Experimental designs

counterbalancing

• attempt to control for the effects of order in repeated measures design

• half participants experience conditions in one order, half in opposite

standardised procedure

procedure kept exactly the same for all participants to ensure consistency increasing reliability through easy replication

experimental design

different ways in which participants can be organized in relation to experimental conditions

independent groups design

participants allocated to different groups where each represents one experimental condition

matched pairs design

pairs of participants matched on some variables that may effect DV, then assigned to different conditions

random allocation

participants allocated to conditions in an independent groups design using a random method to control for participant variables

repeated measures design

all participants take part in all conditions of the experiment

participant variables

• individual characteristics participants bring with them - age, gender, personality

• not manipulated by the researcher