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43. The specifics of the laboratory experiment in experimental psychology

Lecture



The specifics of the laboratory experiment in experimental psychology

A laboratory experiment is a research method in which the study of mental processes and behavior is carried out under specially created and controlled conditions. It is one of the principal methods of experimental psychology.

Main features of the laboratory experiment

  1. A high level of control over conditions
    • The researcher independently sets the conditions under which the experiment is conducted.
    • Extraneous factors are eliminated or controlled as far as possible.
    • This makes it possible to establish cause-and-effect relationships between variables more precisely.
  2. The artificiality of the situation
    • The experiment is conducted in a specially organized setting (a laboratory).
    • Participants may perform tasks that are rarely encountered in ordinary life.
    • This increases the precision of measurements but sometimes reduces the naturalness of behavior.
  3. The possibility of manipulating the independent variable
    • The researcher changes a particular factor (the independent variable) and observes its effect on the dependent variable.
    • For example, the effect of the noise level on the speed of memorizing information is studied.
  4. Precision of measurements
    • Special instruments, tests, and computer programs are used.
    • Reaction time, number of errors, physiological indicators, and other parameters can be recorded.
  5. Reproducibility of results
    • Owing to the standardized conditions, the experiment can be reproduced many times.
    • This makes it possible to verify the reliability and validity of the data obtained.

Advantages

  • High precision and objectivity of the study.
  • The possibility of identifying cause-and-effect relationships.
  • Control over the influence of extraneous factors.
  • The possibility of quantitative analysis of the results.

Disadvantages

  • The artificiality of the conditions may affect the behavior of the subjects.
  • The results do not always fully reflect a person's behavior in real life.
  • Experimenter expectancy effects and the subject's reaction to the very fact of participating in the study are possible.

Example

A researcher invites a group of students into a laboratory and asks them to memorize a list of words under different levels of room lighting. Lighting serves as the independent variable, and the number of correctly reproduced words as the dependent variable. Control over conditions makes it possible to determine whether lighting affects the effectiveness of memorization.

Laboratory experiments, like artificial ones, are conducted under specially created conditions. They presuppose purifying the conditions of the experiment so that single independent variables can be varied. Example: a dichotic listening experiment on the distribution of attention. Its real-life analogue is the «cocktail party», but this involves binaural hearing rather than a separate channel of information reaching each ear. The artificiality here is justified by the aim, which consists in testing a scientifically grounded model; that is, generalization here is meant to be transferred to the world of theory.

The difference between artificial and laboratory experiments lies in what the experimental model represents: a real situation or a theoretical model. This difference can be traced in the forms in which artificial and laboratory experiments are conducted: in the former case, games and simulators, where the purification of conditions must not affect the quality of the process under study.

Conclusion: the laboratory experiment in experimental psychology is distinguished by a high degree of control, precision of measurements, and the possibility of establishing cause-and-effect relationships; however, its results may be limited by the artificiality of the experimental situation.

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1. The concept of the experiment as an active method of research. Experimentation in the broad and narrow sense of the word.
2. The psychological experiment and the natural-science experiment.
3. Norms in the structure of the experimental method.
4. Criteria of the objectivity of methods of psychological research.
5. Types of psychological hypotheses and the methods of research corresponding to them.
6. The three basic conditions for drawing a conclusion about a causal relationship. Requirements for the formulation of cause-and-effect hypotheses.
7. Levels of hypotheses tested in a psychological experiment; transitions between them.
8. Experimental control (as a condition for planning and conducting a psychological experiment); its types and means.
9. Types of confounding and forms of their control in a psychological experiment.
10. The conception of the experimental fact as the result of a decision.
11. The experimental method and the observation method in psychology.
12. Inductive laws. The place of induction in the experimental and qualitative methods in psychology.
13. The specificity of different types of psychological experiment.
14. Approaches to understanding the term "experimental planning". Substantive and formal planning.
15. Artefactual conclusions in psychological research.
16. Competing theories and the so-called third competing hypothesis.
17. Deductive inference by the modus tollens syllogism and the asymmetry of conclusions.
18. The thought experiment and mental models of experiments.
19. Classifications of experimental designs. Planning as the selection of designs.
20. Meta-analytic research in psychology.
21. Intra-individual schemes and their application (aims, sources of threats to validity, etc.).
22. The causal type of explanation and generalization. Reductionism in psychological explanations.
23. Requirements that must be met in order to draw reliable/valid conclusions.
24. Systematic confoundings as threats to internal validity
25. Sources and control of the unreliability of data. The relationship between reliability and validity.
26. Schemes of correlational research.
27. The relationship between external and internal validity in intra-individual and between-group schemes.
28. Between-group schemes. The main strategies for selecting and matching participants into groups.
29. Schemes for controlling accompanying confoundings.
30. Additional variables and additional variation in psychological research.
31. Quantitative experiments and quantitative laws in psychology.
32. The observation method in experimental psychology.
33. Types of empirical data in psychological research.
34. The specifics of experiments conducted for scientific and for practical purposes.
35. The «experimenter effect» and the problem of the identity of experimental conditions; Johnson's experiment.
36. The main quasi-experimental designs.
37. Complete and incomplete experimental designs.
38. Planning as a means of increasing the validity of an experiment.
39. The world of theories and psychological reality. The methodological approaches of Popper and Holzkamp.
40. Control of group composition in between-group designs. The problem of the representativeness of the subject and the sample.
41. Operationalization of variables, operational and construct validity
42. Artificial and field experiments in psychology
43. The specifics of the laboratory experiment in experimental psychology
44. Testing statistical hypotheses and its connection with the testing of experimental hypotheses.
45. Control over inference and types of generalization in psychological research.
46. Types of validity as applied to psychological research.
47. The demonstration experiment (study) and the conception of psychological law in Lewin's school
48. Cross-cultural research in psychology
49. The modeling approach in psychology
50. Factorial experiments and conceptions of the interaction of variables in experimental psychology
51. True and pre-experimental designs (according to Campbell) of research in experimental psychology
52. Types of variables and their confounds in a psychological experiment.
53. Types of representativeness; the connection between the notions of representativeness and validity.
54. Classifications of empirical methods in psychology
55. Analytical and graphical representation of the main result of action (MRA) of variables and their interactions
56. Variables and designs in correlational research.
57. Quantitative and qualitative data in the experiment and in other research methods.
58. Statistical decisions and formal planning of an experiment
59. The method of «double stimulation» in the transition to non-classical psychology
60. Special effects clarified by factorial designs. Factorial designs in the representation of non-experimental data.
61. The emergence and control of sequence effects
62. The problem of psychological explanation. The deductive-nomological model.
63. The multilevel experiment and cross-individual designs.
64. The longitudinal method in psychology; the cohort
65. The concept of method and technique in psychological research.
66. Functional control as a condition for planning and conducting a psychological experiment.
67. The relationship between the correlational and quasi-experimental approaches in psychology.
68. Qualitative research in psychology
69. Correlational data and structural modeling in experimental psychology
70. Population hypotheses and sample surveys
Psychological measurement, its types, the measurement scale for a psychological experiment
Experimental psychology and educational practice