The Experimental Method Discovering the Causes of Behavior

The Experimental Method: Discovering the Causes of Behavior Key Concepts Experiment: A controlled situation in which the researcher manipulates one variable to discover its effect on another variable, while holding all other conditions constant.

The Experimental Method: Discovering the Causes of Behavior Key Concepts Independent Variable: The variable that the researcher “manipulates”. “Manipulates” basically means that we assign different levels of the variable to different groups. For example: Suppose the independent variable is the amount of time students have to take a test. We can give one class 40 minutes and another 60 minutes. These are the levels of the time variable.

The Experimental Method: Discovering the Causes of Behavior Key Concepts Dependent Variable: This is an aspect of the participant’s behavior that the researcher records to see if it will be influenced by the independent variable. For example: In the test-taking situation, we could record how many questions each student got right. Number of correct answers would be the dependent variable. In everyday terms: Independent Variable = “Cause” Dependent Variable = “Effect”

The Experimental Method: Discovering the Causes of Behavior Key Concepts So if the students who get 60 minutes to take the test do better than those who get 40 minutes, we can say it was the time factor that caused this difference in performance, assuming… there were no other differences between the classes. Everything else must be “HELD CONSTANT”.

The Experimental Method: Discovering the Causes of Behavior Additional Terms Experimental Group: This is a group that is exposed to the independent variable. Control Group: This is a group that is not exposed to the independent variable. Control Levels: 0 Experimental 1 Experimental 2 1 2

The Experimental Method: Discovering the Causes of Behavior Experiment on Advertising Independent Variable: Number of Models in Picture Control Levels: 0 Experimental 2 1 2