week 4

The Stroop Effect will be used for the  Research Report.  For the research report you will use the  data set provided by me. Doing this online experiment allows you to experience the experiment so you are familiar with the procedures. You will need these details when you write your report.  

You will do this experiment so you have an idea of what it is, how it works and what your participants went through. This will help you write the procedure section for your paper. The data you will actually analyze for your project will be given to you by me. 

Here is some basic information on the  Stroop Effect. The lab you will try can be found here:  Stroop Effect Lab - Try This! You can also find it by going through this: Content - Course Resources - Psychology Learning Tools - Psychology Labs - Stroop Effect Lab - Try this.

Comment with your times for each of the two trials.

You have a choice in how you approach this  Research Report. First read the project instructions, then complete this discussion.

Your hypothesis and topic determines what you choose to analyze. We are starting our research report NOW by developing a hypothesis to use in your paper.

There are many ways that you can look at this assignment. You could be interested in the Stroop Effect and age so you analyze the data by age.

You may be interested in gender differences or even gender by age differences.

You may be interested in something else, like if the participant has uses caffeine or not. You can create a new variable in the Research Report data and put a 1 if the participant was an athlete and a 0 if not. Then you can analyze the data by that grouping. You can make up a new variable for how many drinks the participant had prior to doing the lab. You can see if there is a correlation between the number of drinks and the time they spent on the lab.

Let me know if you want to do this and we can talk about the best way to organize your data.

Remember that any good researcher looks at the background literature (i.e., previous published research) before deciding on a specific research idea and hypothesis. Make sure that there is something that supports your idea!

Compose your response to this discussion with your name as the subject. Describe your research idea and topic and state your hypothesis. You will write this paper in third person so your hypothesis should be in third person as well. For instance, "It is hypothesized that males will have less of a difference between the two Stroop Tasks than females" and NOT "My hypothesis is that males will have less difference in times time than females." Also tell me how you plan (or think you might plan) to analyze the data. It's okay if you are not sure about this- we will discuss it and I will give you some guidance if necessary.

For example: My research idea is about whether or not gender influences the Stroop Effect. It is hypothesized that there will be a significant difference between men and women. I will use a t test to analyze the data.

Note: Your data includes gender (1=Male, 2=Female), age, time to READ the words, and time to SAY the colors.

Also, please use at least 50 subjects in each group but you should aim to use as many participants as possible! There is no reason to discard good data.

Helpful links:

Stroop Effect Explanation

Stroop Effect Online Study – This is only an example of the actual test. As you can see in the picture below, the actual test is much longer.

Describe the specific attributes of an experimental research design. Make sure to talk about internal and external validity in your description and how to maximize these concepts in a study.

Then, decide whether each of the following topics could be studied using an experimental research design and then explain why or why not. Discuss the role of potential confounding variables in each example. Are the examples considered within subjects or between subjects designs? Why?

    a.  Effect of parietal lobe damage on people's ability to do basic arithmetic.

    b.  Effect of being clinically depressed on the number of close friendships people have.

    c.  Effect of group training on the social skills of teenagers with Asperger's syndrome.

    d.  Effect of paying people to take an IQ test on their performance on that test

classmate post 1:

Describe the specific attributes of an experimental research design. Make sure to talk about internal and external validity in your description and how to maximize these concepts in a study.

Experimental research design is a scientific approach used to investigate cause-and-effect relationships between variables by systematically manipulating one or more independent variables and observing the effects on dependent variables.

Internal validity is where a research study establishes a worthy cause and effect relationship involving independent and dependent variables. Internal validity is important because once established, it makes it possible to eliminate alternative explanation for a finding (Cuncic, 2022). It is heavily based in confidence that the finding has a concrete cause and effect. Then on the other side we have external validity.

External validity is important to study that supports generalizing the results to people and situations beyond those actually studied. This is good for studies that wan their finding to be generalized to similar people, settings, situations, time periods, etc. (Cuncic,2022).

Then, decide whether each of the following topics could be studied using an experimental research design and then explain why or why not. Discuss the role of potential confounding variables in each example. Are the examples considered within subjects or between subjects designs? Why?

    a.  Effect of parietal lobe damage on people's ability to do basic arithmetic.

Answer:  The topic of the effect of parietal lobe damage on people's ability to do basic arithmetic could be studied using experimental research design. They could compare the performance of basic arithmetic between those without parietal lobe damage and those who do have damaged parietal lobes. As for potential confounding variables in this topic it could be age, pre-screened cognitive abilities, or even education could be a variable. The variable would need to be controlled to rule out potential for outside influence. This would be between-subject design and all participant are either part of the experimental group or the control group.

    b.  Effect of being clinically depressed on the number of close friendships people have. 

For the effect of being clinically depressed on the number of close friendships people have, it would be a lot tougher to use experimental research design. Experimental research design uses manipulation and also random assignment of individuals. It would be hard to manipulated something like depression for research purposes. Your potential confounding variables could include personality traits, and an individuals personal social support groups. These variables would be the influences on whether or not an individual is clinically depressed and how many close friendships they actually have. So in reality this topic wouldn't fit into the subject designs on a ethics level. 

    c.  Effect of group training on the social skills of teenagers with Asperger's syndrome.

This topic can be studied using experimental research design. It can be used be randomly assigning teenagers with Asperger's syndrome to two separate groups. One group can be examining social skills of teens with Asperger's before group training and then examine the difference if any to their social skills after the group training. Some confounding variables could be individual learning abilities, and how severe the symptoms of the individuals Asperger's are. These variables would help when it comes to the amount of intervention that is needed to improve social skills because of the training program. This would most likely be a between because every participant will experience the condition of group training and no group training. 

    d.  Effect of paying people to take an IQ test on their performance on that test.

This can be studied using experimental research design. Participants will be randomly assigned to two groups to test and examine performance on IQ test. One group will receive payment for the IQ test and the other group does not receive payment. Then their performances will be tested. Confounding variables for this topic could include, mood and motivation levels, test taking ability, and economic status. These variables would just need to be controlled to ensure that payment is the sole reason for difference in performance. This would be between-subject design. Participant are either part of the experimental group that is receiving money or the control group that did not receive payment.

Reference  : 

Cuncic, A. (2022, October 17).  Understanding internal validity and external validity. Verywell Mind.  https://www.verywellmind.com/internal-and-external-validity-4584479#toc-what-is-internal-validity-in-research

Classmate post 2:

Experimental research design is a systematic and scientific approach to research, where the researcher manipulates one variable and controls or randomizes the rest of the variables (Knight, 2010). It has a clear structure consisting of an independent variable (the cause) and a dependent variable (the effect). The main goal is to establish cause-and-effect relationships between variables.

Two central concepts in experimental design are internal and external validity:

Internal Validity refers to the extent to which a study can rule out alternative explanations for its findings. It’s essentially the degree of confidence that the causal relationship being tested is trustworthy and not influenced by other factors or variables (Council, 2022). Strategies to maximize internal validity include controlling confounding variables, ensuring random assignment, and using blinding procedures.

External Validity is about the extent to which the results of a study can be generalized or applied to settings outside the study context (Streefkerk, 2023). It addresses the question: "Can these results be applied to the real world?" Maximizing external validity often involves ensuring the sample is representative of the larger population and that the settings and conditions of the study resemble real-world conditions.

Effect of parietal lobe damage on people's ability to do basic arithmetic.

- This would likely be a quasi-experimental or observational study rather than a true experimental design since you can’t ethically or practically assign people to have parietal lobe damage.

- Internal Validity: Could be compromised by confounding variables like the individual’s pre-existing arithmetic skills, age, or education level.

- External Validity: Might be limited due to the specific nature of the population (people with parietal lobe damage).

- This would be a between-subjects design if you compare individuals with parietal lobe damage to those without.

Effect of being clinically depressed on the number of close friendships people have.

- This also leans more towards observational research. It's not ethical or feasible to induce clinical depression in individuals for the sake of research.

- Internal Validity: Threatened by variables such as personality traits, social environment, or the severity of depression.

- External Validity: Could be high if the sample is diverse and representative of the general population.

- This is typically a between-subjects design, comparing those with clinical depression to those without.

Effect of group training on the social skills of teenagers with Asperger's syndrome.

- This could be approached with an experimental design. You can randomly assign participants to receive group training or not and then measure their social skills.

- Internal Validity: Can be maximized by random assignment and controlling for variables like baseline social skills or the severity of Asperger’s syndrome.

- External Validity: It can be a challenge if the participants or the setting of the training are not reflective of the general population of teenagers with Asperger's syndrome.

- This would likely be a between-subjects design unless the same participants are tested before and after the intervention without a control group, which would make it a within-subjects design.

Effect of paying people to take an IQ test on their performance on that test.

- This can be a true experimental design. Participants can be randomly assigned to a paid or unpaid group.

- Internal Validity: High if other factors like test-taking environment or time of day are controlled.

- External Validity: Concerns may arise if the incentives are not reflective of real-world scenarios or if the sample is not representative.

- This is typically a between-subjects design as participants would be in different conditions (paid vs. unpaid).

In all cases, identifying and controlling potential confounding variables is crucial to ensure the reliability and validity of the findings.

REFERENCES:

Cuncic, A. (2022, October 17). Understanding internal validity and external validity. Verywell Mind.  https://www.verywellmind.com/internal-and-external-validity-4584479#toc-what-is-internal-validity-in-research 

Knight, K. L. (2010). Study/Experimental/Research Design: Much more than statistics. Journal of Athletic Training, 45(1), 98–100.  https://doi.org/10.4085/1062-6050-45.1.98

Streefkerk, R. (2023, June 22). Internal vs. external validity: Understanding Differences & Threats. Scribbr.  https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/internal-vs-external-validity/#:~:text=Internal%20validity%20is%20the%20degree,depends%20on%20your%20experimental%20design.