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Most scientists look for either correlation or causation using dependent and
independent variables
Correlation: Association between variables - Why?
Causation: What independent variable causes a change in the
dependent variable? - How?
Independent variable: Variable manipulated by
the experimenter
Dependent variable: The measured variable
that depends on changes in other variables
Subject Expectancy Effect: When the subject thinks they know what the
experimenter is looking for and consciously control their behaviour to account for it
Demand Artifact: Aspects of a study that reveal the hypothesis in some way
This is accounted for in double-blind studies - neither subject
nor researcher knows what to expect during the session
Placebo: A response to a treatment based on expectations despite there
being no actual change
Observer-expectancy effect: When scoring is unintentionally biased towards
what the researcher is expecting to happen
Data and Information
or identical
Inferential statistics are required to figure out what the data means; can be
used to apply the data to a larger (outer) population
Variability: Degree to which scores are dispersed - the
scatter
It is important not to lie to oneself - one must take into account unlikely events
(outside bell curve) that may have important impact, despite them being uncommon
Statistically significant difference: One that is unlikely to have occurred by
chance, therefore there is a correlation
This can be tested by replicating the experiment
Generally, high degrees of variability or low correlation mean pure chance is
more likely
Correlation: how closely a scatter plot fits a line
Correlation
The greater the value of correlation coefficient r, the stronger the correlation
r can go from +1 to -1
+1 = positive; -1 = negative
These are extreme values and signify a perfect
correlation
Correlation does not equal causation because we do not know direction of
cause and effect
Multiple variables must control possible influence of confounds and focus only
on the dependent and independent
This can be done by including confounds in a multiple
regression - a sequence of calculations that corrects for their influence
Sometimes, variables may be significant (follow a similar trend as another)
but meaningless (have no correlation) - here we must use common sense