Pilot studies

• Pilot study

  A small scale trial run of the actual investigation which may involve a handful of ppts rather than the total number so that the procedure is 'road tested' and checks that the investigation runs smoothly
• Help of pilot studies

  Help researcher to identify any potential issues and to modify the design/procedure which may help to save time/money in the long run
• Questionnaires and interviews

  Pilot studies are not restricted to experiment studies. E.g: self report methods and thus, Qs can be reworded, changed or deleted
• Observational studies

  Pilot studies provide a way of checking coding systems
• Single-blind procedures

  Ppts not told aims of experiment and do not know if they're in the control condition or experimental condition. This is an attempt to control for confounding effects of demand char
• Double-blind procedures


  Neither ppts nor researcher conducting study know the aims of the experiment- often a third party conducts experiment. Often used in drug trials with real drugs and placebos
• Control groups and conditions

  Control condition is used to settle a baseline and used for the purpose of comparison and helps researcher identify the cause and effect between IV and DV