my experiment

I'm taking a class on cognition. I have to create, perform and document a formal Psych experiment.

Last night I finished my little testing program (CGI::App, SQLite, Class::DBI, Template Toolkit) and today I tested 14 participants. Without going into too much detail, I essentially tested subjects to see if, when presented with a series of questions, they would produce the expected output after being given a certain stimulus. (Hehe, no, this was a completely visual and audible exercise.)

My test groups appeared as follows:

+-----------------------------------------+ | | Order 1 | Order 2 | Control | |-----------+---------+---------+---------| | Variant 1 | A | B | C | |-----------+---------+---------+---------| | Variant 2 | D | E | F | +-----------------------------------------+

Ideally, groups A, B, D and E would correlate and the control groups would be all over the place. Turns out that wasn't the case: (initials have been changed)

List Subject Expected Total ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- A JR 2 9 A QW 6 9 A TY 4 9 B ER 2 9 B AS 6 9 C VB 6 9 C JK 5 9 D GH 5 9 D NM 5 9 E IO 5 9 E UI 5 9 F OP 5 7 F XC 4 9 F AZ 7 9

...which boils down to:

List PercentExpected ---------- --------------- A 44.4 B 44.4 C 61.1 D 55.6 E 55.6 F 64.0

Looking back, I've got a pile of ways I could improve the experiment -- there are a few things that could have been done to make the results more accurate. However, I have to do my best with only the time I can allocate for this class.

Ugh. At least I entertained my subjects with colorful stock photography from sites listed on Blue Vertigo.