Pyb210 Week 3 Research Design Assignment
Research Design Assignment
Jack Jamieson
N8851093
PYB210
Research Design
For a potential researcher, choosing the correct research design is essential in the battle to control variables. Because without controlling for variables, a researcher is not able to make inferences about cause/effect relationships. Correlation does not imply causation is the all-important rule that any psychology undergraduate would be able to tell you. However, some research designs can be used in the absence of some variable control measures and still implying correlational relationships.
The research design used in this situation is a Quasi-experimental design due to the distinctive lack of randomisation in the different groups of the experiment. Quasi-experimental …show more content…
Due to the test being taken in three different ways by each participant, it raises the question of whether the participant would learn how to take the testing procedure more effectively throughout the course of the measurement and effect results through their memory of the testing. The researcher arranged the tests text-based first, followed by text/icon-based and lastly icon-based. This arrangement of the tests is so that the participants understand the icon’s function because they have already been exposed to the text options. Though it may be that this actually threatens the reliability of the dependent variable. This ‘memory effect’ would also have to be accounted for when correlating the scores of each participant over the course of the three conditions of their testing. The reason this problem is such a threat to the internal reliability of the test is there is no way to accurately measure the amount that each participant will improve through test-retest reliability correlations.
Another weakness of the measurement of variables that is present within this study is the conditions of the testing procedure itself. The 75 students were testing by the researcher in groups at a university and the 75 aged-care participants were tested individually at the aged-care facility. This presents a problem with the internal reliability of the results because the groups were tested under different conditions. This difference in testing would also effect the results of the dependent
Jack Jamieson
N8851093
PYB210
Research Design
For a potential researcher, choosing the correct research design is essential in the battle to control variables. Because without controlling for variables, a researcher is not able to make inferences about cause/effect relationships. Correlation does not imply causation is the all-important rule that any psychology undergraduate would be able to tell you. However, some research designs can be used in the absence of some variable control measures and still implying correlational relationships.
The research design used in this situation is a Quasi-experimental design due to the distinctive lack of randomisation in the different groups of the experiment. Quasi-experimental …show more content…
Due to the test being taken in three different ways by each participant, it raises the question of whether the participant would learn how to take the testing procedure more effectively throughout the course of the measurement and effect results through their memory of the testing. The researcher arranged the tests text-based first, followed by text/icon-based and lastly icon-based. This arrangement of the tests is so that the participants understand the icon’s function because they have already been exposed to the text options. Though it may be that this actually threatens the reliability of the dependent variable. This ‘memory effect’ would also have to be accounted for when correlating the scores of each participant over the course of the three conditions of their testing. The reason this problem is such a threat to the internal reliability of the test is there is no way to accurately measure the amount that each participant will improve through test-retest reliability correlations.
Another weakness of the measurement of variables that is present within this study is the conditions of the testing procedure itself. The 75 students were testing by the researcher in groups at a university and the 75 aged-care participants were tested individually at the aged-care facility. This presents a problem with the internal reliability of the results because the groups were tested under different conditions. This difference in testing would also effect the results of the dependent