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The observer-expectancy effect [a] 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 ...
One of the most important requirements of experimental research designs is the necessity of eliminating the effects of spurious, intervening, and antecedent variables. In the most basic model, cause (X) leads to effect (Y). But there could be a third variable (Z) that influences (Y), and X might not be the true cause at all.
For example, if the fertilizer was spread by a tractor but no tractor was used on the unfertilized treatment, then the effect of the tractor needs to be controlled. A scientific control is an experiment or observation designed to minimize the effects of variables other than the independent variable (i.e. confounding variables ). [ 1 ]
Effect (of a factor): How changing the settings of a factor changes the response. The effect of a single factor is also called a main effect. A treatment effect may be assumed to be the same for each experimental unit, by the assumption of treatment-unit additivity; more generally, the treatment effect may be the average effect.
Observer-expectancy effect, a form of reactivity in which a researcher's cognitive bias causes them to unconsciously influence the participants of an experiment; Observer bias, a detection bias in research studies resulting for example from an observer's cognitive biases
A particular problem with observational studies involving human subjects is the great difficulty attaining fair comparisons between treatments (or exposures), because such studies are prone to selection bias, and groups receiving different treatments (exposures) may differ greatly according to their covariates (age, height, weight, medications ...
In scientific research and psychotherapy, the subject-expectancy effect, is a form of reactivity that occurs when a research subject expects a given result and therefore unconsciously affects the outcome, or reports the expected result.
A variable in an experiment which is held constant in order to assess the relationship between multiple variables [a], is a control variable. [2] [3] A control variable is an element that is not changed throughout an experiment because its unchanging state allows better understanding of the relationship between the other variables being tested.