Design Of A Psychological Experiment Essay, Research Paper
Design of a Psychological Experiment
Psyc 100 ( 0110-0129 ) Fall,
1996 Dr. Sternheim
Report # 1 ( 10 points )
Problem: Suppose you are a psychologist who is interested in the effects of
caffeine on the eye-hand coordination of pupils enrolled at UMCP. Design an
experiment to prove the hypothesis that caffeine enhances a pupil & # 8217 ; s ability to
hit a baseball. Describe your experiment by replying the undermentioned inquiries:
1 ) What are the independent and dependent variables? The independent variable
would be the caffeine. The consequences of the pupils & # 8217 ; striking of the baseball
would be the dependent variable.
2 ) What are the experimental conditions and what are the undertakings for the
experimenter, the participants in your experiment, and any other people you
might inquire to assist? The experimental conditions would be the same for all
participants, likely in an indoor bowl so the conditions won & # 8217 ; t affect the
pupils. The undertaking for the experimenter would be to do certain to hold a control
group, to hold a broad assortment and different types of participants, to do certain
all participants use the same equipment, and have controlled sums of caffeine.
The undertakings for the participants would be to carefully follow the instructions of
the experimenter, that is to hit the baseball.
3 ) Will you handle all the participants in the same manner? No, I would non handle
all the participants in the same manner. The control group would non be given
caffeine. However, I would handle all experimental groups the same because that
will give more accurate consequences. If the participants were non treated the same
I would non be able to accurately mensurate how much or how small the caffeine
affected the pupils.
4 ) How will you choose the participants of your survey so that they are
representative of the pupils enrolled at UMCP? I would randomly take
participants of different cultural groups, ages, weights, and sexes.
5 ) What factors must be controlled when utilizing the experimental method in this
mode? The factors that must be controlled in this experiment would be the
sum of caffeine consumed, the equipment used ( must hold same chiropteran and
baseball ) , and the environment in which they will execute their assigned undertaking.
The environment should be indoors so that conditions will non impact the consequences.
6 ) Suppose your experiment provided grounds that caffeine enhances eye-hand
coordination. Would it be sensible to anticipate, based on your consequences, that a
pilot would be better able to set down an aeroplane if given caffeine? No, since
set downing a plane and hitting a baseball are two really different accomplishments. Landing a
plane requires more skill and the side effects of caffeine which are non apparent
in the above experiment might demo up in a pilot. Caffeine may do some
people to go nervous and agitate and that would non assist a pilot land a plane.
The lone manner to happen out would be to setup and experiment about the effects of
caffeine on pilot landing planes.
