A researcher is worried that performance on an aptitude test will improve simply

Question

A researcher is worried that performance on an aptitude test will improve simply because of repeat exposure to the instrument, which will cloud his ability to assess the impact of two unique educational interventions he wants to study (Program A and Program B). Which of the following design options includes counterbalancing?

A.) He could recruit different participants for each educational program.

B.) Participants could complete Program A and then wait several months before completing Program B.

C.) He could vary the order of the educational interventions such that half of the participants experience Program A first and the other half experience Program B first.

D.) The weaker of the two programs could be administered first so that improvement would still be measurable.

Explanation / Answer

Counterbalancing is usually thought of as a method for controlling order effects in a repeated measures design (see the notes on variance and experimental design).

In a counterbalanced design to control for order effects, we use separate groups of subjects, each group receiving treatments in a different order. If there are two treatments, (say, A and B), Group 1 receives treatments in the order AB, and Group 2 receives treatments in the order BA. If you create a group for each possible order, then the variance due to order effects becomes a separate source of variance, making for a more powerful design.

C.) He could vary the order of the educational interventions such that half of the participants experience Program A first and the other half experience Program B first.

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