Pilot Studies

• Pilot studies are small-scale trials that are run to test some or all aspects of the proposed investigation
• They are conducted before the research to identify any issues which could arise and cause problems further down the line e.g.

  • Flaws in the design of the procedure
  • Ethical issues
  • Feasibility issues
  • Reliablity and Validity
• If problems are exposed by the pilot study the researcher then as the opportunity to fix them or to find suitable alternatives
• There are also financial reasons for a pilot study. The findings of a pilot study can be used as evidence to obtain funding for the research
• Pilot studies can assess whether it is worth the time, money and efforrt to run the proposed investigation i.e. is it likely to find significant results