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1. Narrowing down the topic of interest. 2. Conducting an exhaustive literature review. 3. Deciding on a question. 4. Formulating a hypothesis. 5. Developing an experiment. 6. Analyzing data. 7. Interpreting results.
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Scientific Method 6
1 MA English Philology
Barbara Konat
Department of Epistemology and Cognitive Sciences
Faculty of Social Sciences
2013
Experiment
Observation
Representativeness
Sample
Generalizations
Intuition
Knowledge
Intersubjective
Verification
Replicability
Article reporting original research.
Review article.
Theoretical article.
I - introduction
M - method
R - results
and
D - discussion
Abstract
– What is the paper about?
– How did the researchers set up their study? i.e., who were the subjects, what was theexperiment?
– What did the experiment measure?
– What were the main results of the study?
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
Introduction
– What were the theoretical considerations underlying the research?
– Why was the particular topic chosen for study?– Does the chosen topic have implications beyond itself?– What are the authors hypotheses?– What questions do the researchers hope to answer with the
results of their study?(Note that this is a different question than what their
hypotheses were.)– How did the authors decide on their research strategy, i.e.
did they develop an experiment or chose to do a correlational study?
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
Method
– How were the hypotheses turned into testable questions?
– How were the variables manipulated, i.e. how was the experiment done?
– Were appropriate controls used?
– Were the measures used appropriate to the question being asked, i.e. is income an
acceptable measure of socio-economic status?
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
Results
What are the main results of the study?
– Can the results be used to answer the research question?
– Can the results be generalized beyond the context of the study?
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
Discussion
– What conclusions do the researchers draw from their results?
– What questions were left unanswered by the study?
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
Preparing your own research plan
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
1. Narrowing down the topic of interest.
2. Conducting an exhaustive literature review.
3. Deciding on a question.
4. Formulating a hypothesis.
5. Developing an experiment.
6. Analyzing data.
7. Interpreting results.
Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
Narrowing down the topic of interest
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
Conducting an exhaustive literature review
Classics + current methods
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
Developing a research question
What do you want to know?
The question must be:
– Precise
– Interesting
– Relevant – timely and important
– Novel
– Testable.
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
Types of research questions
1. Descriptive questions.
2. Causal questions.
3. Consequence questions.
4. Nondirectional relational.
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
Scientific methodology
„Scientific methodology encompasses standardized methods of testing whether an idea, translated into a hypothesis, has explanatory value over a phenomenon in a setting that allows falsifiability.” (Gonzales et al. 2006: 66)
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
OPERATIONALIZATION
Methods:
Discourse analysis, Corpus Study, Psycholinguistics experiment, Survey, Recordings, Gesture analysis, Longitudinalstudies, Response times, Brain imaging and many others…
Exercise
Work in pairs.
Prepare:
1. Research question.
2. Research hypotheses.
3. Research method.
4. Expected results.
Substantiate your choice
Part TwoThe practical steps
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
1. Narrowing down the topic of interest.
2. Conducting an exhaustive literature review.
3. Deciding on a question.
4. Formulating a hypothesis.
5. Developing an experiment.
6. Analyzing data.
7. Interpreting results.
Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
Variables
What is a variable?
OED on-line:
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
„A variable can best be qualified as a set of events that can take on different values. Typical ones include sex, age, scores on an exam, number of milliseconds required to respond to a stimulus etc. „
(Gonzales et al. 2006:67)
Variable classification
By their nature
• Behavioral
• Stimulus
• Subject
By their use
• Independent
• Dependent
• Extraneous
• Constant
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
Birthday party Wedding
Office meeting Funeral
Independent: Social setting (levels: Birthday party, Wedding, Office meeting, Funeral) Dependent: Amount of dancingExtraneous: Alcohol consumptionConstant: Number of subjects
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
Birthday party Wedding
Birthday party Wedding
Independent: Social setting +AlcoholDependent: Amount of dancing
Constants
• the same number of subjects in each social situation
• the same number of males and females
Constants are kept constant to preventunwanted variation.
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
Discrete or continous
• Discrete: the number of children in the family(1,5 child?)
• Continous (decomposable): the number of km you’ve ran this morning (1,7 km).
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
Qualitative or quantitative
• Qualitative:
– Female
– Left-handed
– Educated
• Quantitative (can occur in different amounts):
– Amount of money on your bank account
– Number of foot tappings in dance experiment
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
Operationalization
• Transform any concept you are interested in into observable phenomenon that can be measured (intersubjectivity!)
How do you measure the amount of dancing?
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
attempted rhythmic movement performed by a person not including swaying while sitting or leaning against a wall, or foot-tapping while sittingor standing
Experimental design
• Control group
• Random assignment
– Between subject design
– Within subject design
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
Birthday party +alc Birthday party
Alone +alc Alone
Setting + amount of alcohol-> Amount of dancing
Experimental design
Research hypothesesand experimental hypotheses
• Experimental hypotheses: predictions about the type of information that can be used to support research hypothesis
• Experimental hypotheses: hypotheses involving the experiments themselves.
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
If then
If then
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
Research hypotheses
Experimental hypotheses
Operationalization
The Data
• Observable
• Measurable
• Can help to support or negate the research hypothesis
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
The experimental and the null hypotheses
1) that the chosen task will produce the predicted effect
2) that it will not
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
Reliability and validity
Reliability:
• Test-retest
• Inter-observer.
Validity:
• Construct
• Ecological
• Internal
• External
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
Few last steps
• Data collection
• Obtaining results
• Results interpretation
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
Additional factors
• Language
• Culture
• Nationality
• Linguistic ability
(Gonzales et al. 2006)
Based on:
Gonzalez-Marquez, Monica, Raymond Becker, and James Cutting. „An introduction to experimental method for language researchers”. In: Methods in Cognitive Linguistics, Eds.: Monica Gonzalez-Marquez, Seana Coulson, Michael J. Spivey, Irene Mittelberg. John Benjamins Pub Co, 2007.
