Room
Temperature
Expose 15 to
Cold
Temperature
- There is no chance that one
treatment will continue to contaminate
the other, because each person
receives only one treatment.
Pros and Cons of Between-Subjects
Design
- Drawback: the between-subjects
design must deal with differences
among people, and this decreases its
efficiency. (Can be addressed by
random assignment)
-PRO: Avoids order effects as people
participate in one condition only.
-CONS: More people are needed
Differences between the participants
may affect the result.
Participant/Subject Variables
These extraneous variables are
related to individual characteristics of
each participant that may impact how
he or she responds. These factors can
include background differences, mood,
anxiety, intelligence, awareness and
other characteristics that are unique to
each person.
CONTROL: after the participants have
been recruited, they should be
randomly assigned to their groups.
Equivalent Groups
- This method of assigning subjects to
experimental conditions has no bias,
since it ignores all characteristics of
the subjects; we expect that the
groups created would be equivalent on
any and all relevant dimensions.
Baseline
- A baseline is a measurement of the
variable of interest at the beginning of
treatment or a study that is used to
compare to later measurements in
order to judge the effectiveness of the
treatment or conditions.
 E.g., Pre-test & Post Test (In
some references, this is not
considered a true
experiment)
Matching
- A technique where one member of
each pair would be randomly assigned
to one group and the other member to
the second group. (This is used to
balance the experimental and control E.g.,
groups)
 E.g., You assign two of your
respondents who have high
IQs into separate groups

- One difficulty with matching is that an

experimenter cannot match subjects
on every possible characteristic.

Within-Subjects Design
- A within-subject design is a type of
experimental design in which all
participants are exposed to every
treatment or condition.
E.g., You exposed all 45 participants
to all levels of temperature (hot, room
temp. and cold)
Pros and Cons of Within-Subjects
Design
- PROS: Participant variables are
reduced. Fewer people are needed.
- CONS: There may be order effects.
(Can be addressed by
counterbalancing)
CONTROL: Should counterbalances
the order of the conditions.
Counterbalancing – removes
confounding variables from an
experiment by giving slightly different
treatments to different participant
groups.
Other Cons:
1. Order Effects - The order in which
the participant receives a treatment
(first, second, etc.) will affect how the
participant behaves.
2. Practice Effects - after doing the
dependent-measure task several
times, a participant’s performance may
improve. This improvement might be
incorrectly attributed to having
received a treatment.
3. Fatigue Effects- decreased
performance on the dependent
measure due to being tired or less
enthusiastic as the experiment
continues. This decrease in
performance might be incorrectly
attributed to a treatment.
4. Carryover Effects- the effects of a
treatment administered earlier in the
experiment persist so long that they
are present even while participants are
receiving additional treatments.
5. Sensitization- - after getting several
different treatments and performing the
dependentvariable task several times,
participants may realize (become
sensitive to) what the hypothesis is.
 This is why some
experiments perform
deception, to avoid bias from
the participants.
Mixed Design
- Experiments need not be exclusively
of within-subjects or between-subjects
design.
- It is often convenient and prudent to
have some independent variables
treated as between-subjects and
others as within- subjects in the same
experiment.
Control and Experimental Group
 Independent variables must be
varied (or manipulated) by the
experimenter. This implies that
each and every independent
variable must vary either in amount
(quantitative variation) or in kind
(qualitative variation) within the
experiment.
Control Conditions
- Many experiments contain, in
addition to independent variables,
some:
 Control group (between-
subjects design)
 Control condition (within-
subjects design).
- Sometimes the best baseline is no
treatment, but often the best baseline
requires some activity.
- A frequent example occurs in
memory research, where a group of
subjects is required to learn two
different lists of words. The
experimenter is interested in how
learning one list interferes with
learning the other.
- A control condition with no treatment
would have a control group learn list A,
then sit around for the time it took the
experimental group to learn list B, and
then be tested again on list A.
- A proper baseline condition would
occupy the control group during the
time the experimental group was
learning list B; perhaps the
experimenter would have them do
arithmetic or some other “busy work”
that would prevent rehearsal.
Control Group
- The control group is composed of
participants who do not receive the
experimental treatment. When
conducting an experiment, these
people are randomly selected to be in
this group.
- This group serves as a benchmark,
allowing researchers to compare the
experimental group to the control
group to see what sort of impact
changes to the independent variable
produced.
Pitfalls in Experimental Research
1. Demand Characteristics
Many times, research participants
spontaneously form hypotheses or
assumptions about the experimenter’s
purpose in conducting the experiment
and then behave or respond in a way
that will satisfy this purpose.
To the extent that the behavior of
research participants is controlled by
demand characteristics instead of by
independent variables, experiments
are invalid and cannot be generalized
beyond the test situation.
2. Hawthorne Effect
The alteration of behavior by the
subjects of a study due to their
awareness of being observed.
3. Experimenter Effect
- Influences the outcome accidentally
by providing participants with slight
cues as to the experimenter’s
expectations.
The gender, race, and ethnicity of the
experimenter are also potential
experimenter effects.
Eliminating Experimenter Effect
The best way to eliminate this kind of
experimenter effect is to hide the
experimental condition from the
experimenter on the premise that
experimenters cannot communicate
what they do not know.
A. Single Blind: The researcher know
the participants’ groups.
B. Double Blind: This procedure is
termed a double-blind experiment
because neither the experimenter nor
the research participant knows which
subjects are in which treatment
conditions.
First, since the participants do not
know which group they are in, their
beliefs about the treatment are less
likely to influence the outcome.
Second, since researchers are
unaware of which subjects are
receiving the real treatment, they are
less likely to reveal accidentally subtle
clues that might influence the outcome
of the research.
C. Automation Experiments
Experimenter effects can be eliminated
or greatly reduced by having
computers or other equipment conduct
the experiment so that the subject is
untouched by human hands.
Quasi-Experimental Designs
 Quasi-experimental research
involves the manipulation of an
independent variable without the
random assignment of participants
to conditions or orders of
conditions.
 A quasi-experiment is simply
defined as not a true experiment.
 Since the main component of a
true experiment is randomly
assigned groups, this means a
quasi-experiment does not have
randomly assigned groups.
 Random assignment
helps ensure that there is
no pre-existing condition
that will influence the
variables and mess up the
results.
 Although the independent variable
is manipulated, participants are not
randomly assigned to conditions or
orders of conditions.
 In terms of internal validity, quasi-
experiments are generally
somewhere between correlational
studies and true experiments.
 Has lower validity than
true experiment.
as natural disasters or unnatural
disasters, are both physically and
morally difficult to implement.
 The technique here is similar to the
ex post facto examination in
correlational research, except that
two or more levels of the variable
of interest are examined rather
than correlated.
Advantage of Quasi-Experiments
- The advantages of quasi-
experiments are obvious: They use
naturally occurring independent
variables, most of which have a high
degree of intrinsic interest and
important practical implications. (E.g.,
Sex, Age, Ethnicity)
- The typical quasi-experiment has a
subject variable as an independent
variable. E.g.,, age, sex, ethnic group.

 For one reason or another, many
variables cannot be manipulated
directly. One deterrent
manipulation of variables in
experiments is the ethical
considerations all scientists must
have.
 Independent Variable
cannot be induced (E.g.,
Depression)
 A second barrier to manipulation is
Mother Nature. Some variables,
such as the sex of our subjects,
cannot be varied by the
experimenter other variables, such
- Socially caused subject attribute can
be social class, region of residence.
to
- Disease-and-illness related subject
attribute can be mental illness, effects
of disasters.
 An experimenter cannot
manipulate a subject variable while
holding other factors constant; she
or he can only select subjects who
already have the characteristic in
some varying degree and then
compare them based on the
behavior of interest.

 When subject variables are
investigated, we cannot safely
attribute differences in behavior to
this variable, as we can with true
experimental variables. Such
designs, then, essentially produce
correlations between variables. We
can say that the variables are
related, but we cannot say that one
variable produces or causes the
effect in the other variable.
Quasi-Experiments: Non Equivalent
Groups
- A nonequivalent groups design is a
between-subjects design in which
participants have not been randomly
assigned to conditions.
E.g., a researcher who wants to
evaluate a new method of teaching
fractions to third graders. One way
would be to conduct a study with a
treatment group consisting of one
class of third-grade students and a
control group consisting of another
class of third-grade students.
Quasi-Experiments: Pre-test- Posttest
Design
- In a pretest-posttest design, the
dependent variable is measured once
before the treatment is implemented
and once after it is implemented.
Posttes
Pretest Intervention
t
E.g., a researcher who is interested in
the effectiveness of an antidrug
education program on elementary
school students’ attitudes toward
illegal drugs. The researcher could
measure the attitudes of students at a
particular elementary school during
one week, implement the antidrug
program during the next week, and
finally, measure their attitudes again
the following week.
- It is unlike a within-subjects
experiment, however, in that the order
of conditions is not counterbalanced
because it typically is not possible for a
participant to be tested in the
treatment condition first and then in an
“untreated” control condition.
- If the average posttest score is better
than the average pretest score, then it
makes sense to conclude that the
treatment might be responsible for the
improvement.
- If the posttest takes too long, it’s
possible that the results won't be as
valid because of history and
maturation. (You can’t be sure that it’s
the treatment that caused the result
because of the possibility of other
events.)
Regression to the Mean
- This is a statistical phenomenon
stating that data that is extremely
higher or lower than the mean will
likely be closer to the mean if it is
measured a second time.
E.g., A bowler with a long-term
average of 150 who suddenly bowls a
220 will almost certainly score lower in
the next game. His score will “regress” E.g., Common cold If one were to
toward his mean score of 150. measure symptom severity in 100
common cold sufferers today, give
- It occurs whenever the sample or them a bowl of chicken soup every
subjects are chosen on the basis of day, and then measure their symptom
extreme pretest scores. Regression severity again in a week, they would
toward the mean is expected in these probably be much improved.
cases where there is non-random
sampling or assignment in Is the study a randomized controlled
experiments. trial?
Yes No
- It essentially occurs on the posttest Intervention No intervention
where the measures on the average Control Group Descriptive Non-
regress toward the mean on average. Random experimental
Sample
- The net effect of regression toward No control group or
the mean is that the lower scores (or randomization
measurements) on the pretest tend to Quasi-Experimental
be higher on the posttest, and the
higher scores (or measures) on the
pretest tend to be lower on the
posttest.

- It is an important phenomenon to
take note of in conducting experiments
because it affects the internal validity
of the experimental design.

- What happens here is that one can

end up concluding that the significant
difference or effect is due to the
treatment when in fact it is due to
chance and by this phenomenon.

Spontaneous Remission
- This is the tendency for many
medical and psychological problems to
improve over time without any form of
treatment.