|
Observer-expectancy Effect
The observer-expectancy effect is a form of reactivity in which a researcher's cognitive bias causes them to subconsciously influence the participants of an experiment. Confirmation bias can lead to the experimenter interpreting results incorrectly because of the tendency to look for information that conforms to their hypothesis, and overlook information that argues against it. It is a significant threat to a study's internal validity, and is therefore typically controlled using a double-blind experimental design. It may include conscious or unconscious influences on subject behavior including creation of demand characteristics that influence subjects, and altered or selective recording of experimental results themselves. Overview The experimenter may introduce cognitive bias into a study in several in the observer-expectancy effect, the experimenter may subtly communicate their expectations for the outcome of the study to the participants, causing them to alter their be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reactivity (psychology)
Reactivity is a phenomenon that occurs when individuals alter their performance or behavior due to the awareness that they are being observed. The change may be positive or negative, and depends on the situation. It is a significant threat to a research study's external validity and is typically controlled for using blind experiment designs. There are several forms of reactivity. The Hawthorne effect occurs when research study participants know they are being studied and alter their performance because of the attention they receive from the experimenters. The John Henry effect, a specific form of Hawthorne effect, occurs when the participants in the control group alter their behavior out of awareness that they are in the control group, out of rivalry with the experimental group. Reactivity is not limited to changes in behaviour in relation to being merely observed; it can also refer to situations where individuals alter their behavior to conform to the expectations of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Human Position
Human positions refer to the different physical configurations that the human body can take. There are several synonyms that refer to human positioning, often used interchangeably, but having specific nuances of meaning. *''Position'' is a general term for a configuration of the human body. *''Posture'' means an intentionally or habitually assumed position. *''Pose'' implies an artistic, aesthetic, athletic, or spiritual intention of the position. *''Attitude'' refers to postures assumed for purpose of imitation, intentional or not, as well as in some standard collocations in reference to some distinguished types of posture: " Freud never assumed a fencer's attitude, yet almost all took him for a swordsman." *''Bearing'' refers to the manner of the posture, as well as of gestures and other aspects of the conduct taking place. Basic positions While not moving, a human is usually in one of the following basic positions: All-fours This is the static form of crawling which is a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naturalistic Observation
Naturalistic observation, sometimes referred to as fieldwork, is a research methodology in numerous fields of science including ethology, anthropology, linguistics, the social sciences, and psychology, in which data are collected as they occur in nature, without any manipulation by the observer. Examples range from watching an animal's eating patterns in the forest to observing the behavior of students in a school setting. During naturalistic observation, researchers take great care using unobtrusive methods to avoid interfering with the behavior they are observing. Naturalistic observation contrasts with analog observation in an artificial setting that is designed to be an analog of the natural situation, constrained so as to eliminate or control for effects of any variables other than those of interest. There is similarity to observational studies in which the independent variable of interest cannot be experimentally controlled for ethical or logistical reasons. Naturalistic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
N Ray
N-rays (or N rays) were a hypothesized form of radiation described by :French physicists, French physicist Prosper-René Blondlot in 1903. They were initially confirmed by others, but subsequently found to be illusory. Background The N-ray affair occurred shortly after a series of major breakthroughs in experimental physics. Victor Schumann discovered vacuum ultraviolet radiation in 1893, Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays in 1895, Henri Becquerel discovered nuclear radiation, radioactivity in 1896, and, in 1897, J. J. Thomson discovered electrons, showing that they were the constituents of cathode rays. This created an expectation within the scientific community that other forms of radiation might be discovered. At this time, Prosper-René Blondlot was a professor of physics at the Nancy-Université, University of Nancy studying electromagnetic radiation. Blondlot was a respected member of the scientific community: he was one of eight physicists who were corresponding ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hawthorne Effect
The Hawthorne effect is a type of human behavior reactivity in which individuals modify an aspect of their behavior in response to their awareness of being observed. The effect was discovered in the context of research conducted at the Hawthorne Western Electric plant; however, some scholars think the descriptions are fictitious. The original research involved workers who made electrical relays at the Hawthorne Works, a Western Electric plant in Cicero, Illinois. Between 1924 and 1927, the lighting study was conducted, wherein workers experienced a series of lighting changes that were said to increase productivity. This conclusion turned out to be false. In an Elton Mayo study that ran from 1927 to 1928, a series of changes in work structure were implemented (e.g. changes in rest periods) in a group of six women. However, this was a methodologically poor, uncontrolled study from which no firm conclusions could be drawn. Elton Mayo later conducted two additional experiments to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Funding Bias
Funding bias, also known as sponsorship bias, funding outcome bias, funding publication bias, and funding effect, is a tendency of a scientific study to support the interests of the study's financial sponsor. This phenomenon is recognized sufficiently that researchers undertake studies to examine bias in past published studies. Funding bias has been associated, in particular, with research into chemical toxicity, tobacco, and pharmaceutical drugs. It is an instance of experimenter's bias. Causes Human nature The psychology text '' Influence: Science and Practice'' describes the act of reciprocity as a trait in which a person feels obliged to return favors. This trait is embodied in all human cultures. Human nature may influence even the most ethical researchers to be affected by their sponsors, although they may genuinely deny it. Misconduct Scientific malpractice involving shoddy research or data manipulation does occur in rare instances. Often, however, the quality of manufa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epistemic Feedback
The term "epistemic feedback" is a form of feedback which refers to an interplay between what is being observed (or measured) and the result of the observation. ''Physics and philosophy: selected essays'', Henry Margenau, 1978, 404 pages, p.287, webpage: BG287 states, "involves an interplay between what is being measured and the result of the measurement". The concept can apply to a process to obtain information, where the process itself changes the information when being obtained. For example, instead of quietly asking customers for their opinions about food in a restaurant, making an announcement about food quality, as being tested in a survey, could cause cooks to focus on producing high-quality results. The concept can also apply to changing the method of observation, rather than affecting the data. For example, if after asking several customers about food, they noted the food as generally good or fair, then the questions might be changed to ask more specifically whi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Demand Characteristics
In social research, particularly in psychology, the term demand characteristic refers to an experimental artifact where participants form an interpretation of the experiment's purpose and subconsciously change their behavior to fit that interpretation. Typically, demand characteristics are considered an extraneous variable, exerting an effect on behavior other than that intended by the experimenter. Pioneering research was conducted on demand characteristics by Martin Orne. A possible cause for demand characteristics is participants' expectations that they will somehow be evaluated, leading them to figure out a way to 'beat' the experiment to attain good scores in the alleged evaluation. Rather than giving an honest answer, participants may change some or all of their answers to match the experimenter's requirements, that demand characteristics can change participant's behaviour to appear more socially or morally responsible. Demand characteristics cannot be eliminated from expe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cultural Bias
Cultural bias is the interpretation and judgment of phenomena by the standards of one's own culture. It is sometimes considered a problem central to social and human sciences, such as economics, psychology, anthropology, and sociology. Some practitioners of these fields have attempted to develop methods and theories to compensate for or eliminate cultural bias. Cultural bias occurs when people of a culture make assumptions about conventions, including conventions of language, notation, proof and evidence. They are then accused of mistaking these assumptions for laws of logic or nature. Numerous such biases exist, concerning cultural norms for color, mate selection, concepts of justice, linguistic and logical validity, the acceptability of evidence, and taboos. Psychology Cultural bias has no ''a priori'' definition. Instead, its presence is inferred from differential performance of socioracial (e.g., Blacks, Whites), ethnic (e.g., Latinos/Latinas, Anglos), or national groups ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Allegiance Bias
Allegiance bias (or allegiance effect) in behavioral sciences is a bias resulted from the investigator's or researcher's allegiance to a specific party or school of thought. Researchers and investigators have encountered various branches of psychology and schools of thought. It is common for them to gravitate towards a school or branch that aligns with their thinking paradigm. Allegiance bias occurs when therapists, researchers, and others start to believe that their school of thought or treatment approach is superior to others. Their strong belief in specific schools of thought can introduce bias into their research on effective treatment trials or investigative scenarios, resulting in allegiance bias. This bias may arise because they have focused on treatments that have shown success in their previous experiences. Consequently, this focus can lead to misinterpretations of research results. Their commitment to adhering to their established thinking paradigm could hinder their ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Cognitive Biases
Cognitive biases are systematic patterns of deviation from norm and/or rationality in judgment. They are often studied in psychology, sociology and behavioral economics. Although the reality of most of these biases is confirmed by reproducible research, there are often controversies about how to classify these biases or how to explain them. Several theoretical causes are known for some cognitive biases, which provides a classification of biases by their common generative mechanism (such as noisy information-processing). Gerd Gigerenzer has criticized the framing of cognitive biases as errors in judgment, and favors interpreting them as arising from rational deviations from logical thought. Explanations include information-processing rules (i.e., mental shortcuts), called ''heuristics'', that the brain uses to produce decisions or judgments. Biases have a variety of forms and appear as cognitive ("cold") bias, such as mental noise, or motivational ("hot") bias, such as when bel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Central Limit Theorem
In probability theory, the central limit theorem (CLT) states that, under appropriate conditions, the Probability distribution, distribution of a normalized version of the sample mean converges to a Normal distribution#Standard normal distribution, standard normal distribution. This holds even if the original variables themselves are not Normal distribution, normally distributed. There are several versions of the CLT, each applying in the context of different conditions. The theorem is a key concept in probability theory because it implies that probabilistic and statistical methods that work for normal distributions can be applicable to many problems involving other types of distributions. This theorem has seen many changes during the formal development of probability theory. Previous versions of the theorem date back to 1811, but in its modern form it was only precisely stated as late as 1920. In statistics, the CLT can be stated as: let X_1, X_2, \dots, X_n denote a Sampling ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
