Lecture
Reliance on the laws of inductive inference is realized both in experiments conducted for scientific purposes and in those conducted for practical purposes.
1. An experiment for practical purposes.
The main goal is not to explain the experimental effect but to transfer it directly into the sphere of practical activity, to change a real situation, and so on.
The solving of practical tasks. Example: establishing the effect of advertising on the sales of a new brand of beer. The acting variable is the advertising factor (constant, absence of advertising; variable, advertising). Three states equivalent on the extraneous variables were selected: population size, purchasing power, climate.
It is important to note here: experiments with practical goals are most often conducted under real (field) conditions.
2. An experiment for scientific purposes.
Here, hypotheses formed as consequences of theoretical propositions are tested. The intersection of the «world of theories» and the «experimental model». Here, the correspondence of the manipulated factors and the recorded indicators to particular theoretical constructs that substantively reveal the understanding of the process is substantiated.
The distinctive feature of an experiment for scientific purposes lies in the conditions under which it is conducted. In it, the principle of isolated conditions is often implemented, and therefore it is carried out in a laboratory, where the operationalization of single variables is possible.
Example: the experiment by Loftus and colleagues.
Experimental hypothesis: as a result of the action of imagination, an event may become subjectively real.
Two groups. Stage 1 – a questionnaire (did such a situation occur in childhood...); stage 2 (only for the experimental group): a request to imagine, in all its details, events that had actually taken place and events that had not; stage 3 – a repeat completion of the questionnaire.
In the experimental group, the change in ratings affected 34% of the genuine events and 25% of the fabricated ones. In the control group, shifts were also observed, but to a lesser degree.
Thus, in experiments with scientific goals, generalization comprises two stages:
from the results of the experiment – to an assessment of whether the proposed hypothesis can be accepted;
from the theoretical model – to generalizations extended to all people.
In experiments with practical goals, the path of generalization is:
from assessing the correspondence of the experimental conditions to real conditions – to extending the results beyond the experiment. These limits are constrained.
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