Identify and List…
 Theory behind the study
 Aim of study
Identify and List…
 Identify the Independent and
Dependent Variables
 Independent Variable – something that is changed by
the scientist
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
What is tested
What is manipulated
 Dependent Variable – something that might be affected
by the change in the independent variable
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What is observed
What is measured
The data collected during the investigation
Identify and List…
 Confounding variables – undesirable variables that
influence the relationship between the independent
and dependent variables.
 Demand characteristics – people act differently because
they are in an experiment.
 Researcher bias – observer bias, the experimenter sees
what he or she is looking for.
 Participant variability – Characteristics of the sample
affect the dependent variable.
Identify and List…
 Operational definition of variables
 An operational definition describes exactly what the
variables are and how they are measured within the
context of your study.

For example, if you were doing a study on the impact of sleep
deprivation on driving performance, you would need to
operationally define what you mean by sleep deprivation and
driving performance.
Identify and List…
 Every study has two hypotheses; one stated as a
difference between groups and one stated as no
difference between groups.
 Research hypothesis

The hypothesis is directly related to a theory but contains
operationally defined variables and is in testable form.
Hypotheses allow us to determine, through research, if our
theory is correct.
 Null hypothesis

The null hypothesis is a competing hypothesis. It’s basically
the opposite of the research hypothesis.
Identify and List…
 Selection of sample population – how and why they used
the participants.
 Effects of participant and researcher expectations
 Researcher
 Unintentionally gives information about experiment that could
change the way participant acts.
 Face expressions of researcher can change response of participant
 Researcher voices cues that give person confidence, so they may do
better on the test.
- Participant
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
Expectation of how they should behave
Placebo effect
Identify and List…
 Findings – explain the results and what the researcher
found
 Use of statistics – explain how the researcher used the
statistics in the study, in results or part of experiment.
 Strengths and limitations of experiment –
 The strength of an experiment is its capacity to
demonstrate cause-and-effect relationships. In order to
confirm cause-and-effect, the researcher must construct
a situation where all other possible causes are
eliminated. The result may be an artificial situation that
is removed from the real world.
Identify and List…
 Validity
 Ecological - For a research study to possess ecological
validity, the methods, materials and setting of the study
must approximate the real-life situation that is under
investigation
 Cross-Cultural – research study applies to multiple
cultures, not just one.
Identify and List…
 Reliability
 Reliability is the consistency of the study’s
measurement, or the degree to which an instrument
measures the same way each time it is used under the
same condition with the same subjects. In short, it is the
repeatability of the measurement.
 Ethical Issues

For Participants - Safety, privacy, informed consent, how
adverse events handled.
Identify and List…
 Application to real life
 How this study could be used in real life, what impact
could it have
 Write a Conclusion – summary of the important
aspects of the study.