Experimental Design and Ethics Flashcards

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts from lecture notes on experimental design and ethics.

Simple Experiment

An experiment with one independent variable and one dependent variable.

Between Group Design

Different participants are in each group.

Within Group Design

The same participants are in each group.

Design Confound

Threat to internal validity; there is no control over difficulty.

Selection Effects

Threat to internal validity; members are not randomized.

Order Effects

Threat to internal validity; the outcome in one condition is influenced by another.

Maturation

A threat to internal validity where changes occur over time.

History

A threat to internal validity where an outside event happens that changes participants.

Regression to the Mean

A threat to internal validity where extreme changes return to normal.

Attrition

A threat to internal validity where people leave the study.

Placebo Effect

Fake improvement because participants believe in the treatment.

Null Effects

No difference between groups and/or no association between variables.

Manipulation Check

Checking if the manipulation in a study worked.

Measurement Check

Checking if the measurement in a study was sensitive enough.

Ceiling/Floor Effect

When the outcome in a study was too easy or difficult.

Pilot Study

A smaller study done before the bigger study.

Complex Experiment

An experiment with more than one independent/dependent variable.

Factorial Design

A design with more than one independent variable.

Mixed Design

A design with both between and within design elements.

Main Effects

The effects of each independent variable.

Interaction

The combined effects of all independent variables.

Crossover Interaction

An interaction represented by a cross in the graph.

Spreading Interaction

An interaction where one point meets the other and is spread out in the graph.

Interruption

An event that disrupts the flow of a task/performance.

Belmont Report

A report outlining ethical principles for research involving human subjects.

Respect for Persons

Ethical principle: Participants are free to make decisions; there is no coercion and transparency.

Beneficence

Ethical principle: Benefits outweigh the risks; there are minimal risks, and no benefits are withheld.

Justice

Ethical principle: No one group gets risks while the other gets benefits; there is a balance.

Anonymous

Impossible to identify participants; no names or handwriting are recorded.

Confidential

No names are recorded; participants are assigned a coded number for files, which are stored for 3 years.

Deception

Sometimes ethical; can involve either omission or commission.

Omission

Withholding information from participants.

Commission

Lying to participants.

Debriefing

Explaining the deception to participants and why it was used.

Correlational design

getting data without manipulating it

experimental design

randomly assigned to conditions

quasi experimental design

no random assignment but still treated as causal claim

non equivalent control group design

treatment groups that have their measures collected before and after to see if there are any effects

interrupted time series design

collecting data at multiple points in time, then introducing an interruption to see if there is an effect

matched group design

finding participants with similar characteristics so they can be compared fairly during the study

waitlist design

one group receives treatment while the other is put on a waiting list so that they receive it later and then they can compare any differences