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Principles of Research and Application of Research Methods

Experimental Design: matched pairs

  • 3 things to know
  • AS Unit 2

Overview

Recall questions on matched pairs design.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Study

Give two weaknesses of a matched pairs design.

Study

Which design would best compare a new therapy with a control condition while allowing for how ill participants already are?

Key term

Which participants make the ideal matched pair, and why?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What is a matched pairs design?

    Model answer

    A design in which different participants take part in each condition, but they are first paired up on characteristics relevant to the study and one of each pair is allocated to each condition.

  2. 2

    On what basis should pairs be matched?

    Model answer

    On the participant variables most likely to affect the dependent variable in that particular study, such as age, sex or a pre-test score.

  3. 3

    Give the main strength of a matched pairs design.

    Model answer

    It controls participant variables in much the way repeated measures does, but without introducing order effects since each person completes only one condition.

  4. 4

    Give two weaknesses of a matched pairs design.

    Model answer

    Matching takes time and usually requires a pre-test yet can never be perfect, and if one member of a pair withdraws the partner's data is lost as well.

  5. 5

    Which participants make the ideal matched pair, and why?

    Model answer

    Identical twins, because they share their genetic make-up and usually much of their upbringing.

  6. 6

    Twenty participants are each tested on recall in silence and again in noise. Name the design and state its chief risk.

    Model answer

    This is a repeated measures design, and its chief risk is order effects, since practice on the first test could improve the score on the second whichever condition comes first.

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