PSYCH 1X03 Lecture Notes - Observer-Expectancy Effect, Confounding, Standard Deviation
Document Summary
Paradigm shift: particularly dramatic change in our way of thinking. Anecdotal evidence: evidence gathered from others or self experience. Simplest experiments contain experimental and control groups. Experimental group: receive manipulation of the independent variable during experiment. Control group: will not receive manipulation of the independent variable. Participants in both groups should be as similar as possible. Manipulating the independent variable within each participant to minimize the effect of external variables on the dependant measure tests the same subject repeatedly while manipulating the independent variable differently. The measure we are using or subject could change over the course of experiment. Practice effect: subject"s performance improves because they have become more experienced. One group of subjects receives manipulation and one is a control group. Subjects should be similar in every way except the manipulation. Confounding variable: variable other than independent that has an effect on the results. Results from very specific groups of participants cannot be generalized to other groups.