Pilot Studies

About the lecture

In this lecture, we approach the very first stage in undertaking a study that you have designed – a pilot study, focusing in particular on: (i) Dr O’Sullivan’s example study, looking at the impact of coffee/caffeine on attention; (ii) highlighting some potential failings in the methodology that could be demonstrated through performing a pilot study.

Ceiling Effect – A phenomenon whereby participants achieve nearly (or actually) the highest possible score on a test, decreasing the potential for a relationship between the independent variable and the test score (the dependent variable) to be reported.

About the lecturer

Dr Eoin O’Sullivan is an associate lecturer in the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of St Andrews. Dr O’Sullivan teaches the first-year undergraduate research methods course and is interested in uncovering novel teaching techniques in the field of research methods and statistics, within psychology. Some of Dr O’Sullivan’s recent publications include ‘Automatic imitation effects are influenced by experience of synchronous action in children’ (2018) and ‘Understanding imitation in Papio papio: the role of experience and the presence of a conspecific demonstrator’ (2022).