PSYC 2030 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Confounding, External Validity, Random Assignment

• School: York University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2030
• Professor: Rebecca Jubis

Document Summary

Experiment: a systematic research study in which the investigator directly varies some factor (or factors), holds all other factors constant and observes the results of variation. Independent variable(iv): the variable that is manipulated to see if it has an effect on behaviour. Always mentioned and it is the cause in a research study. Must be minimum of 2 levels (groups, levels, conditions,etc. ) Situational variables: features in the environment that participants might encounter. Task variables: different kinds of problems to solve. Instructional variables: manipulated by telling different groups to perform a particular task in different ways. Dependant variable(dv): the variable that is measured to see if the iv had an effect. This variable is dependant upon the independent variable. *extraneous variable: a (cid:448)aria(cid:271)le that"s not (cid:272)o(cid:374)trolled + is of (cid:374)o i(cid:374)terest to the e(cid:454)peri(cid:373)e(cid:374)ter. Not a problem as long as it is held constant.