When carrying out experimental research, one of the most important factors that psychologists have to consider is what variables need to be controlled and how that control is to be achieved.

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-When carrying out experimental research, one of the most important factors that psychologists have to consider is what variables need to be controlled and how that control is to be achieved.

The study that I have chosen is Loftus and Palmer. Their experiment was on eyewitness testimony, and how reliable our memories really are. Controls used within this experiment were to prevent extraneous variables, as like in most experimental research. Some of the controls that were accounted for were that the participants all viewed the same video, this was to ensure that all participants were given a fair chance, and they were all answering questions on the same piece of material shown to each participant. Another control was the location of the experiment. All participants were in the same environment/location (lab experiment), which meant that extraneous variables could not affect the experiment and give other participants an advantage over others. All questions asked were the same (excluding the verb). As the question was kept the same it meant that some of the participants would not be asked leading questions or closed answer questions, which could in turn effect the results drastically. A control group was also used. This was in the second part of the experimental research. There were 150 students, who were shown a video and later were all asked questions, all but 50 students who were not questioned at all. This was the control group. The control group was used as a comparison group. Their answer to the question 'Did you see any broken glass?' was to be compared with those from the experimental group, who were asked questions about the video a week earlier.
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The advantages to having students as participants is that there are always students around who are willing to proceed with these experiments, especially if there is money in hand. However this could demand the attention of ethics. Yet there is another disadvantage to having students as all the participants. It means that the researchers cannot generalise with the results that they have received. This is because all the participants are of the same age and there isn't a variation within the group, which could change the results considerably. Having all the participants contained in the same environment means ...

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