rm3 u2 pilot studies

what is a pilot study

a small-scale trial of the research design, prior to carrying out the full-scale study

what is the aim of pilot studies

to identify problems with the design, method or analysis, so that these problems can be fixed before the full-scale study is carried out.

how are participants involved in pilot studies / what they are asked

about possible problems and suggest changes; for example, they might admit they guessed the purpose and changed their behaviour as a consequence, and suggest that deception is used to avoid this

examples of things that might be checked

• are instructions are standardised and clear

• is sufficient time provided for task

• task too easy -> celling effect

• task too hard -> floor effect

• target population understood the question

• appropriate language used

• no ambiguous questions

• sufficient space to answer the questions