Physical Variables

Social Variables
Personality Variables
Context Variables
 Learning Objectives:

• Learn to control for aspects of the environment.

• Understand demand characteristics and
experimenter bias and how to control for their
effects.
• Learn how an experiment’s personality can
influence experiments.
• Understand how to control for special problems
created by the experimental context.
Experiments must be internally valid, which means that
only the IV should change systematically from one
condition to another.

There are extraneous variables that may threaten an

internal validity of experiment: physical, social,
personality and context variables.

In some instances, these may also threaten external

validity by reducing the generalizability of findings.
Physical Variables
 What are physical variables?

Physical variables are aspects of the testing

situation that need to be controlled:
 day of the week

 experimental room
 lighting
These may be addressed using control techniques
so that the chances of an internally valid experiment
can be attained. The techniques include: elimination,
constancy of conditions and balancing.
Physical Variables
 Explain elimination.

Elimination completely removes extraneous

physical variables from the experimental
situation (e.g., soundproofing a room).
Removal of extraneous physical variables
prevents them from operating differently across
different treatment conditions.

Physical Variables
 How does constancy of conditions work?

Constancy of conditions controls extraneous

physical variables by keeping all aspects of the
treatment conditions identical, except for the
independent variable.
For example, test all subjects in the same room
or at the same time of day.

Physical Variables
 How does balancing work?

Balancing controls extraneous physical

variables by equally distributing their effects
across treatment conditions.
For example, running half of the subjects
in each condition in the morning and half in
the evening.

Physical Variables
 In which order should you use these techniques?

Precautions when setting good experiments:

1. Eliminate extraneous variables whenever
possible.

2. Keep conditions constant where elimination

is not possible.

3. Balance the effects of extraneous variables

when constancy of conditions is not possible.
4. Be sure to assign individual subjects to
treatment conditions at random.
Physical Variables
 In which order should you use these techniques?

The more extraneous variables we control, the

more we increase internal validity, particularly
when we control variables that can change along
with the IV.

In a well-constructed experiment, the IV not the

extraneous variables, caused the effects – the
experiment is high in internal validity. By also
controlling the extraneous variables, we may be
reducing external validity.

Physical Variables
Social Variables
 What are social variables?

Social variables are aspects of the relationships

between subjects and experimenters that can
influence experimental results.
These include demand characteristics and
experimenter bias.
The variables may be controlled with the use of
single- and double-blind experiments.

Social Variables
 Explain demand characteristics.

Demand characteristics are cues within the

experimental situation that demand or elicit
specific participant responses.
Example: students cue professors to wrap up
their lectures by packing their binders, books,
and water bottles, and by looking at the door.

Social Variables
 How can demand characteristics threaten internal
validity?

Demand characteristics can confound an

experiment if they vary across experimental
conditions.
Subjects may act to confirm what they think
is the experimental hypothesis.

Social Variables
 How can demand characteristics threaten internal
validity?

Effects of Demand characteristics:

1.They may lead participants to form hypotheses— either
correct or incorrect—about the nature of the experiment.
2.Some participants may react in a compliant way to
“help” the experimenter’s efforts, whereas others may
react in a defiant way to “hinder” the experimenter’s
efforts.
3.Other participants may simply perform in a way they
think is expected of them.
Whatever the case, demand characteristics can affect
the quality of the experiment

Social Variables
 What is a single-blind experiment?

In a single-blind experiment, subjects are

not told their treatment condition.
For example, in a single-blind drug study,
the experimental and control groups might
receive capsules that look and taste identical.
When subjects are not told their treatment
condition, this eliminates cues that might
alter their behavior.

Social Variables
 What is the placebo effect?

The placebo effect is when a subject receives

an inert (lacking an anticipated chemical or
biological action) treatment and improves
because of positive expectancies.
Because subjects do not know what to expect,
changes in their behavior are more likely be
caused by the IV.

Social Variables
 How do cover stories control demand
characteristics?

A cover story is a false plausible explanation

of the experimental procedures to disguise the
research hypothesis from the subjects.
They should be used sparingly, since they are
a form of deception.

Social Variables
 What is experimenter bias?

Experimenter bias is any behavior by the

experimenter that can confound the experiment.
For example, an experimenter might provide
more attention to subjects in one condition than
another.

Social Variables
 What is the Rosenthal effect?

The Rosenthal effect is the phenomenon in

which experimenters treat subjects differently
based on their expectations and their resulting
actions influence subject performance.
This is also called the Pygmalion effect and
self-fulfilling prophecy.

Social Variables
 What is the Rosenthal effect?

For example, teachers might give more

attention and feedback to high aptitude
students than to low aptitude students.
The Rosenthal effect can confound an
experiment, producing results consistent
with the experimenter’s expectations.

Social Variables
What is the Rosenthal effect?

Social Variables
 Why is a double-blind design superior to a single-
blind design in controlling experimenter bias?

Single-blind experiments only control demand

characteristics, since subjects are blinded to
their condition.
Double-blind experiments control both demand
characteristics and experimenter bias, since both
the experimenter and subjects are blinded.

Social Variables
Personality Variables
 How might an experimenter's personality affect
experimental results?

Research on experimenter personality shows

that when experimenters are warm and friendly,
subjects learn more, talk more, earn better test
scores, and are eager to please.
Hostile or authoritarian experimenters obtain
inferior subject performance.

Personality Variables
 How can experimenters control personality
variables?

Employ multiple experimenters to run an equal

number of subjects in each of the experimental
conditions (balancing).
Treat “experimenter” as an independent variable
in statistical analysis. If an interaction is found,
then the experiment was confounded.

Personality Variables
 How can experimenters control personality
variables?

When there is a single experimenter, minimize

face-to-face contact and closely follow the script.

Videotape sessions to confirm consistent

performance.

Personality Variables
 How do volunteers differ from nonvolunteers?

Volunteers are more sociable, score higher

in social desirability, hold more liberal social
and political attitudes, are less authoritarian,
and score higher on intelligence tests than
nonvolunteers.
When these exist, the study have somewhat less
external validity. The differences would be
expected to limit the generalizability of some
kinds of experiments.

Personality Variables
 What are context variables?

Context variables are extraneous variables produced by

experimental procedures created by the research setting
environment, like assignment of participants to
conditions.
This include subject recruitment, selection and
assignment procedures, which may be controlled with
some forethought.
2 kinds of context variables: (1) those that occur when
subjects select their own experiments; (2) those
produced when experimenters select their own subjects.

Context Variables
 When might subjects select the experiment?

When we allow subjects to sign up for experiments

whose titles differ in their appeal:
“The Memory Test Experiment”
“The Heavy Metal Music Experiment”
However, this could result in a biased sample threatening
external validity, as it will reduce your ability to
generalize your results.
To avoid getting a biased sample, try to keep the names
as neutral as possible, without sounding boring.

Context Variables
 Why shouldn’t you run your friends in your
experiment?

If you do not select your subjects randomly, your sample

will be biased, resulting in less generalizabaility.
Selecting your friends might bias your sample,
threatening external validity.

Both you and your friends might act differently

in your experiment than strangers.
Control for this possible threat by constructing
procedures for acquiring subjects as carefully as you
plan your experimental procedures.

Context Variables
 Summarize the folklore about subjects.

Subjects who sign up late in the semester may

be less motivated and may behave differently
than those who sign up earlier in the semester.

Context Variables
 Case Analysis
“We are inadvertently steering girls away from computer technology. Video
games are children’s gateways to computers. And ultimately this has
ramifications for the kinds of careers people choose.” Dr. Sandra Calvert of
Georgetown University made this statement at a recent conference of the
American Psychological Association.

Carol was concerned about this and developed a computer game that she
believed would appeal to girls in their early teens. In addition to some
visual/spatial challenges that typify most computer games, Carol included
challenges that required verbal reasoning and strategic cooperation among the
characters to successfully complete challenges. She then designed a study to
verify that girls would be more interested in her game than would boys. She
began by posting a request for participants in the eighthgrade classrooms at
the local school. Boys and girls signed up for specific test dates and times.
Testing took place after school in the school’s media room. When each
participant arrived, Carol informed the student that she had developed a
computer game that she believed would be more appealing to girls than to boys
and that she was testing this research question.
 Case Analysis
Carol decided to measure the participants’ interest in the game in two ways.
First, she sat adjacent to each participant at the computer and rated, at five-
minute intervals, the perceived interest of the participant. Second, she asked
each participant, at the end of the session, to rate on a Likert scale their interest
in the computer game. The testing went well except that one-third of the boys
had to withdraw from the experiment early to attend football practice. Carol
summarized the data and was happy to note that both the experimenter ratings
and participant ratings showed that the girls were more interested in the
computer game than the boys.

Critical Thinking Questions

1.Describe at least six potential sources of extraneous variability in Carol’s
study.
2.For each source identified, describe a more effective methodology that would
reduce or eliminate that source of extraneous variability.
3.What other aspects of the study could be improved?
March 9, 2021 (Attendance)