A panel study is defined as a study that collects information on the same individuals at different points in time.

The various data collections are often called waves. A panel study is therefore a longitudinal study; it differs
from other studies that collect information over time, such as time series and cohort studies, in that it studies the
same persons longitudinally.

Time Series: A quasi-experimental research design in which periodic measurements are made on a defined
group of individuals both before and after implementation of an intervention. Time series studies are often
conducted for the purpose of determining the intervention or treatment effect.

Cohort studies are a type of medical research used to investigate the causes of disease, establishing links
between risk factors and health outcomes. Cohort studies are usually forward-looking - that is, they are
'prospective' studies, or planned in advance and carried out over a future period of time.

A cohort is a group of people who share a common characteristic or experience within a defined period (e.g.,
are currently living, are exposed to a drug or vaccine or pollutant, or undergo a certain medical procedure). Thus
a group of people who were born on a day or in a particular period, say 1948, form a birth cohort.

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are a superior methodology in the hierarchy of evidence in therapy,
because they limit the potential for any biases by randomly assigning one patient pool to an intervention and
another patient pool to non-intervention (or placebo).

Naturalistic observation is the major method of study used by:

-psychoanalysts, ethologists, anthropologists and Gestalt psychologists.

-ethologists, anthropologists and Gestalt psychologists.

Match the following:

A. Independent variable-active manipulation

B. Dependent variable-measurement
C. Carry over effect-counter balancing
D. Control of variables-randomization

A carryover effect is an effect that "carries over" from one experimental condition to another. Whenever
subjects perform in more than one condition (as they do in within-subject designs) there is a possibility
of carryover effects.

For example, consider an experiment on the effect of rate of presentation on memory. Subjects are presented
with a list of words and asked to recall as many words as they can. In one condition, the words are presented
one word per second; in the other condition, the words are presented two words per second. The question is
whether or not having performed in one condition affects performance in the second condition. Perhaps learning
the first list of words will interfere with learning the second list because it will be hard to remember which
words were in each list. Or maybe the practice involved learning one list will make it easier to learn a second
list. In either case, there would be a carryover effect: performance on the second list would be affected by the
experience of being given the first list.
One drawback to a within-subjects design is the possibility of carryover effects, where one
treatment affects subsequent treatments. One way to cancel out carryover effects is through counterbalancing,
or changing the order of the treatments from subject to subject.

Counterbalancing is usually thought of as a method for controlling order effects in a repeated measures design
(see the notes on variance and experimental design).

In a counterbalanced design to control for order effects, we use separate groups of subjects, each group
receiving treatments in a different order. If there are two treatments, (say, A and B), Group 1 receives treatments
in the order AB, and Group 2 receives treatments in the order BA. If you create a group for each possible order,
then the variance due to order effects becomes a separate source of variance, making for a more powerful
design.

Suppose you compare two treatments, A and B, in a repeated measures design, so that all subjects receive both
the treatments. To avoid confounding due to order effects, one group of subjects receives Treatment A first, and
a second group receives Treatment B first.

Order effects refer to differences in research participants responses that result from the order (e.g., first,
second, third) in which the experimental materials are presented to them. Order effects can occur in any kind of
research. In survey research, for example, people may answer questions differently depending on the order in
which the questions are asked. However, order effects are of special concern in within-subject designs; that is,
when the same participants are in all conditions and the researcher wants to compare responses between
conditions.

Types of Order Effect: Order effects occur for many reasons. Practice effects occur when participants warm up
or improve their performance over time. In reaction time studies, for example, participants usually respond
faster as a result of practice with the task.

Participants may also perform differently at the end of an experiment or survey because they are bored or tired.
These fatigue effects are more likely when the procedure is lengthy and the task is repetitive or uninteresting.

Carryover effects occur when the effect of an experimental condition carries over, influencing performance in
a subsequent condition. These effects are more likely when the experimental conditions follow each other
quickly. They also depend on the particular sequence of conditions.

A statistical artefact is an inference that results from bias in the collection or manipulation of data. The
implication is that the findings do not reflect the real world but are, rather, an unintended consequence of
measurement error

Match the following:

A. Systematic variance-effect of IV
B. Error variance-methodological artifacts
C. Extraneous variance- Uncontrollable factors

Extraneous Variables are undesirable variables that influence the relationship between the
variables that an experimenter is examining. Another way to think of this, is that these are
variables the influence the outcome of an experiment, though they are not the variables that are
actually of interest. These variables are undesirable because they add error to an experiment. A
major goal in research design is to decrease or control the influence of extraneous variables as
much as possible.

For example, lets say that an educational psychologist has developed a new learning strategy and is
interested in examining the effectiveness of this strategy. The experimenter randomly assigns
students to two groups. All of the students study text materials on a biology topic for thirty minutes.
One group uses the new strategy and the other uses a strategy of their choice. Then all students
complete a test over the materials. One obvious confounding variable in this case would be pre-
knowledge of the biology topic that was studied. This variable will most likely influence student
scores, regardless of which strategy they use. Because of this extraneous variable (and surely
others) there will be some spread within each of the groups. It would be better, of course, if all
students came in with the exact same pre-knowledge. However, the experimenter has taken an
important step to greatly increase the chances that, at least, the extraneous variable will add error
variance equivalently between the two groups. That is, the experimenter randomly assigned
students to the two groups.

Random assignment is a powerful tool though it does nothing to decrease the amount of error that
occurs as a result of extraneous variables, in only equalizes it between groups. In fact, even if the
experimenter gave a pre-knowledge test ahead of time and then assigned students to groups, so that
the groups were as equal as possible on pre-knowledge scores, this still would not change the fact
that students would differ one from the other in terms of pre-knowledge and this would add "error
variance" in the experiment.

The thing that makes random assignment so powerful is that greatly decreases systematic error
error that varies with the independent variable. Extraneous variables that vary with the levels of the
independent variable are the most dangerous type in terms of challenging the validity of
experimental results. These types of extraneous variables have a special name, confounding
variables.

In a single blind study, the research participants do not know if they have been assigned to an experimental
group or placebo group. Whereas in a double blind study, the researcher is unaware of this too. But the third
person, the accomplice who eg administers the drugs might be aware of it.

Match the following:

A. Continuous variable-intelligence
B. Artificially discrete variables- examination results in terms of pass and fail
C. Real discrete variables-caste
D. Qualitative variable-voice pitch

A continuous variable is a variable which can take on infinitely many, uncountable values.

Some examples will clarify the difference between discrete and continuous variables.
 Suppose the fire department mandates that all fire fighters must weigh between 150 and 250 pounds. The weight
of a fire fighter would be an example of a continuous variable; since a fire fighter's weight could take on any value
between 150 and 250 pounds.

Suppose we flip a coin and count the number of heads. The number of heads could be any integer value between
0 and plus infinity. However, it could not be any number between 0 and plus infinity. We could not, for example,
get 2.5 heads. Therefore, the number of heads must be a discrete variable.

A continuous variable is one that can take any value between two numbers: For example, between 62
and 82 inches, there are a lot of possibilities: one participant might be 64.03891 inches tall, and another
person might be 72.67025 inches tall. And, there are literally millions of other possible heights between
62 and 82 inches.

Discrete Variable. Variables that can only take on a finite number of values are called "discrete
variables." All qualitative variables are discrete. Some quantitative variables are discrete, such as
performance rated as 1,2,3,4, or 5,.

Another eg is the number of siblings one has. It cannot be 1.5 or 2.5, has to be 1,2 or 3.

Type E and Type S are types of independent variable. Type E denotes environmental variables
like noise, temperature, illumination level etc.

Subject variable denotes characteristics of subject like sex, age, weight, etc

Task variable includes physical characteristics of the apparatus as well as many features of the
task procedures.

The categorical variables are known as-discrete variables.

The variable which is not manipulated by experiment, but only measure is called- attribute variable

Active Variable
An active variable is a variable that can be manipulated. Active variables are also called experimental
variables. Examples of this type of variable are teaching methods, training regimens, and the like which can be
altered to gauge there affect on a phenomena.
Attribute Variable
An attribute variable is a variable that cannot be manipulated. An example of an attribute variable is gender,
race, psychological condition, and or any characteristic that is inherent or pre-programmed and cannot be
altered.
Categotical Variables: Categorical variables belong to a measurement called nominal and demographic in
nature. This means they are used for purposes of classification into mutual exclusive categories. As such, they
have no rank and are thus of equal status like gender, age, race, religious preference, political affiliation.
Which of the following is kept open by the experimenter?
-dependent variable
-Extraneous variable
-intervening variable
-organismic variable

Action research aims to study problems which are immediate and urgent.

Narrative records am to provide qualititative data analysis with comprehensive recording of behavior.

Matched group design (also known as matched subjects design) is used

in experimental research in order for different experimental conditions to be observed while
being able to control for individual difference by matching similar subjects or groups with each
other.

The matched group design ensures that the groups in the experiement are equivalent: -only on
the matching task variable

Demand characteristics refers to an experimental artifact where participants form an

interpretation of the experiment's purpose and subconsciously change their behavior to fit that
interpretation.

Structured observation (also known as systemic observation) is a data collecting method in

which researchers gather data without direct involvement with the participants (the researchers
watch from afar) and the collection technique is structured in a well defined and procedural
manner.

Structured observation serves as a middle ground between passive non-intervention and the
systematic control and manipulation of variables in lab methods as opposed to, participant
observation.

When a researcher is studying an individual difference variable, the levels of the independent
variable are balanced as opposed to being held constant.

Which of the following types of variables is most likely to be an independent variable in a natural
group design?

-individual differences ( subject variable)

-task variable
-nuisance variable
-environmental variables

The influence that an observer has on the behavior under observation is called:
-reactivity (?)
Observer bias
Demand characteristics
Expectancy effect

The observer-expectancy effect (also called the experimenter-expectancy effect,

expectancy bias, observer effect, or experimenter effect) is a form of reactivity in which a
researcher's cognitive bias causes them to subconsciously influence the participants of an
experiment.

The subject-expectancy effect, is a form of reactivity that occurs in scientific experiments or

medical treatments when a research subject or patient expects a given result and therefore
unconsciously affects the outcome, or reports the expected result.

Primary research is also known as field research.

Match the following:

a. Exploratory research: to get introduced with a process
b. Hypothesis testing research: testing causal relationship
c. Descriptive research: identifying feature of particular group
d. Diagnostic research: frequency with which it is associated

Naturalistic observation is observational research that takes place in a natural or everyday setting such as a
school. Usually there is an effort to minimize the observer's impact by carrying out observations secretly or
from a hidden vantage point.

Controlled observation occurs when observational research is carried out under carefully arranged
conditions. Each subject is exposed to the same situation, to see differences between individual reactions. For
example, a group of babies may be exposed, one at a time, to a laboratory situation called stranger
approaches.