what are strategies for literature search?
- start with relatively recent articles
- start with reviews or meta-analyses
- narrow down the topic
- distinguish relevant from irrelevant articles
how can you estimate relevance?
- How related is the article to your topic?
- In which journal was it published?
- How often was it cited?
- Who has published the article?
why is knowing the literature important? it can help you …
- to generate a research question
- to evaluate the relevance of a research question
- to figure out whether a research question has already been investigated
- to place the research question in the existing literature
- to determine the optimal methodology to investigate the research question
how to generate a research idea from the literature
- test a suggestion made in the discussion section of an article
- test the explanation offered by authors that was not tested yet
- test whether the conclusion of an article generalizes to a different domain or
group - adapt the methodology to a different research problem
what defines a good research question? (6)
- Focused on a single problem
- Specific and not too broad
- Complex enough to be informative (not only yes/no)
- Feasible to be answered in a given time frame and with the available resources
- Researchable
- Original
what to avoid regarding research questions?
- motivating a research question primarily by the method
- being too ambitious
- mistake a hypothesis for a research question
what is a theory?
coherent explanation or interpretation of one or more phenomena
what does a theory go beyond?
goes beyond the phenomenon it explains
what does a theory include?
variables, structures, processes, functions or organizing principles
4 things a theory does
(a) best summarizes existing empirical knowledge of the phenomenon
(b) organizes this knowledge in the form of precise statements of relationships
among variables (i.e., laws)
(c) proposes an explanation for the phenomenon
what is a hypothesis?
a specific prediction about a new phenomenon that should be
observed if a particular theory is accurate
when is a sample representative?
a sample is representative if it reflects the attributes of the target population
when is a sample biased?
a sample is biased when it does not reflect the attributes of the target population
what are examples of a self-report measurement?
- Questionnaire
- Conversation
- Interview
- Text/ narratives
what are example of a behavior measurement?
- Reaction time
- Errors
- Kinematics
- Eye movements
- Traces of behaviour in
environment or text
what are examples of a physiology measurement?
- Activity of central nervous system
- Autonomous activity
- Somatic activity
- Hormonal activity
what is reliability?
the consistency of a measure
what is measurement?
the assignment of numerals to objects or events according to rules
what is validity?
a measure is said to be valid if it measures what it is designed to measure
with what can we determine the quality of a measurement?
validity and reliability
what is reliability a direct function of?
the measurement error
what is a direct function of the measurement error?
reliability
what is the measured value a combination of? (reliability)
the measured value is a combination of a hypothetical true value
and the measurement error
what does test-retest reliability measure?
test-retest reliability measures the consistency of results when you repeat the same test on the same sample at a different point in time
