In the
behavioural sciences (e.g.
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...
,
biology
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...
,
neurosciences), an experimental paradigm, is an
experiment
An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into Causality, cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome oc ...
al setup or way of conducting a certain type of experiment (a
protocol
Protocol may refer to:
Sociology and politics
* Protocol (politics), a formal agreement between nation states
* Protocol (diplomacy), the etiquette of diplomacy and affairs of state
* Etiquette, a code of personal behavior
Science and technolog ...
) that is defined by certain fine-tuned standards, and often has a theoretical background. A paradigm in this technical sense, however, is not a way of thinking as it is in the
epistemological meaning (
paradigm).
The more paradigms which are attempted, and the more variables within a single paradigm are attempted, with the same results, the more sure one is of the results, that, "the effect is a true one and not merely a product of artifacts engendered by the use of a particular paradigm." The three core factors of paradigm design may be considered: "(a) ...the 'nuts and bolts' of the paradigm itself...; (b) ...implementation concerns...; and (c) resources available."
[Tully, Laura M. and Boudewyn, Megan A. (2018).]
Creating a Novel Experimental Paradigm: A Practical Guide
, ''SAGE Research Methods'' .
For example, the
stop-signal paradigm, "is a popular experimental paradigm to study
response inhibition."
[Wixted, John T. and Wagenmakers, Eric-Jan; eds. (2018). ''Stevens' Handbook of Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Methodology'', p.419 & 330. John Wiley & Sons. .] The
cooperative pulling paradigm
The cooperative pulling paradigm is an experimental design in which two or more animals pull rewards toward themselves via an apparatus that they cannot successfully operate alone. Researchers (ethologists, comparative psychologists, and evolut ...
is used to study
cooperation. The
weather prediction test is a paradigm used to study
procedural learning.
Other examples include
Skinner box
An operant conditioning chamber (also known as a Skinner box) is a laboratory apparatus used to study animal behavior. The operant conditioning chamber was created by B. F. Skinner while he was a graduate student at Harvard University. The cha ...
es,
rat mazes, and
trajectory mapping.
See also
*
Glossary of experimental design
A glossary of terms used in experimental research. Concerned fields
* Statistics
* Experimental design
* Estimation theory
Glossary
* Alias: When the estimate of an effect also includes the influence of one or more other effects (usually hi ...
*
Randomized controlled trial
A randomized controlled trial (or randomized control trial; RCT) is a form of scientific experiment used to control factors not under direct experimental control. Examples of RCTs are clinical trials that compare the effects of drugs, surgical te ...
References
External links
*(2013)
Figure 1: Experimental paradigm example, ''Nature.com''.
*
Discovering Optimal Training Policies: A New Experimental Paradigm .PPT
Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation program, created by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin at a software company named Forethought, Inc. It was released on April 20, 1987, initially for Macintosh computers only. Microsoft acquired Power ...
, ''SlideServe.com''.
Design of experiments
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