TYPES OF

EXTRANEOUS
VARIABLES
• One of your goals as a researcher is
to set up experiments that do not
have any confusion.
• When experimenting, we want to
create treatment conditions that
allow us to clearly see the effects of
the independent variables.
• Experiments should be
internally valid.
• Ideally, only the independent
variable should change
systematically from one
condition to another.
 PHYSICAL VARIABLES
• The testing room, noise, and
other distractions are all physical
aspects of the testing conditions
that need to be controlled.
• The techniques for controlling
physical variables are:
a. Elimination (eliminate it)
- if noise might confound (confuse,
mix up) the results, we test in a sound
proof room
- if we do not want interruptions,
we hang on the door a sign like, “Do
not disturb.” or “Test in progress.”
b. Constancy
- constancy of conditions means
that we keep treatment conditions as
similar as possible.
- if we cannot eliminate a variable,
we make sure that it stays the same in
all treatment conditions.
 - the written instructions are
then read to all subjects to ensure
that they get the same directions.
- exactly the same amount of
time is allowed for each subject to
complete the task, unless time is
an independent variable.
c. Balancing
- we handle the way the variables
change, this making sure that they do
not confound the result.
- we distribute the effects of an
extraneous variable across the
different treatment conditions of an
experiment.
 WAYS OF CONTROLLING EXTRANEOUS
VARIABLES

a. Order effects (within-subjects

experiments)
- these are the changes in
performance that occur when a
condition falls in different places
in a series of treatments.
b. Carry-overeffects
- these occur when the
treatment conditions affect each
other.
- most carry-over effects can be
controlled adequately by using
within-subjects counter balancing.
 PERSONAL VARIABLES
a. Response Style
- it has a characteristic way of answering
questions.
- subjects with a response style will answer
“Yes” or “No” & “True” or “False” to most items.
- they do not base their answers on the
manifested content or the plain, obvious
meaning of the words.
b. Response Set
- experimenters should also avoid
measuring a response set.
- social desirability is the best-known
response set (lie or distort the truth)
- social desirability can be controlled to
some extent by phrasing the questions in
such a way that alternative answers have
roughly the same social value.
 SOCIAL VARIABLES
a. Demand Characteristics
- one way of controlling is to run a single
blind experimenter in which the experimenter
tells the subject everything about the
experiment except which treatment they will
be given.
- common approach to drug and nutrition
(placebo effect)
b. Experimental Bias
- one way to control this is
the double blind experiment
- the experimenter does not
know how subjects are
expected to behave.