Sources of Biases [Poster]

Abstract

Two types of potential confounds, demand characteristics and order effects, are being examined to determine which is more detrimental to the integrity of a study. 120 undergraduate psychology students will be randomly assigned to three groups: a control, one measuring demand characteristics, and one measuring order effects. Caffeine-free Coke, a survey about opinions on basic math ability, and a brief math quiz will be given to all groups. The group measuring order effects will receive the survey after the quiz to determine if their answers to the survey will be significantly different because they had already taken the math quiz. The demand characteristics group will be led to believe that they have received caffeinated Coke and that the researchers believe those with caffeine will perform better on the quiz. The control group’s results will be analyzed and compared to the other groups to determine which source of confound was more detrimental. With the information from this study, researchers can put more controls on the biases that are more detrimental. This study will also expand the research on both of these sources of bias, particularly order effects, because there is a limited amount of research on them to date. [Poster]