CLPS 0610 - Midterm 1 Methods

What is the method for observational studies with children?

Watch children in their natural environment and observe what they do.

What are the advantages of observational studies in child development research?

Provides a natural representation of what children do.

What are the disadvantages of observational studies?

Hard to control variables since children may behave randomly.

What are some examples of observational studies?

Recording children playing in a sandbox, writing down conversations between children.

What is the method for (quasi-)experiments in child development research?

Perform consistent and systematic manipulation of an independent variable (or a participant variable) under controlled conditions to determine its effect on a dependent variable.

What are the advantages of (quasi-)experiments?

Easier to replicate, allows inferring causality (though aware of spurious associations), better control of confounding variables.

What are the disadvantages of (quasi-)experiments?

Lack of random assignment, cannot always establish definitive causality, could lack ecological validity.

What are some examples of (quasi-)experiments?

Testing if counting to ten affects the unexpected contents (crayon in box) tests.

What is the method for training studies in child development?

Identify underlying mechanisms by pretesting, training, retesting, etc., on related but distinct concepts.

What are the advantages of training studies?

Helps identify causal mechanisms, provides insights into how and why abilities emerge, allows direct influence on the learning process.

What are the disadvantages of training studies?

Requires careful controls to rule out experimenter effects and learning effects, may have transfer effects where learning unintentionally impacts unrelated tasks, improvements may be short-lived.

What are some examples of training studies?

Testing whether being taught shapes influences how shapes are perceived, testing if training on mental states improves false belief performance.

What is the method for correlational studies in child development?

Investigate naturally occurring relationships between variables without manipulating them.

What are the advantages of correlational studies?

Can study real-world situations that may be hard or unethical to replicate, provides important information for future experimental hypotheses.

What are the disadvantages of correlational studies?

Cannot establish causal relationships due to other potential variables at play, hard to control variables.

What are some examples of correlational studies?

Examining performance of children of divorced parents vs. children of parents still together, seeing if language affects performance on unexpected contents tasks.

What is the method for longitudinal studies in child development?

Follow the same group over a long period of time to determine developmental change and patterns of how individuals grow.

What are the advantages of longitudinal studies?

Examines longer-term cognitive development, offers insight into individuality vs. generalization, helps identify directionality of variable influence.

What are the disadvantages of longitudinal studies?

Time-consuming, expensive, may face participant attrition, external factors can have big roles.

What are some examples of longitudinal studies?

Performing false belief tests on 3-year-olds repeatedly over time, Dunn et al.'s research.

What is the method for behavioral reenactment studies in child development?

See if children imitate actions.

What is the method for violation of expectation studies?

Set up an expectation for infants and violate it or not, checking whether looking time changes.

What is the method for eye-tracking studies?

Set up expectations that events will happen in a specific space and see if infants look there in expectation.