Variables

About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about variables, focusing in particular on: (i) the importance of operationalising variables for hypothesising and performing statistical analyses; (ii) independent variables as those which you do not control within a study, but that decide the structure of your study; (iii) dependent variables as those which you measure in your study and can be used to compare across the independent variable conditions; (iv) the stages of establishing variables, including defining what they are, establishing the levels you are going to consider, and extraneous variables which need to be accounted for; (v) the importance of variable definition in the context of replication.

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).