extraneous variables

• What are extraneous variables?

  Factors that can affect validity and reliability
• What does it mean for a study to be valid?

  It studies what it claims to study
• What does it mean for a study to be reliable?

  It has consistent results
• What are participant variables?

  Personal characteristics affecting participant reactions
• What are investigator effects?

  Researcher characteristics influencing participant behavior
• How can a researcher's expectations affect an experiment?

  They may influence participant behavior
• What are situational variables?

  External factors affecting participant behavior
• What are demand characteristics?

  Clues that influence participant behavior
• How can investigator effects act as demand characteristics?

  Researcher actions may lead to behavior changes
• How do uncontrolled extraneous variables affect validity?

  They decrease the validity of the study
• How do uncontrolled extraneous variables affect reliability?

  They decrease the reliability of the study
• What is standardization in research?

  Making conditions the same for all participants
• Why can't participant variables be standardized?

  They are personal characteristics unique to individuals
• What is matching in controlling participant variables?

  Ensuring equal characteristics across groups
• What is random allocation in controlling participant variables?

  Assigning participants randomly to groups
• How does random allocation help in research?

  It ensures equal chance of group assignment
• How can demand characteristics be controlled?

  By ensuring participants don't know their group
• What is single blinding?

  Participants are unaware of their group assignment
• What is double blinding?

  Both participants and researchers are unaware
• What does single blinding control for?

  It controls for demand characteristics
• What does double blinding control for?

  It controls for both demand and investigator effects