A series of observations, measurements, or facts that can be analysed
Variable
Has a possible range of values
Analysis
Gathering, modelling and transforming data with the goal of highlighting useful information, suggesting conclusions and supporting decision making.
Types
Nominal
Categorys
No relationships
Least powerful
Ordinal
Rank
Has a relationship (1st, 2nd etc.
Non mathematical relationship
Interval
No real 'ZERO'
eg. temperature
Has a mathematical relationship
Ratio
Has a tue 'ZERO'
Eg. distance, height.
Most powerful
Research Methods
Which method?
Depends on the question
Quantitative
Experiments
Surveys
RCTs
Numbers
Tells you what happened
Qualitative
Focus groups
Interviews
Case studies
Tells you why it happened
Validity
Internal
to do with study design
Is it ok?
Are we measuring the right thing
Eg measuring height for as a measure of intelligence is wrong.
External
Can it be applied outside?
Can the results be generalised?
Replicability
Can it be done again?
Reliability
If experiment done again will the same results be given?
Easier for lab based work
Objective
Unbiased
Variables
Must be operational
Be explicitly stated
Constructs
Defined by theoretical definitions
Variables
Quasi-independent
Characteristics that cant be randomly assigned
Eg sex, age
True experimental variables
Can control these in a true experiment
Can be randomly assigned
eg Give Drug A or Drug B
Independent variables
The ones we control
To bring about change in DV
Levels
At least TWO
eg. gender- male/female
AKA 'condition'
Dependent variables
The ones we measure
The ones that depend on the IV
Research design
Experimental design
True experiment design
Design where researchers can randomly assign participants to experimental condition.
Eg randomly assign normal participants to consume different amounts of alcohol
Randomised
Quasi experimental design
Design where researcher cant randomly assign participants to groups
eG Compare heavy vs light drinkers, as you are either in one group or the other
Randomisation
Reduces confounding variables
When groups to be compared differ in ways other than what the researcher has manipulated
As they are distributed equally among the groups
Prevents (un)intentional bias.
Ensures participant is equally likely to be assigned to either group
Enables use of powerful statistics.
Subjects design
Independent groups design
Comparing BETWEEN groups
Potential problems
Confounding factors
Solutions
Randomisation
Matched groups
Matched groups
Make sure subjects in both groups are matched as closely as possible on potential confounding factors
Repeated measures design
Testing WITHIN groups
Advantages
Fewer participant
Each participant is their own control
Removes some confounding factors
Disadvantages
Order effects
Cant return ppnt to original state
Practice effect
better performance due to practice
Fatigue effect
SOLUTION
Counterbalancing
Randomly assigning order to group
Therefore we can know whether the order has made any difference
Causation
How correct is our claim of A being the cause of B?
SOLUTION
Have a comparision group
Eg treatment vs placebo
Could do O-X-O
Eg. test, give alcohol, test.
Therefore we know if alcohol is the cause
Forms of validity
Face
Does it measure what it says it does?
Criterion
Concurrent
Comparison of new test with established test
Predictive
Does the test have predictive value?
Eg Does blood pressure value now predict heart attack in 5 years?
Does the measured results agree with other measures of same thing?
Construct
How well does the design tap into the underlying construct
Ecological
Does study reflect naturally occuring behaviour?
Eg does mouse in box reflect its behaviour in wild?
Population
Is our sample adequate for the claims we make about the population?
What population are we interested in?
Sampling
A sample is a selection or subset of individuals from the population
Why sample?
Time
Money
Sufficiency
Maybe we dont need that much data as we feel that the sample gives an accurate data
Access
How
Random sample
No pattern
Systematic
Drawn from the population at fixed intervals
Stratified
Specified groups appear in numbers proportional to their size in population
Opportunity/Convenience
People who are easily available
Leads to bia
Snowball
Get current participants to recruit more for the research
Useful if you want to recruit very specific population
eg drug users might know other drug users
Descriptive stats
To describe a distribution we need to select the appropriate central tendency and distribution
Central tendency
Mean
Average
Less useful if there is a big outlier
Best for continuous, symmetrical data
Median
Rank then find the middle value
Best for ordinal data or interval/ratio data that is highly skewed
Mode
Most common
Misleading if frequency is only just more than other values
Best for nominal data
For skewed data
Positively skewed data, the mean has a higher value than the median, and the median has a higher value than the mode.
Negatively skewed data, the mean has a lower value than the median, and the median has a lower value than the mode.
Spread of data
Range
Max - Min
Variance/Standard deviation
Measure of mean deviation from mean
SD
The variability across individuals expected by chance
Interquartile range
3rd quartile(75th qrtle)-1st quartile(25th qrtle)
Useful when median is used as measure
Value
Large
= data squashed
Small
= data spread out
More stable than range as extreme values arent included
Cumulative frequencies
Each score and the number that attained that score and below
eg if scores are 1-5, the we can say 7 people got 4 or less
Percentiles
Scores split into percentile
A method of expressing a persons score relative to those of others
Therefore if ur score is in 90th percentile you have done better than 90% of people
50th percentile=median
Shapes of distribution
Normal
Ideal
Symmetrical
Mean/mode/median
same
Skewed
Topic
Kurtosis
Steepness/flatness
Steep
Leptokurtic
Flat
Platykurtic
+ve value= steep
-ve value = flat
0=middling
Z-score
Converts a raw score into a number that shows how many standard deviations away it lies from the mean
Allows us to see how different an individual is from the group.
To calc. we need true mean+SD
If unavailable, we have to use parametric tests.
Hypothesis testing+singnificance
Probability
The number of times the even of interest could happen divided by the total number of possible events
If mutually exclusive
Addition rule
Sums up to 1
P values
Probability that you have rejected the null hypothesis when it was true.
P<0.05
Significant result
Reject null hypothesis
Types of error
Type 1
Incorrectly rejecting null hypothesis
Type 2
Incorrectly accepting the null hypothesis
Types of hypothesis
One tailed
Difference in one direction
eg eating sprouts increases your IQ
Critical value
Z=1.65
If significant p-value is 0.05
As getting a score outside this has a 5%chance
Two tailed
Difference can be in either direction
Eating sprouts alters IQ
Critical value
+/- 1.96
If significant p-value is 0.05
As getting a score outside this has a 5%chance
Inferential stats
Parametric tests
Assumptions
1. Data normally distributed
2.Variance between groups is the same
Therefore can only use data that conform with above
T-test
When SD+mean unknown
Take a few measurements and estimate mean+variability
#of measurements important
Degrees of freedom
#of measurements- #of parameters
Higher the #, the more reliable the estimate.
Closer the t-dist to the z-dist.
Also decreases the critical value, as the fewer the measurements you take the larger the t-value has to be to reach significance
Independent measures
How to calculate
Difference of means/difference expected by chance
(Mean1-Mean2)/(SD of the means)
Repeated measures
Mean change/(change expected by chance)
= mean difference/(standard error of difference)
Shows us how different the means of the TWO groups are
Standard error
A measure of how close the sample mean is to the true mean
Depends on SD of original distribution
# of samples(n)
The more samples you take the lower the standard error.
ANOVA
When more than two groups need to be compared
Analysis of variance OF MEANS
Between subjects design results in a variance between groups that is as a result of individual differences this means that the difference due to the factor being investigated has to be very large for the test to detect it.
Therefore it is better to use WITHIN subjects design as this reduces the individual variability and therefore any difference due to the factor will be detected by the test.
Therefore making the test more powerful
F=Variability due to factor/(variability due to error)
(mean btwn groups)2(sq)/mean within groups(2)(sq)
Significance of F-value depends on two type of degrees of freedom
1.k-1 where k is #of groups
2.N-k where N is overall # of measurements.
Non-parametric tests
Sign test
Weak
REPEATED MEASURES ONLY
2 conditions
At least 6 pairs
Only shows direction not size of difference
Only for DICHOTOMOUS DATA
Method
Disregard scores that stay same
Count scores that go up or down
The lower value is the calculated stat
If this is smaller than the critical value then it is significant
Wilcoxon test
REPEATED EMASURES
Method
Rank data from smallest to largest
Discard scores that remain the same
Take away the smallest score from the largest for each person
Rank the differences
Add up the ranks for ppl who did best in condition A and Condition B separately
The smaller value is 'T' the calculated stat
Must be equal or LOWER than the critical value for conditions to be significantly different
Takes into account the SIZE and the DIRECTION of the difference
Therefore gives more info than sign test
Mann-Whitney U test
aka MAN-U
For INDEPENDENT GROUPS
Method
Rank data as if it was one group
Add up ranks for smallest group of both if groups are same.
Take the smallest value (R)
N1=#of cases in smallest group
N2=#of cases in largest group
U1&U2 are calculated
Which ever is smallest is calculated stat
U should be EQUAL OR LOWER than critical value for significance
Kruskall Wallis test
For INDEPENDENT GROUPS
Ranking test
Ranks within each group
Take difference between mean rank of each group and total mean rank
Square it & sum them up
And that is used to calculate the statistic
The larger the number the more likely that the conditions are significantly different
Can tell you at least 2 groups are significantly different
NOT WHICH TWO
for that we need to draw it out
Friedmans test
For REPEATED MEASURES
Method
Rank within each individual's score
Total up the ranks for each condition
The computer measures the dispersion of the rank sums
Looks at how different the total ranks are from eachother
The Stat (S) has to be LARGER than the critical value to be significant