DESIGNING A

RESEARCH STUDY

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
1. Observe some aspect of the universe.
2. Formulate a theory that is consistent
with what you have observed.
3. Use the theory to make predictions.
4. Test those predictions by experiments
or further observations.
5. Modify the theory in the light of your
results.
6. Go to step 3.

HYPOTHESIS
A tentative theory that has not
yet been tested.
Have operational definitions.
Be replicable.

TYPES OF RESEARCH

Descriptive
Correlational
Experimental
you are designing a
experiment

DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH

What is going on in this picture?

We cannot say exactly, but we can describe what we
see.
Any research that observes and records.
Does not talk about relationships, it just describes.

TYPES OF DESCRIPTIVE
RESEARCH

The Case Study

The Survey
Naturalistic Observation

THE CASE STUDY

Where one person (or situation) is observed in depth.

THE SURVEY METHOD

Used in both descriptional and correlational
research.
Use Interview, mail, phone, internet etc
The Upside: sometimes cheap, anonymous,
diverse population, and easy to get random
sampling (a sampling that represents your
population you want to study).

SURVEY METHOD: DOWNSIDE

Low Response Rate (10% -15%)
People Lie or just misinterpret themselves.
Wording Effects
When was the last time you upgraded your computer
and printer?
Now that you've seen how you can save time, would
you buy our product?
Do you approve of the Presidents oppressive
immigration policy

NATURALISTIC OBSERVATION
Observing and
recording behavior
in natural
environment.
No control- just an
observer.

CORRELATIONAL RESEARCH
Detects relationships between variables.
Does NOT say that one variable causes another.
Honey producing bee colonies (US)
inversely correlates with
Juvenile arrests for possession of marijuana (US)

EXPERIMENTAL
RESEARCH
Explores cause and effect relationships.
E.g. Walking through doorways causes
forgetting.
IV: The walking thought doorways between
encoding and recall
Condition 1: walk 15 meters no doorways
Condition 2: walk 15 meters 3 doorways
DV: Performance on memory test.
Radvansky, G. A., Krawietz, S. A., & Tamplin, A. K. (2011).
Walking through doorways causes forgetting: Further
explorations. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,
64, 1632-1645.

STEPS IN DESIGNING AN
EXPERIMENT
1. Hypothesis
2. Pick Population: Random Selection then
Random Assignment.
3. Operationalize the Variables
4. Identify Independent and Dependent Variables.
5. Look for Extraneous Variables
6. Type of Experiment: Blind, Double Blind etc..
7. Gather Data
8. Analyze Results
9. Write up Results

EXPERIMENTAL VOCABULARY
Independent Variable: factor that is manipulated
Dependent Variable: factor that is measured
Extraneous Variables: factors that effect DV, that are
not IV.
Confounding Variables: an extraneous variable whose
presence affects the variables being studied so that the
results you get do not reflect the actual relationship
between the variables under investigation.
Experimental Group: Group(s) exposed to IV
Control Group: Group not exposed to IV
Placebo: inert substance that is in place of IV in Control
Group

BACK TO YOUR
EXPERIMENTS

METHOD
Participants:
Clear description of the sample (size, population, age, gender
etc.)

Design:
Clear description of design; DV and both IVs (including levels);
Other details: e.g. controls, randomisation, counterbalancing etc.

Materials:
Clear description of the apparatus, and stimuli used in sufficient
detail: in prose, not in a list [no trivial materials to be included]

Procedure:
Clear description of the procedure -including instructions of what
participants had to do: in prose, not in a list [sufficient detail for
a replication]

PARTICIPANTS
A problem!

Population

To truly answer such questions we

need to measure everyone in the
population of interest.
Do kittens and puppies differ in
mathematical ability?
We could test every kittens and
puppies on the planet on our
measure.
We then compute the mean for
the two and see if the difference
was large or small.

Sample

SOLUTION
USE INFERENTIAL STATISTICS
1) We take a representative sample of males and
females (e.g. 50 Puppies, 50 Kittens) and test
them on our maths task..
2) We then use inferential statistics to infer
whether the two populations seem to differ on
the task.

SAMPLING METHODS

PARTICIPANTS
When you collect data from your participants
make sure you also collect basic demographic
information.
Were you got the sample from e.g. Birmingham
city University.
Age
Gender

Anything that is relevant to the IV/DV

On a vision study: has normal or
corrected to normal vision.

PARTICIPANTS
How many participants do I need?
Researchers will conduct a power analysis work
out how many participants are needed given the
design and the effect size.
The Number of participants your study (N) will
have:
Each person will have to collect a MINIMUM 10
participants.
If you have a repeated measures design you will
have at least 45 scores.
If you have a independent measures design you
will have at least 15 scores per condition
(Min N=45).

YOUR DESIGN
One independent variable:

3 or 4 levels/ conditions
For example
Independent variable: Group Size
Condition 1: Individual,
Condition 2: 3 person group,
Condition 1: 6 person group

YOUR DESIGN
Dependent variable:
You need to get a score from each
person/participant
Do not just get one score from the group.
Or each group will be a participant in the study so you
will need to run 10 groups each (5 person group * 10
=50 people each)

Level of measurement: It must be a continuous

Scale
Difference between the values is a reflection of
the distance between the numbers e.g. On a
ruler

YOUR DESIGN
Example Dependent variables:
Number of Items remembered by each participant
Number of creative suggestions made by each
participant.
The difference between a group decision and a
participants private rating
The difference between a persons ratings before and
after a group discussion.
The response to a question where participants put a
mark on a 10cm line:
In your opinion how well did the group work together to
Exceptionally
complete the task?
Exceptionally
Poorly
Well
After the
study
measure
along the line

DID THEY FINISH?

Yes

(categorical)

No

(ORDINAL
WHAT PLACE DID THEY
FINISH?
)

1st, 2nd, 3rd, 1234th, 2485th, 10,234th, 22,587th 37,000th

HOW LONG DID IT TAKE

THEM?
(Scale)
13 Days

BETWEEN PARTICIPANTS
(OR INDEPENDENT SAMPLES) DESIGN
Total participants = 45

Condition 1
15 participants

Condition 2
15 participants

Condition 3
15 participants

ex post facto designs these are independent designs

where the allocation to groups cannot be done randomly.
This is because the IV is something which occurred in the
past or is naturally occurring
The IV group is actually a subject variable
Examples:

Gender
Age
Handedness
Personality type
Town you live in
Life events (e.g. Married vs Divorced)

These are not factors we can manipulate experimentally

therefore we necessarily have this form of design when
comparing groups.
Because we dont manipulate our IV (its really another DV)
we cannot ascribe causality

WITHIN PARTICIPANTS (OR REPEATED

MEASURES) DESIGN

Condition
1
All
participan
ts

Condition
2
All
participan
ts

Condition
3
All
participan
ts

The problem of order effects in repeated measures designs.

If all subjects do the two conditions in the same order then
differences might just be due to several factors.
Practice
Fatigue or boredom

Counterbalancing is necessary in
within-participant designs
Where we have many more than two conditions randomisation of
order is often preferable to counterbalancing.
Total participants = 48

Condition 1
12
participants
Condition 2
12
participants
Condition 3
12
participants
Condition 1
12
participants

Condition 2
12
participants
Condition 1
12
participants
Condition 2
12
participants
Condition 3
12
participants

Condition 3
12
participants
Condition 3
12
participants
Condition 1
12
participants
Condition 2
12
participants

ADVANTAGES OF WITHIN- OVER BETWEENDESIGNS

Equates the experimental groups. Random
assignment eliminates any systematic differences
between the groups in your experiment. It does nothing
to eliminate differences; but, if every participant is in
every group, then there can't be differences, because
they're all the same people.
Efficiency. You greatly reduce the number of participants
that you need.
Statistical power. Within-subjects statistical
comparisons are more powerful. We are more able to
detect the effect of an IV where it exists.

SOME ISSUES IN WITHIN- DESIGNS

Carry-over effects:

Sometimes there are order effects which are

asymmetric in strength and thus are not
eliminated through mere
counterbalancing/randomisation
Where these exist a within- design is probably
not appropriate

The issue of regression to the mean

This is an issue when we make repeated

measures of the same participant over time.
It is only a problem if we decide to make
comparisons across subgroups of individuals
(e.g. good performers, poor performers on a test)
at different points in time.
Here we can get differences which have nothing
to do with our IV but which are the product of a
purely statistical processes

THE CONCEPT OF REGRESSION-TOTHE-MEAN

A common error made by scientists.

A purely statistical artefact that can produce
seemingly significant findings but is actually
due to natural statistical fluctuations.
Phenomenon first noticed by Galton (1886).
On average:
Parents who were taller than average tended
to produce children who grew to be shorter
than their parents
Parents who were shorter than average tended
to produce children who grew to be taller than
their parents

Can be a problem when doing repeated-measures

comparisons
e.g. a maths test.
Picks up two things:
The true score: ones actual underlying mathematical
ability
Error e.g. attentiveness/concentration, arousal,
wakefulness, mood, particular wording of the
questions
The true score will be constant
Error will vary over time.

CONFOUNDING VARIABLES

Order effects
Assigning Participants
Selection of materials
Experimenter bias
Testing environment

AVOIDING
CONFOUNDING VARIABLES
Order effects
Counterbalancing

Assigning participants
Matching participants
Random assignment of participants

Selection of materials
Pilot of materials
Independent scrutiny

Experimenter bias
Each person in your group must run all the conditions
Instructions / Script

Testing environment
Pick your environment carefully
Insure all conditions are run in all environments (unless IV)

CONFOUNDING VARIABLES
IV: Will including a space every 3 letters promote
chunking?

Proposed Condition 1: IBVBFTAMBIHC

Proposed Condition 2: IBV BFT AMB IHC
Actual Condition 1: IBVBFTAMBIHC
Actual Condition 2: HIV ATM FBI BBC
What was the confounding variable with the
Actual experiment?

MATERIALS
What materials will you need for your
experimental task?
The task itself: Where are you getting it from?
If you are getting from somewhere else,
reference who you got the task from.
If you design it yourself include details in
appendix
Scoring (if separate)?
How are you going to do this?
Instructions (to standardize)

PROCEDURE
What happened during your
experiment?
After they have given consent
The Procedure
Up until debrief

Any instructions given to

participants should be reported here
precisely
Plain this before the experiment it is
important that everyone in the

THINK ABOUT YOUR METHOD

Participants:
Clear description of the sample (size, population, age, gender
etc.)
Design:
Clear description of design; DV and both IVs (including levels);
Other details: e.g. controls, randomisation, counterbalancing
etc.
Materials:
Clear description of the apparatus, and stimuli used in
sufficient detail: in prose, not in a list [no trivial materials to be
included]
Procedure:
Clear description of the procedure -including instructions of
what participants had to do: in prose, not in a list [sufficient

 Please submit your draft of the introduction online

before 12 noon on October 31st.
It does not have to be a perfectly polished
introduction but it does have to be at least 1000
word long and written in paragraphs (not bullet
points).
Please include an APA formatted reference list at the
end.
Most people should have made a good start in this
weeks seminars so please build on what you have
already written.
We will provide seminar group feedback on your
introduction during the seminars in week startingof
7th of November. This is the week when you will be
doing group presentations of your study.

WHEN YOU SUBMIT YOUR DRAFT

YOU WILL GET A TURNITIN REPORT
TO LOOK AT

PLAGIARISM COLLUSION&
TURNITIN
Plagiarism is using the work of others without
acknowledging your source of information or
inspiration
using the words more or less exactly, as they
have been used in books, lectures, etc.
using other peoples ideas of theories without
stating whose ideas they are
paraphrasing what you Part
read2 or
hear
without
tells
you more
about
Plagiarism collusion&
stating where it comes from
Turnitin

Collusion a agreement between two or more

parties for a fraudulent, illegal, or deceitful
purpose.