Sample sources

Question 1

What percentage of experiments use students as subjects?

Answer 1

75-90%

Question 2

How can WEIRD samples threaten studies?

Answer 2

pose threat to external validity through lack of generalizability of results

Question 2

How can student samples be useful to researchers?

Answer 2

• students are similar to one another in a variety of ways
• students differ from general public in significant ways
• this can help researchers in internal validity by controlling for confounds
• decreases variability

Question 2

What are advantages of Mturk?

Answer 2

• affordability
• ease of use
• population research

Question 2

What are 2 threats to validity when using student samples?

Answer 2

• they may be motivated to please the researchers > demand characteristics
• may be more likely to pick up on study’s underlying hypothesis and goals

Question 3

What does W.E.I.R.D. stand for?

Answer 3

Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic

Question 3

What is Mturk?

Answer 3

online crowdsourcing platform where humans are paid to do tasks computers can’t

Question 3

What are common mistakes in sampling?

Answer 3

• using student samples without considering how they might be different from the population of interest
• not providing a rationale for the use of subjects of any type
• generalising beyond subjects in the study

Question 3

What are Mturk research benefits?

Answer 3

• large and diverse participant pool
• ease of access and speed of data collection
• reasonable cost
• flexibility regarding research design choice

Question 4

What were early critics of Mturk’s representativeness?

Answer 4

that they skewed towards younger, more educated, female users

Question 5

What are some current challenges of Mturk research?

Answer 5

• inattention (15% failed attention checks)
• self misrepresentation
• self selection bias
• high attrition
• social desirability bias