Campus Event Calendar
Event Entry
What and Who
Experimental Design Part II: Qualitative and Physiological Tasks?
Prof. Dr. habil Douglas W. Cunningham
Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus
Talk
AG 1, AG 2, AG 3, AG 4, AG 5, SWS, RG1, MMCI
Public Audience
English
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Date, Time and Location
Thursday, 23 August 2012
14:00
60 Minutes
E1 4
019
Saarbrücken
Abstract
One of most difficult aspects of actually designing an experiment is to
decide precisely what the participants should do. Once the participants
are sitting in the experimental chamber staring at the stimuli, they
have to actually perform some task, but which one? The possibilities are
nearly endless. On the one hand, this variety is a very good thing,
since it means that there is almost certainly a task that is perfect for
any research question. It is also unfortunate, since it makes it very,
very difficult even for experienced experimenters to decide which task
is the best one for the current experiment.
In part II of this talk series, I will provide a brief overview of the
types of tasks that exist, and then examine the tasks that lie at the
two extreme ends of the Specific-General continuum. At general end of
the continuum are meta-tasks, where the participants are essentially
asked how they believe they would act in a given situation. Meta-tasks
can answer broad, vague questions but which are very difficult to
interpret uniquely. Meta tasks include continuum free description and
some forms of rating and forced-choice tasks. At specific end of the
continuum are tasks that easily support unique interpretations,
but focus on very specific questions (and thus provide very specific
answers). The most specific form of task are "physiological tasks",
which measure the body’s reactions such as heart rate, body temperature,
neural firings, etc. These are very useful since they can provide a very
direct, unbiased view of what elements of the stimulus the participants
really saw or how they really felt about a stimulus. Physiological tasks
are exceedingly difficult to use because most research questions involve
real-world behavior or subjective experiences, and making solid,
definitive connections between physiology and real-world behavior or
subjective experiences is an unfinished task, to say the least.
decide precisely what the participants should do. Once the participants
are sitting in the experimental chamber staring at the stimuli, they
have to actually perform some task, but which one? The possibilities are
nearly endless. On the one hand, this variety is a very good thing,
since it means that there is almost certainly a task that is perfect for
any research question. It is also unfortunate, since it makes it very,
very difficult even for experienced experimenters to decide which task
is the best one for the current experiment.
In part II of this talk series, I will provide a brief overview of the
types of tasks that exist, and then examine the tasks that lie at the
two extreme ends of the Specific-General continuum. At general end of
the continuum are meta-tasks, where the participants are essentially
asked how they believe they would act in a given situation. Meta-tasks
can answer broad, vague questions but which are very difficult to
interpret uniquely. Meta tasks include continuum free description and
some forms of rating and forced-choice tasks. At specific end of the
continuum are tasks that easily support unique interpretations,
but focus on very specific questions (and thus provide very specific
answers). The most specific form of task are "physiological tasks",
which measure the body’s reactions such as heart rate, body temperature,
neural firings, etc. These are very useful since they can provide a very
direct, unbiased view of what elements of the stimulus the participants
really saw or how they really felt about a stimulus. Physiological tasks
are exceedingly difficult to use because most research questions involve
real-world behavior or subjective experiences, and making solid,
definitive connections between physiology and real-world behavior or
subjective experiences is an unfinished task, to say the least.
Contact
Karol Myszkowski
+49.681.9325.4029
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Sabine Budde, 08/22/2012 09:52 -- Created document.