RE:[tips] Whatever happened to pilot studies?
You're really just restating what I said, Marc, albeit with a somewhat different slant/emphasis. You say, You don't start sloppy -- you set things up according to what the literature and your hypotheses tell you, and you exercise control as you would with any research. That's really all I was trying to say. i.e., If you get lucky and the parameters are right, you've got yourself a potentially publishable study but plenty of these studies will become pilot studies. Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Department of Psychology West Chester University of Pennsylvania Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, bluegrass fiddler.. in approximate order of importance. Subject: RE: Whatever happened to pilot studies? From: Marc Carter marc.car...@bakeru.edu Date: Wed, 12 May 2010 11:42:54 -0500 X-Message-Number: 6 If you know what parameter settings you need in order to show the effect, then, sure, no need to pilot. But I know in attention and depth perception research (the two areas I'm most familiar with), it's rare to run a study without having to play with any parameters. You don't start sloppy -- you set things up according to what the literature and your hypotheses tell you, and you exercise control as you would with any research. I always felt that pilot work wasn't wasted, but taught me about what the source of the effect was. You go in with an idea that something should do something, but you have to play with it a while to figure it out. Calling it pilot research sort of demeans it -- it's really empirical research. But I sure never thought of it as a waste. That's how I learned what was doing what. --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5n=Tl=tipso=2616 or send a blank email to leave-2616-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
Re: [tips] Whatever happened to pilot studies?
I don't know about Chris,Mike,Stephen,Bill,John,Scott,Peter,Paul, and Mary, but I think most labs run pilot studies...it's just not called that. Nor is it especially demarcated with the PI proclaiming... Very well,beginthe Pilot Study! Rather, one takes a boo at the data for the first few subjects and see if it's generally in line with expectations of the hypothesis. This has the generally beneficial effect of reminding hier scientist to plug in the recording device before subjecting the paid subject (often nowadays, potentially paid millions might be a better statement) to 2 hours of a learning protocol ! :-) --Mike On Sun, May 9, 2010 at 8:45 PM, michael sylvester msylves...@copper.net wrote: I could bet that Chris,Mike,Stephen,Paul,Bill,John,and Scott(the -out-of-office reply dude) never run a pilot study but there was a time when advisors and research supervisors would always recommend to run a pilot before undertaking some research,thesis,or dissertation.As a matter of fact Murray Sidman in a work titled Tactics in Scientific Research seemed to have recommended doing pilot studies.Although there are many reasons given to running a pilot,such as methodologicaland other issues,it does appear that the procedure was frowned upon. I think that the major criticism was that a pilot study was still a valid experiment-so in some sense one was performing two experiments.The other criticism was probably philosophical: entering research with preliminary projected results is really not cool from a scientific perspective. One thing I would say about the animal pilot studies-it tells us which animals are likely to die and that is a no no for statistical analysis.Just curious what would have happened if Milgram and Rosenhan(Tipsters' favorite punching bag) had run a pilot. In a theoretical psychology state of mind. Michael omnicentric Sylvester,PhD Daytona Beach,Florida Daytona Beach,Florida --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: tipsl...@gmail.com. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13541.42a7e8017ab9578358f118300f4720fbn=Tl=tipso=2551 (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) or send a blank email to leave-2551-13541.42a7e8017ab9578358f118300f472...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5n=Tl=tipso=2576 or send a blank email to leave-2576-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
[tips] Whatever happened to pilot studies?
I could bet that Chris,Mike,Stephen,Paul,Bill,John,and Scott(the -out-of-office reply dude) never run a pilot study but there was a time when advisors and research supervisors would always recommend to run a pilot before undertaking some research,thesis,or dissertation.As a matter of fact Murray Sidman in a work titled Tactics in Scientific Research seemed to have recommended doing pilot studies.Although there are many reasons given to running a pilot,such as methodologicaland other issues,it does appear that the procedure was frowned upon. I think that the major criticism was that a pilot study was still a valid experiment-so in some sense one was performing two experiments.The other criticism was probably philosophical: entering research with preliminary projected results is really not cool from a scientific perspective. One thing I would say about the animal pilot studies-it tells us which animals are likely to die and that is a no no for statistical analysis.Just curious what would have happened if Milgram and Rosenhan(Tipsters' favorite punching bag) had run a pilot. In a theoretical psychology state of mind. Michael omnicentric Sylvester,PhD Daytona Beach,Florida Daytona Beach,Florida --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5n=Tl=tipso=2551 or send a blank email to leave-2551-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
