-when choosing words for a memory test, collect a list of 100 words from a database (randomly select)
-assign each word a number
-enter all numbers into a random number generator
-use the random number generator to select the required number of words
-match the selected numbers with the words
this will ensure the order of the words in the list is due to chance and not how the researcher decides to order them. This avoids the researcher having an influence (they might group certain words together that are similar which may affect the DV - memory recall)