Work through the list without notes. If you cannot do a statement, follow its link, then come back. Guide = study guide; Practice = practice questions.
Understanding
- I can name the four principles of a well-designed experiment and spot which one is missing from a description. (Guide: “The four principles of a well-designed experiment”; Practice Q1)
- I can explain the difference between direct control and a control group. (Guide: “The four principles of a well-designed experiment”)
- I can explain what an extraneous variable and a confounding variable are, and how random assignment reduces confounding. (Guide: “Extraneous variables, confounding and random assignment”; Practice Q2)
- I can tell a single-blind experiment from a double-blind one and say why blinding matters. (Guide: “Blinding”; Practice Q3)
- I can explain why blocking gives more precise comparisons of treatments. (Guide: Worked example 2; Practice Q6)
Skills
- I can calculate a placebo effect from group means and separate it from a treatment’s own effect. (Guide: Worked example 1; Practice Q4)
- I can identify the experimental units, explanatory variable, treatments and response in context. (Guide: Worked example 1; Practice Q5)
- I can describe random assignment for a completely randomized design so that someone else could carry it out. (Guide: “How to describe random assignment”; Practice Q5)
- I can describe a randomized block design, assigning treatments at random within each block. (Guide: Worked example 3; Practice Q6)
- I can recognise both forms of a matched pairs design. (Guide: “Three experimental designs”; Practice Q7)
Reasoning
- I can justify choosing a completely randomized, block or matched pairs design for a given study. (Guide: “Choosing a design”; Practice Q6, Q7)
- I can justify whether a cause-and-effect conclusion is appropriate, using random assignment. (Guide: “What can you conclude?”; Practice Q7)
- I can state to which population a conclusion applies, including when the units are volunteers. (Guide: Worked example 1; Practice Q7)
All ticked? You have finished this unit. Move on to Unit 2, Probability, Random Variables, and Probability Distributions, starting with Topic 2.1, Tabular and Graphical Representations for Two Categorical Variables, or return to the course roadmap.