RESEARCH

METHODS IN
PSYCHOLOGY:
EXPERIMENTS
HUL 261 (Introduction to Psychology)

Tutorial I
1
OVERVIEW

• Experiment
• Variables
• Fundamental Concepts
• Demonstration
• Discussion

Tutorial I Introduction to Psychology (HUL261) 2

 EXPERIMENT

In an experiment, the experimenter

deliberately manipulates one or more
variables (factors) in order to determine the
effect of this manipulation on another
variable (or variables).

Tutorial I Introduction to Psychology (HUL261) 3

 VARIABLES

A variable is a characteristic of a person or

object that can take on different values and
that can be quantified (measured).

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 • An independent variable (IV) is a
variable that is specifically manipulated
VARIABLES by the experimenter to create the
situations the research participants will
encounter in the study.
• Independent Variable

• Dependent Variable

• Control Variable

• Confounding Variable

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 • A dependent variable (DV) depicts the
measured outcome of the manipulation of
VARIABLES the IV in an experiment.

• Independent Variable

• Dependent Variable

• Control Variable

• Confounding Variable

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 • A control variable is a variable that is
considered to have an effect on the
outcome measure in a study but that itself
is not of particular interest to the
VARIABLES researcher. To remove its effects a control
variable may be held at a constant level
during the study or managed by statistical
• Independent Variable means.

• Dependent Variable

• Control Variable

• Confounding Variable

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 • A confounding variable is a variable that
influences both the IV and the DV leading
VARIABLES to a spurious relationship between the IV
and DV.
• Independent Variable

• Dependent Variable

• Control Variable

• Confounding Variable

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 HYPOTHESIS

Hypothesis is a precise, testable statement of

what the researchers predict will be the outcome
of the study, which typically involves proposing
a possible relationship between the IV and DV.

20XX Exploring Eudaimonic Experiences in Social Media 9

 HYPOTHESIS

The hypothesis is usually stated in two forms:

• The null hypothesis states that there is no
relationship between the IV and DV, and the
outcome of the experiment occurred due to
chance.
• The alternate hypothesis states that there is a
relationship between the IV and DV, and the
outcome of the experiment cannot be
attributed to chance.

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 RANDOM ASSIGNMENT

In the experimental design, the assignment

of participants or units to the different
conditions of an experiment is entirely at
random, so that each unit or participant has
an equal likelihood of being assigned to the
experimental group or control group.

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 RANDOM ASSIGNMENT

In an experimental study, the responses of

the experimental group are typically
compared to the responses of a control
group, other experimental groups, or both.
• The experimental group constitutes
participants who are exposed to a
particular manipulation of the IV.
• The control group is a comparison group
in a study, wherein the participants are not
exposed to the manipulation of the IV.

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 “All who drinks of this treatment recover in short time,
except those whom it did not help, who will die, it is
obvious, therefore, that it fails only in incurable cases”
THINK-POD

- Galen (AD129-AD216)

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 VISUAL SEARCH
PARADIGM

Visual search is a goal-oriented activity that

occurs regularly in daily life and involves the
active scanning of the environment in order to
locate a particular target among irrelevant
non-targets.

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 VISUAL SEARCH
PARADIGM

https://www.psytoolkit.org/experiment-library
/experiment_search.html

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 • Independent Variable

• Dependent Variable

• Control Variable/s

• Limitations
DISCUSSION

• If you were to replicate this study, would you make any changes to
the original experiment?

• Formulate a hypothesis of your own and design an experiment using

the visual search task

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CONCEPT-CLIP

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THE FINAL HYPOTHESIS-
IT’S A WRAP!