Pilot studies and more

• Aims of piloting

  • A small-scale trial run of the actual study.
  • Involves a handful of participants, in order to ‘road-test’ the procedure and check the investigation runs smoothly.
• Single-blind procedure

  Any information that might create expectations isn’t revealed until the end of the study to control demand characteristics.
• Double-blind procedure


  Neither the participants or the researcher who conducts the study is aware of the aims of the investigation.
• Control groups and conditions

  • Control groups or conditions are used to set comparison.
  • If the change in behaviour of the experimental group is significantly greater than the control group, the researcher than conclude that the cause and effect was the IV.