Experimenter bias

Consider the ordinary psychological experiment the experimenter almost always has a very definite expectation of how the experiment should come out and may be quite emotionally involved in obtaining that outcome. The outcome may mean a lot to him theoretically it may mean the difference as to whether he can publish a report about the experiment or not, and the number and success of reports he publishes is closely related to his promotion in the academic world. Emotional motivation usually favors the occurrence of psi. Although I fear that this idea will probably be emotionally rejected by most psychologists, I believe that almost all psychological experiments need to be reexamined to see to what extent they are accurate accounts of what actually goes on with people and to what extent they might be products of experimenter bias. 

With the elimination of bias in the experimental setup, a range of ion-ophores must be re-characterized, as their reported selectivity coefficients can differ significantly from the unbiased ones [19]. It is very important to obtain true thermodynamic selectivity coefficients as already discussed above. From the three proposed methods that were interchangeably used in the past, a modified SSM has emerged as the most convenient one. Here, the calibration curves for all ions are determined in separate titrations. The modification from the traditional method involves removing the experimental bias by one of the following proposed methods ... 

A recognition of the unreality of the detached observer in the psychological sciences is becoming widespread, under the topics of experimenter bias 55 and demand characteristics 45. A similar recognition long ago occurred in physics when it was realized that he observed was altered by the process of observation at subatomic levels, when we deal with d-ASCs where the observer is the experiencer of the d-ASC, this factor is of paramount importance. Not knowing the characteristics of the observer can also confound the process of consensual validation. 

The effects of this enhanced vividness of imagination in some d-ASCs will be complicated further by two other problems experimenter bias 45, 55 and the fact that one person s illusion in a given d-ASC can sometimes be communicated to another person in the same d-ASC so that a false consensual validation results. Again, the only long-term solution is the requirements that predictions based on concepts arising from various experiences be verified experientially. 

This kind of relativity is becoming recognized in psychology under the topics of experimenter bias and the implicit demand characteristics of experiments. An experimenter s desire to prove the hypothesis he believes in not only can influence how he perceives his data, but also can subtly influence his subjects to cooperate in ways that will erroneously "prove" his hypothesis. Your beliefs about the nature of things around you can influence the way you see things and subtly influence others to uphold your view of reality. 

A total of seventeen different mobile phase compositions are required to generate the response surface for the two Simplex designs as shown in Figure 6, Each run is done in duplicate, and the entire design is randomized to reduce experimental bias. Runs 12 through 17 are the checkpoints used to determine variance and goodness of fit. The overall design is shown in Table II,... 

While the nature of the error structure of the measurements is often ignored or understated in electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, recent developments have made possible experimental identification of error structure. Quantitative assessment of stochastic and experimental bias errors has been used to filter data, to design experiments, and to assess the validity of regression assumptions. 

A distinction is drawn in equation (21.1) between stochastic errors that are randomly distributed about a mean value of zero, errors caused by the lack of fit of a model, and experimental bias errors that are propagated through the model. The problem of interpretation of impedance data is therefore defined to consist of two parts one of identification of experimental errors, which includes assessment of consistency with the Kramers-Kronig relations (see Chapter 22), and one of fitting (see Chapter 19), which entails model identification, selection of weighting strategies, and examination of residual errors. The error analysis provides information that can be incorporated into regression of process models. The experimental bias errors, as referred to here, may be caused by nonstationary processes or by instrumental artifacts. 

All maze procedures have limitations that must be considered when interpreting data obtained with these methods. One related particularly to their use with rodents is that subjects leave an odor trail in the maze that can influence the behavior of rodents subsequently tested in the maze. While the experimenter can clean the maze between subjects, it must also be noted that the rodent s sense of smell is much more sensitive than humans, making it difficult to be certain that indeed no odors are still present. Another potential problem is that these procedures obviously require interactions between the experimenter and the subject during the course of testing because the rat must be constantly retrieved from the arms and replaced in the start box. This raises the distinct possibility of both subject and experimenter bias, unless the experiment can be carried out by an individual with no knowledge of any treatment (e.g., exposure to drug or chemical) of any subjects. 

The study design is an important element in assessment of quality protocols. The overall purpose of the study design is to reduce the variability or bias inherent in all research. Good study design will always address control methods that reduce experimental bias. These control methods will often include treatment blinding, randomization and between- or within-patient study designs. The Schedule of Assessments describes a schedule of time and events and provides a complete... 

FIGURE 40.5 Relationship between the number of replicates per time point versus potential experimental bias. 

Experimental bias occurs when a researcher favors one particular outcome over another in an experimental setup. In order to avoid bias, it is imperative to set up each experiment under exactly the same conditions, including a control experiment, an experiment with a known negative outcome. Additionally, in order to avoid experimental bias, a researcher must not read particular results into data. 

An example of experimental bias can be seen in the example of the mouse in the maze experiment. In this example, a researcher is timing mice as they move through the maze towards a piece of cheese. The experiment relies on the mouse s ability to smell the cheese as it approaches. If one mouse chases a piece of Cheddar cheese, while another chases Limburger, or so called stinky cheese, clearly the Limburger mouse has a huge advantage over the mouse chasing Cheddar. To remove the experimental bias from this experiment, the same cheese should be used in both tests. 

Interpretation of the data is complicated by the presence of nonapoptotic cells with damaged membranes. Such cells may have phosphatidylserine exposed on plasma membrane and, therefore, similar to apoptotic cells, bind annexin V. Mechanical disaggregation of tissues to isolate individual cells extensive use of proteolytic enzymes to disrupt cell aggregates, remove adherent cells from cultures, or to isolate cells from tissue mechanical removal of the cells from tissue culture flasks (e.g., by a rubber policeman) and cell electroporation, may affect the binding of annexin V. Such treatments, therefore, may introduce experimental bias in subsequent analysis of apoptosis by this method. 

The effects of this enhanced vividness of imagination in some d-ASCs will be complicated further by two other problems experimenter bias [45, 55] and the fact that one person s illusion... 

The experimental bias in the laboratory remained toward kinetics and spectroscopies in the gas phase but now less so and there is clearly a wider concern. We describe later some of the theoretical topics included above as at first some of them were in a separate department. Only by putting this laboratory with the inorganic chemistry laboratory can physical chemistry be fully covered. 

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