61. The emergence and control of sequence effects

Lecture



There are influences associated with the position of each condition of the IV in the sequence in which they are presented.

The influence of one condition on those that follow it is called sequence effects.

Example: Jack-Mozart. The use of the part method of learning could have had a positive influence on the subsequent practice by the whole method, owing to increased practice or habituation to the experimental conditions.

It could also have had a negative effect: Jack might have become tired, or the habit of learning in short passages might have led to difficulties in switching to a different type of learning.

Control of the effects.

1. The scheme of regular alternation.

A1B1A2B2…AnBn (A and B are levels of the IV).

In each new trial there is a successive change of conditions. The number of trials is established in advance by the experimenter.

The sequence effect here may manifest itself in that some trial gains by contrast, which distorts the magnitude of the effect.

A symmetric sequence effect is such an influence of the previous condition on the following one that the effect of the action of this derivative EV does not change when the direction of the transitions between the levels of the experimental factor is changed – from A to B and from B to A.

(For example, the subject may always perform the second trial better)

Asymmetric – an effect in which the influence of the sequence of IV levels changes the direction or type of the effect (for example, the inequality of the conditions of adaptation to darkness and to light).

The scheme of positional balancing is usually used when there are few trials and the changes associated with the time factor are linear in character. It controls symmetric sequence effects well.

There exist sequence effects that are controlled by none of these schemes – non-homogeneous sequence effects.

There is also the centration effect (Ebbinghaus) and the edge effect.

Comments

To leave a comment

If you have any suggestion, idea, thanks or comment, feel free to write. We really value feedback and are glad to hear your opinion.
To reply

Lectures and tutorial on "Experimental psychology"

Terms: Experimental psychology