Aims

Question 1

What is an aim?

Give an example

Answer 1

This is a general statement describing the purpose of an investigation

E.g. ‘To see…’ OR ‘To investigate…’ whether drinking energy drinks improves people’s memory.

Question 2

What is a hypothesis?

Give an example

Answer 2

This states what you believe to be true. It is a PREDICTION, a precise and TESTABLE statement of the relationship between two variables.

E.g., Participants who drink 2 energy drinks will have an increased recall of the number of items in a memory test compared to participants who do not drink energy drinks.

Question 3

What is a directional hypothesis?

Give an example

Answer 3

A one-tailed directional hypothesis predicts the nature of the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable.

E.g., Adults will correctly recall more words than children.

Question 4

What is a non directional hypothesis?

Give an example

Answer 4

A two-tailed non-directional hypothesis predicts that the independent variable will influence the dependent variable, but the direction of the effect is not specified.

E.g., there will be a difference in how many numbers are correctly recalled by children and adults.

Question 5

Give an example of a null hypothesis?

Answer 5

There will be no difference in scores on the memory test between participants who have consumed 4 cans of Red Bull and those who have consumed none.

Question 6

Formula for directional hypothesis

Answer 6

IV will do better (or worse) at DV compared to IV

Question 7

Formula for non-directional hypothesis

Answer 7

There will be a difference in DV between IV and IV

Question 8

Formula for null hypothesis?

Answer 8

There will be no difference in DV between IV and IV; any difference will be due to chance.

Question 9

Tips when writing a hypothesis

Answer 9

When writing a hypothesis NEVER use the past tense- you are predicting the FUTURE!

Always include the alternative/comparison to the IV in your hypothesis (This is known as the 2 levels of IV).

In the exam if you are asked to give the Independent variable DO NOT write the dependent variable as well (and vice versa) or you will get 0 marks as it does not show you can tell the difference.

Question 10

What is the word variable used for?

Answer 10

The word ‘variable’ is used to describe something that alters when we are conducting research.

In experimental research a variable is deliberately altered by the researcher so that the effects on another variable can be measured.

Question 11

What is a variable which is manipulated called?

Answer 11

A variable which is manipulated in research is called an independent variable or an IV

Question 12

What is a variable which is measured called?

Answer 12

A variable which is measured is called a dependent variable or a DV

Question 13

When do infer there is a causal relationship between two variables?

Answer 13

When using the experimental method, we manipulate an independent variable and see if this causes a change in dependent variable. If it does, we can assume that the change in IV has led to the change in DV. In other words, we infer that there is a causal relationship between the two variables.

Question 14

What is operationalisation?

Answer 14

Clearly defining variables in terms of how they can be measure

Hypothesis must be test able, so our example of;

“People who drink SpeedUpp become more talkative than people who don’t”

Is not good enough as we can’t test it, we must change it to make it work for us i.e.

“After drinking 300ml of SpeedUpp participants say more words in the next five minutes than participants who drink 300ml of water”

Question 15

What is an extraneous variable?

Answer 15

Any variable, other than the IV that may influence the DV if it is not controlled.

They may not be the IV but could affect the results of the experiment.

Resulting in difficulty detecting experiment results due to interference with IV.

It can also be sub-divided into participant variables and situational variables.

Examples:
Room temperature, age, lab lighting etc.

Question 16

What is confounding variables?

Give an example

Answer 16

Variable(s) that have affected the results (DV), apart from the IV. A confounding variable could be an extraneous variable that has not been controlled.

For example:

If we were test 20 participants for the energy drink experiment and decided to use the first 10 people to arrive for the water condition. The first 10 happen to be introverted and the next 10 happen to be extroverted it would mean we have ended up with a second unintended IV – personality. Therefore, when it comes to looking at the results the types of personality may have been the influencing factor instead of the drink.

Question 17

Look

Answer 17

Question 18

How do we distinguish extraneous and confounding variables?

Answer 18

Extraneous Variable = any variable that has the POTENTIAL to influence the DV in an experiment and bias the results.

Confounding Variable = a variable that DOES have an unwanted effect on the DV in an experiment. Results become bias as it cannot be determined whether results are caused by IV or confounding variables.

Question 19

What is demand characteristics?

Answer 19

Any cue from the researcher or research situation that may be interpretated by participants to reveal the purpose of the investigation.

This may lead to a participant changing their behaviour within the research. It can also be known as participant reactivity.

Question 20

What is investigator effects?

Give an example

Answer 20

Any effect of the investigator’s behaviour (conscious or unconscious) on the research outcome (the DV). This may include everything from the design of the study to the select of and interaction with participants during the research process.

Examples:

Smiling, eye contact, leading questions, participant selection, materials or instructions given etc.

Question 21

What is randomisation?

Give an example

Answer 21

The use of chance to control the effects of bias when designing materials and deciding the order of conditions.

It is one method investigators use to minimise the effect of extraneous/confounding variables on the outcome of a research and the researchers influence on the design of the investigation.

Example:

Randomly generating the order of words in a list for a memory test so that the position of each word is not decided by the experimenter.

If participants were taking part in more than multiple conditions, the order the conditions would be completed will need be to randomised.

Question 22

What is standardisation?

Give an example

Answer 22

Use of the exact same formalised procedure and instructions for all participants in a research study.

Standardisation of instructions means that non-standardised changes in procedure do not act as extraneous variables.

Example:

Course introduction