Aice Psychology

Independent Variable 

The factor that is manipulated in an experiment 

 

Ex. Changing the snacks I eat during lunch to see how it affects me 

Random Allocation 

Randomly giving participants conditions and treatments unbiasedly 

 

Ht. like how allocates your skill points this time they don’t focus on  putting your skill points in the stats that would help your class  

Repeated Measures Design 

Same participants are used and they go through each condition  

Laboratory experiments 

Experiment is conducted in a highly controlled stage where everything can be measured precisely  

 

Ex. Murderous Lewellyn’s Candlelit Dinner; Lewellyn was in such an experiment

Counterbalancing 

An experimental method used to control effects; this is achived by arranging conditions/treatments to minimize the influence of effects/ uncontrollable factors

Matched pairs design 

Participants being paired based on a shared variable yet each person gets a different condition 

Independent Measures design 

Different groups try different treatments and experiments; in the end they are compared

Experimental Design

The outline of the procedures to be followed in the experiment 

Control Conditions 

the baseline of an experiment, it is a condition where the participants don’t receive a treatment

Experimental Conditions 

the group that receives the treatment

opposite of the control group

Dependent Variable 

The thing you measure in an experiment

Fatigue Effect

Performance goes down because the participant is tired 

Randomization

Assigned by the fate of the draw, participants are chosen by the fate of the hat c: 

Practice Effect 

Practice makes perfect, the participants' performance improves because they are repeating the activity not because of any manipulation set forth by the researcher 

Order Effect 

when the participant does better (or worse) because of the order of the variables instead of the variable itself

Demand Characteristics 

Confounding Variables 

An unmeasured/unknown variable that affects both the dependent variable 

standardization 

The process of creating consistent and uniform procedures for giving, scoring and analyzing psychological tests 

 

Making things universal 

Control

Variables in the experiment that stay the same so only the independent variable affects the dependent variable  

reliable 

how consistent is the study, if you test it again you should get similar results 

validity 

The test if a study measures what it says it’s measuring, how accurate or true is the study’s results  

Pilot study 

A preliminary investigation to test the feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of a research design, methodology or intervention before conducting a larger study 

 

Like making small cake batches before moving on to the bigger one 

 

Also called feasibility study  

replication 

The process of repeating a study to test or extend the original findings 

 

Repeating study to confirm if it’s results are consistent and not a fluke 

operationalization 

Turning abstract concepts into measurable observation 

 

Ex. Stress -> heart rate, creativity -> response from observers  

placebo 

An inactive, harmless treatment used in experiment 

generalize

Applying the learned basics of a skill, behavior or response to new and similar situation 

Ex. Generalizing the overwhelming feeling towards small kittens to puppies as well.  

• Learned behavior that kittens are cute, puppies are cute too lets use this same response 

Field experiment 

Research being done in the real world instead of a lab 

 

Both the independent and dependent variables are changed and observed respectfully in an ecological situation 

Ecological validity 

How well a study’s results apply to irl situations 

hypothesis 

A prediction about the results of a study or what will happen 

Alternative hypothesis 

The prediction that there is something that will happen in the study  

 

It's alternate from the null hypothesis  

Two tailed – non directional hypothesis  

Yer or no, predicts a difference but doesn’t specify which way it will go either in one direction or another it could be higher or lower 

 

Left in confusion 

Directional (one tailed) hypothesis 

Predicts a difference and with clear data 

There is one direction, either its all high or all low 

Null hypothesis 

The prediction that the hypothesis is null or nothing will happen, no effect or difference  

Informed consent 

Ethical principle that participants/individuals must know the purpose, procedures, benefits, risk and their right to r=withdraw from a psychological experiment 

 

Aka they must know what they are getting into and their rights  

Right to withdraw 

The participant’s ethical right to discontinue their involvement in psychological research anytime they want 

No penalty no consequence