Variables (EDIT - HOW TO CONTROL THEM)

What is an Independent Variable?

What the researcher changes or manipulates to see how it affects something else, it’s the cause in the cause-and-effect relationship.

What is a Dependent Variable?

This is what the researcher measures — the outcome or effect, It depends on the independent variable.

What are extraneous variables?

Any variable other than the IV that could affect the DV if they’re not controlled e.g. time of day, BG noise, difficulty.

What are situational variables?

Features of a research situation that may influence participants behaviour e.g. order effects, time of day, temperature, noise, instructions given or lighting.

What are participant variables?

Any characteristics of the individual participants. This is related to individual characteristics of each participant that may impact how they respond e.g. background differences, mood, anxiety, intelligence awareness or other characteristics that are unique to each person.

What are investigator effects?

Any (unintentional) influence of the researcher’s behaviour/characteristics on participants/data/outcomes - these cues may be unconscious nonverbal cues, such as muscular tension or gestures or vocal cues like the tone of voice.

What are order effects?

Can occur in a repeated measures design, and refers to how the positioning of tasks influence the outcome e.g. practice effect (the performance in the 2nd condition may be better because the participants knows what to do) or fatigue effect (worse performance in the 2nd condition because they’re tired) or boredom effect.

What do you need in order to conduct an experiment?

You need to be able to compare one condition with another condition (described as different levels of the IV).

What should a good study and hypothesis always include?

The two (or more) levels of the I