Research Methods: Experiments

Taha had heard his relatives talking about the effects of chewing sugar-free gum on memory. He decided to conduct an experiment. What would the operationalized DEPENDENT variable be for his research?

• Score on a Sequence-Recall memory test

• Psychometric Testing to assess learning styles

• Asking participants about their fondest childhood memories

• Quantity of consumption of sugar-free gum pellets per day

Which of the following are characteristics of variables in general?

• Liable to change

• We can only have independent and dependent variables

• Cannot be controlled

• Are not always numerical

Research experiments are investigations looking for _______________ relationships

What are confounding variables?

• Random variables

• They are not controlled and can obscure the effect of the independent variable making the results difficult to interpret

• They bypass the independent variable

• They imply that the independent variable definitely causes the dependent variable

In a controlled experiment there is a greater chance of a relationship of _____________ between the IV and DV; because the impact of extraneous variables is minimized.

• Relatedness

• causality

• correlation

• significance

What is operationalization?

• Performing an operation on a given variable

• Dividing one variable into many testable variables

• Adding measurable ranges to extraneous variables

• Describing variables in a measurable format

An experiment is done with children in which their teachers in different classrooms teach the same material over World History, but they use different teaching methods. One teacher uses lectures, one teacher uses group discussion, and one teacher simply asks the students to read the textbook. Then the students all take an essay test over the material and the scores are compared. What is the DEPENDENT variable in this study?

• The teaching methods

• The number of students

• The scores on the essay test

• The number of teachers

These are variables that can potentially distort the relationship between the IV and the DV.

• confounding variables

• confusing variables

• constructing variables

• extraneous variables

In a study of the effect of a driver training program on driving skill, a possible operationalisation of the dependent variable would be...

• Driving quality

• Number of accidents

• Hours spent training

• amount of traffic

What are examples of participant variables?

• Independent variables & dependent variables

• time of day, noise level, temperature, location

• prior experience, motivation, intelligence, educational background

• extraneous variables, confounding variables