Physical Variables

We are going back to Week 4 per se, because Physical Variables and the ways to control them. Physical variables are aspects of the testing conditions that need to be controlled; for instance, day of the week, testing room, noise, mood, etc.

Ways to control Physical variables:

1)Elimination: take out the condition (i.e. sound proof a noisy room)

2)Constancy of Conditions: done when you can't eliminate; keep all aspects of the treatment conditions as similar as possible; physical variables and mechanical procedures (written instructions to ensure consistency) are usually constant with little effort

3)Balancing: when elimination or constancy can't be used; distributing the effects of an extraneous variable across the different treatment conditions of the experiment (i.e. random assigning).

So, let's go back and answer Topic 4 DQ1 - The two rooms you have been assigned vary from each other: one has neutral paint on the walls; the other has bright orange psychedelic paint. How can your control for this physical variable(s)?