CMN 2101 Study Guide - Internal Validity, Simile, Random Assignment

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Communication
• Course: CMN 2101
• Professor: All

Document Summary

Defining experiments: a procedure or test that: Examines validity of a hypothesis or theory. Attempts to discover new information: structure of an expirement. Choose a design; more qualitative or quantitative. Two groups of people: experimental group and control group. History; occurrence during an experiment that had an effect on the variable. Testing effect; unplanned or uncontrolled effect on data. Related to the actual testing process( communication, conducting the test) Instrumentation ; dependant variable measures change unwantedly. Experimental mortality; subjects may withdraw and not complete the study, can be effected by recruiting new subjects. External validity: beyond personal control, generalization, what people do in real life is the natural environment. Controlled situations cannot create true theories about real life. Practical considerations: planning and pilot tests, instructions to subjects, postexperiment interview. Standard format (easy to locate: types of public archives. Private archives: created for smaller more specific audiences. Unsolicited documents - discovered naturally by the investigator.