4,817 research outputs found
Methods in Psychological Research
Psychologists collect empirical data with various methods for different reasons. These diverse methods have their strengths as well as weaknesses. Nonetheless, it is possible to rank them in terms of different critieria. For example, the experimental method is used to obtain the least ambiguous conclusion. Hence, it is the best suited to corroborate conceptual, explanatory hypotheses. The interview method, on the other hand, gives the research participants a kind of emphatic experience that may be important to them. It is for the reason the best method to use in a clinical setting. All non-experimental methods owe their origin to the interview method. Quasi-experiments are suited for answering practical questions when ecological validity is importa
Experimentation in Psychology--Rationale, Concepts and Issues
An experiment is made up of two or more data-collection conditons that are identical in all aspects, but one. It owes its design to an inductive principle and its hypothesis to deductive logic. It is the most suited for corroborating explanatory theries , ascertaining functional relationship, or assessing the substantive effectiveness of a manipulation. Also discussed are (a) the three meanings of 'control,' (b) the issue of ecological validity, (c) the distinction between theory-corroboration and agricultural-model experiments, and (d) the distinction among the hypotheses at four levels of abstraction that are implicit in an experiment
Some meta-theoretical issues relating to statistical inference
This paper is a reply to some comments made by Green (2002) on Chow’s (2002) critique of Wilkinson and Task Force's (1999) report on statistical inference. Issues raised are (a) the inappropriateness of accepting methodological prescription on authority, (ii) the vacuity of non-falsifiable theories, (iii) the need to distinguish between experiment and metaexperiment, and (iv) the probability foundation of the nullhypothesis significancetest procedure (NHSTP). This reply is intended to foster a better understanding of research methods in general, and of the role of NHSTP in empirical research in particular
Auotmatic detection, consistent mapping, and training
Results from two experiments showed that a flat displaysize function was found under the consistent mapping (CM) condition despite the facts that there was no extensive CM training and that the stimulusresponse (SR) consistency was only an intrasession manipulation. A confounding factor might be responsible for the fact that the consistent and the varied SR mapping conditions gave rise to different displaysize functions in Schneider and Shiffrin's (1977) study. Their claim that automatic detection and controlled search are qualitatively different is also discussed
Issues in Statistical Inference
The APA Task Force’s treatment of research methods is critically examined. The present defense of the experiment rests on showing that (a) the control group cannot be replaced by the contrast group, (b) experimental psychologists have valid reasons to use non-randomly selected subjects, (c) there is no evidential support for the experimenter expectancy effect, (d) the Task Force had misrepresented the role of inductive and deductive logic, and (e) the validity of experimental data does not require appealing to the effect size or statistical power
Cognitive Science and Psychology
The protocol algorithm abstracted from a human cognizer's own narrative in the course of doing a cognitive task is an explanation of the corresponding mental activity in Pylyshyn's (1984) virtual machine model of mind. Strong equivalence between an analytic algorithm and the protocol algorithm is an index of validity of the explanatory model. Cognitive psychologists may not find the index strong equivalence useful as a means to ensure that a theory is not circular because (a) research data are also used as foundation data, (b) there is no justification for the relationship between a tobevalidated theory and its criterion of validity, and (c) foundation data, validation criterion and tobevalidated theory are not independent in cognitive science. There is also the difficulty with not knowing what psychological primitives are
Iconic memory of icon?
The objectives of the present commentary are to show that (1) one important theoretical property of iconic memory is inconsistent with a retinotopic icon, (2) data difficult for the notion of an icon do not necessarily challenge the notion of an iconic store, (3) the iconic store, as a theoretical mechanism, is an ecologically valid one, and (4) the rationale of experimentation is such that the experimental task need not mimic the phenomenon being studied
Application of Subset Simulation to Seismic Risk Analysis
This paper presents the application of a new reliability method called Subset Simulation to seismic risk analysis of a structure, where the exceedance of some performance quantity, such as the peak
interstory drift, above a specified threshold level is considered for the case of uncertain seismic excitation. This involves analyzing the well-known but difficult first-passage failure problem. Failure analysis
is also carried out using results from Subset Simulation which yields information about the probable
scenarios that may occur in case of failure. The results show that for given magnitude and epicentral distance (which are related to the ‘intensity’ of shaking), the probable mode of failure is due to a
‘resonance effect.’ On the other hand, when the magnitude and epicentral distance are considered to be
uncertain, the probable failure mode correspondsto the occurrence of ‘large-magnitude, small epicentral
distance’ earthquakes
One Dimensional ary Density Classification Using Two Cellular Automaton Rules
Suppose each site on a one-dimensional chain with periodic boundary condition
may take on any one of the states , can you find out the most
frequently occurring state using cellular automaton? Here, we prove that while
the above density classification task cannot be resolved by a single cellular
automaton, this task can be performed efficiently by applying two cellular
automaton rules in succession.Comment: Revtex, 4 pages, uses amsfont
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