Experimental Controls

About the lecture

In this lecture, we will think about experimental controls, focusing in particular on: (i) the importance of controls to ensure validity of results, by making sure you’re testing what you think you’re testing; (ii) examples of conditions to maintain e.g., time of day and information about the study disclosed; (iii) randomising and counterbalancing groups to ensure that extraneous variables or group allocations are not greatly impacting results; (iv) the specific effects of fatigue and practice, and the influence they can have on results.

About the lecturer

Dr Ashok Jansari is a senior lecturer in the Department of Psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London. Dr Jansari’s research interests include memory disorders, prosopagnosia, executive functions, and synaesthesia. Dr Jansari is most famous for his research into prosopagnosia, having made numerous TV appearances, including on BBC1’s The One Show, as well as hosting his own ‘Neuro Talk’ YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/c/DrAshokJansariNeuroTalk/featured

Some of Dr Jansari's recent publications include 'Acquired synaesthesia following 2C-B use' (2019), 'Using virtual reality to investigate multitasking ability in individuals with frontal lobe lesions' (2019), and 'Identification from CCTV: Assessing police super-recogniser ability to spot faces in a crown and susceptibility to change blindness' (2018).