BIOL/PSYC 3305 Fall 2014 Introduction to

Scientific Research
Imagine that you are a "pseudoscientist." Clearly describe the steps you would take in researching YOUR
TOPIC and making and sharing your conclusions. In your answer, describe at least three ways that the
scientist's approach differs from the pseudoscientist's approach.
If I were a pseudoscientists that was conducting research on the effects of brain trauma and the development
of bipolar disorder, I would approach the preliminary steps prior to doing the actual research differently from
that of a scientist. I would do a general Google search and not do any further research on the sources I find to
see if they are in fact reputable, and when it would come time to share my results, if they did not come out as
I wanted them to, I would simply adjust them so to make them support my hypothesis.
Pseudoscientists would use newspaper clippings and non-peer-reviewed journals that he finds on the
Internet, where as a scientists would only used peer-reviewed sources. As a pseudoscientist, I would show
results of a study I may have performed, but the results may be false in order to better support my
hypothesis, while a scientist would not falsify results. A pseudoscientist would not have a repeatable
scientific experiment and results would be given as eyewitness testimonials.
You want to do an experiment comparing two groups to test the effectiveness of a new drug to treat ADHD
in elementary school children.
1. Identify the independent variable and explain how you would manipulate it.
a. The independent variable in this experiment would be the new drug that is being used to treat
ADHD. If I were to conduct this experiment, I would manipulate the independent variable by
giving one group of elementary school children the new drug, and the second group would not
be given any treatment for their ADHD, instead they would be given a placebo.
2. Identify the dependent variable. CLEARLY specify how it will be operationalized.
a. The dependent variable in this experiment would be the effectiveness of the new drug versus
the children that did not receive any treatment. In order to measure the effectiveness of the
drug, I will observe the students that were given the new drug improvements in inattention,
hyperactivity, impulsivity, and overall improvement in school work over a month and then
compare these results to the students that were not given the drug.

3. Describe how you would address possible demand characteristics and experimenter effects in
this experiment.
a. Demand characteristics and experimenter effects can both effect how the participant may
respond to a question based on subtle cues from the experimenter or from the setting of the
experiment. In order to prevent demand characteristics and experimenter effects from
affecting the results of the experiment, it will be important to prevent the participants from
knowing the purpose of the experiment. Since in this particular experiment all of the
participants would be children, they will most likely be unaware of the purpose of the study,
but in order to ensure that they do not know the purpose of the study, the parents must be kept
well informed on the purpose of the experiment and the drug that is being tested, but they will
not know if they are given their child the actual drug or the placebo pill. This will help
prevent parents from influencing their children to behaving better, which would affect the
results of the experiment.
4. Identify two additional possible extraneous variables and describe what you would do to
control them.
a. Since one the leading concerns for ADHD is how the disorder affects the childs performance
in school, it would be important to observe how the new drug affects the child while they are
at school. This could be considered an extraneous variable because since the children will not
be attending the same school or be in the same grade, the different teaching styles the
instructors use may not be as affective for some the students which would affect the results of
the experiment. If the student does not like the way the instructor introduces new material,
they are less likely to understand the new material, which means they will not do well when
tested on the material.
b. Another possible extraneous variable would be how involved the parent is in the childs
schoolwork. Children that have very involved parents that take interest in their schoolwork

and dedicate a few hours a day to studying with their children, will give the children higher
results when the final observations on the study are being done. If the child does not have
supportive parents, they will be less likely to show improvements in their schoolwork.
c. In order to control these extraneous variables, I would require all of the children in the study
to attend an after school study session everyday that the study is being conducted. The tutors
would all be trained to tutor the students using the same style. Each tutor would only be able
to help two to three children at a time to ensure that they are able to get the one-on-one help
they may need. These after school sessions will help ensure that all of the students are getting
the attention and extra help they need, and that the information is being presented in the same
way.