Transcript Basic Research

Types of research: Basic vs. Applied
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Basic Research
Identify functional
relationships or
regularities
May not have
immediate relevance
Critical to the survival
of applied research
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Applied Research
Aimed to solve
problems, help clients
Based on basic
research
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Basic or Applied Research?
(ask, will the research help the participants
in the study or immediately be useful?)
Applied 
Applied 
Basic 
Basic 
Basic 
Applied?
Studying how we can train people to be better drivers
Studying how to effectively calm children before and
after surgery
Studying how cross-cultural language differences can
influence the perception of color
Studying the nature of sleep-wake cycles
Studying the influence of testosterone levels on the
accuracy of spatial memory
Studying how the placement of dials and levers on a
machine will best reduce worker fatigue and errors
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Types of research: Basic vs.
Applied
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Is applied research more valuable than
basic research?
• Some think that the research doesn’t seem
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very useful
Politicians often see it as a waste of money
But applied research rests on the foundations
provided by basic research
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Basic research example: Precursors to
the development of a chlorpromazine for
schizophrenia (Kety, 1974)
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Synthesis of phenothiazone by chemist interested in methylene blue
Study of anaphylaxis in guinea pigs
Identification of histamine
Role of histamine in anaphylaxis & search for antihistiminic drugs
Histamines as causal factor in surgical shock
Studies of peripheral sympathetics
Operant conditioning in animals
Search for antihistiminic-sympatholytic drug to mitigate surgical shock
Use of promethazine by french military surgeon Laborit 1950 to manage
surgical shock
“Virtually none of the precursor discoveries for this treatment of
schizophrenia would have been recognized as having anything to
do with schizophrenia!” (Stanovich, 2001)
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Psychological research with
nonhumans
What do results of psychological studies with pigeons and
rats have to do with human behavior?
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Many behavioral principles were first developed with
research with nonhumans, e.g., operant and classical
conditioning principles - see “The value of behavioral
research on animals (Miller, 1985, in coursepack)
"Humans may doubt the generalizability to their own lives about
the foraging [food finding] strategies of rats, but they would not
eat anything that causes a rat to drop dead." (Seechrest &
Walsh, 1997)
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The research process
1.
Develop an idea
a) Select a general area- Where do research questions
come from?
i.
Observations & serendipity
ii. From theory
iii. From prior research
iv. Creativity
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The research process
Where do research questions come from?
i.
Observations & serendipity
Observation = paying attention to the world around you
e.g., Observation - Newton conceived the concept of
universal gravitation when he observed an apple falling
and at the same time noticed the moon in the sky
e.g., Observation – current events = war in Iraq, global
warming, obesity
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The research process
Where do research questions come from?
i.
Observations & serendipity
Serendipity = chance or lucky accidents
e.g., Serendipity - Skinner & partial-reinforcement effect
e.g., Serendipity - Olds & Milner (1954) Reward center
Richard Feynman, Nobel Laureate in physics: "To develop
working ideas efficiently, I try to fail as fast as I can".
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Where do research questions come
from?
Where do research questions come from?
ii.
From theory = Examples
e.g., Piaget theorized that cognitive development
proceeds in four genetically determined stages
that always follow the same sequential order.
e.g., Watson argued that behavior could be
explained as reactions to environmental stimuli.
e.g., Theory of serotonin as a cause of depression
e.g., Delay reduction theory – stimuli that signal a
shortening to delays to reinforcers themselves
become reinforcers
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Theories
Term “theory” used to refer to:
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Set of logically consistent statements about a behavioral
phenomena
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Summarizes knowledge
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Organizes knowledge into statements among behaviors
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Explanatory system
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Basis for predictions
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Theories
What makes a good theory?
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Testable and can be falsified
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Parsimonious - Simple
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Generality – wide applicability
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Fruitfulness - productivity
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Agrees with data
You can never truly confirm a theory, only support it
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Falsification?
Blood toxins cause illness and
bloodletting will cure illness
In 1793 a severe epidemic of yellow fever (a deadly
illness) struck Philadelphia. Doctors treated it with a
popular treatment of the day - bloodletting (cutting the
patient and letting them bleed away the toxins). Some
who received the bloodletting survived to tell the tale,
and to convince the doctors that the treatment cured
them. Others died. Doctors rationalized away the
deaths by saying that those patients were too far gone.
If they had been treated sooner, the bloodletting would
have saved them. Doctors concluded that bloodletting
was an effective treatment of yellow fever. What is
wrong with the doctors' conclusion?
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Parsiomony: Example from astronomy
Ptolemy: Geocentric view
required many epicycles:
http://www.lasalle.edu/~smithsc/Astronomy/retrograd.html
Copernicus: Heliocentric, circular
orbits, required less epicycles
Kepler: Heliocentric, elliptical orbits
required no epicycles, planets don’t
move at constant rates around sun
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The research process
Where do research questions come
from?
iii.
From prior research
a.
b.
Continuing research lines – a related series of
studies
Replications & extensions
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Follow-up: Lines of research?
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In a study of aggression, some
preschool boys see cartoons with violent
themes, while others see interesting but
nonviolent cartoons. Later, when given a
chance to be aggressive, children in th
first group hit a punching bag more
frequently and with greater force than
children in the other group.
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Replication = repeating the study
Types of replications:
1.
Direct replication – “exact replication.” Purpose is
to determine reliability:
Reliability = how consistent or replicable are the research
findings?
2 kinds of direct replications:
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Within a study (same participants) – intrasubject
/ intragroup replication
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Across studies (different participants) –
intersubject / intergroup replication
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Types of replications cont.
2. Systematic replication (extension)– at least one aspect
of the study is different, e.g., different subject population,
setting, variations in the independent variable, etc.
• demonstrates that the finding can be observed
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under conditions different from those in the
original experiment.
In other words, its purpose is to establish the
generality of the functional relationship over a
range of situations.
Allows you to get additional, related data.
is necessary for scientific progress
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The research process
Where do research questions come from?
iv. Creativity – using your imagination to find
new ways to answer questions.
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Einstein –started his work on relativity by imagining
what things would look like if he traveled on a beam of
light. When asked what single event was most helpful in
developing the Theory of Relativity, Einstein replied:
"Figuring out how to think about the problem."
Skinner - Built many novel apparatuses to answer
questions about behavior – “Skinner Box”
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Much can be gained from group creativity or
brainstorming:
“Borrowing from one source is called plagiarism, but borrowing
from more than one source is called research”
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Creativity in Science
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Edward Land was taking pictures of his family while on a vacation trip
in the southwest. His young daughter asked "Why do we have to wait
to see the pictures?" and Land thought to himself "good question!",
sketched out some ideas and tried them after he returned to his lab in
Boston. The Polaroid Camera and the science of instant photography
appeared soon thereafter.
Philo Farnsworth had the inspiration which led to television while
sitting on a hillside in Idaho. The neat rows in a nearby farm gave him
the idea of creating picture on a cathode ray tube out of rows of light
and dark dots.
From: http://www.quantumbooks.com/Creativity.html#0
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After you develop an idea, you need to
conduct a literature review!
What keywords would you search for if you
were interested in a study investigating:
a. Do people take more risks if they drink alcohol?
b. How does stress affect athletic performance?
c. Is timeout an effective technique for child
misbehavior?
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The research process
2. Generate a hypothesis (Deductive
research) OR form a research question
(Inductive Research).
• Hypothesis - a statement describing the
relationship between two variables
• A good hypothesis must be testable and
refutable
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Inductive Research
Data
Data
Deductive Research
Develop Hypothesis
Data
Test hypothesis
Regularities/Laws
Hypothesis/theory
supported or
disconfirmed
Theory
Science usually uses both types of reasoning/logic
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The research process
3. Determine the independent and dependent
variables
 Independent- what is manipulated
 Dependent – what is measured
4. Determine how you will define and measure
variables – Requires operational
definitions
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Operational definitions
• Operational definition means defining terms in
ways that are precise, measureable, and concrete
• Behavior needs to be defined in terms of
observable events (two people could agree on
occurrence)
• In laboratory, behavior is often operationally
defined functionally by switch closures, e.g., button
presses, lever presses, mouse clicks
• Example, an operational definition of “correctly
read word” is a word that is pronounced correctly
according to standard usage 3s after presentation
of the printed world.”
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Exercises: Identify the IV and DV
and come up with an operational
definition for each research question
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Does memory improve with exercise?
Does frustration cause aggression?
Does anxiety interfere with logical
thinking?
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The research process
5. Determine the participants/subjects
6. Select a research strategy
a) Determine the type of research:
• Descriptive research – nothing
manipulated. Answers the question:
does a relationship exist?
• Experimental research – An IV is
manipulated. Answers the question: Is
there a functional relationship between
the IV and DV?
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Examples of experimental research:
• Effects of feedback on posture in the workplace
• Effects of pairing sugar/fat with flavors on flavor
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preference
Effects of peer modeling on social skill acquisition
in children
Effects of placebo or caffeine on response times
In each case, a variable is manipulated by the
researcher.
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Examples of descriptive research:
• Differences in timing between individuals with and
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without attention problems
Observing territorial behavior in birds
Differences in attitudes on sexual behavior across
generations.
An observation of behavior in a depressed
individual across time and after therapy
In each case, nothing is manipulated – the
researcher only records behavior.
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The research process
7. Ethical considerations/constraints
8. Select a research design
9. Conduct the study
10. Evaluate the data
11. Report the results
12. Refine your research idea - Good research
generates more questions that it answers
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Developing an idea for your
proposal:
 What are you passionate about? What interests you?
 What are your career goals? What are your graduate school
plans?
 What research programs of other faculty members has
interested you? You need to write an original proposal, but it
can be related to other research programs
 What about previous research? You may find a study from our
coursepack or from your own searching that could be replicated
and extended. You can look in previous literature for a specific
topic that interests you, or you can browse through journals and
books. You can do this online through Psycinfo or by going to
the Library.
2 Davis, Ph.D.
From: GETTING IDEAS FOR RESEARCH PROJECTSLect
, John
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Practice with coming up with an
experiment: Pseudoscience
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How might you test ESP?
How might you test astrology?
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