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Treatment or manipulation of independent variable Measurement of dependent variable
In this arrangement, subjects are presented with some type of treatment, such
as a semester of college work experience, and then the outcome measure is
applied, such as college grades. Like all experimental designs, the goal is to
determine if the treatment had any effect on the outcome. Without a
comparison group, it is impossible to determine if the outcome scores are any
higher than they would have been without the treatment. And, without any pre-
test scores, it is impossible to determine if any change within the group itself
has taken place.
PRE-EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Cont..
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Pretest Manipulations Post-Test
A benefit of this design over the previously discussed design is the inclusion
of a pretest to determine baseline scores.
To use this design in our study of college performance, we could compare
college grades prior to gaining the work experience to the grades after
completing a semester of work experience.
We can now at least state whether a change in the outcome or dependent
variable has taken place.
What we cannot say is if this change would have occurred even without the
application of the treatment or independent variable. It is possible that mere
maturation caused the change in grades and not the work experience itself.
PRE-EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Cont..
Finally, if the subjects were selected because they possessed some extreme
characteristic, differences between pretest and posttest scores could be due to
regression toward the mean.
PRE-EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Cont..
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This design attempts to make up for the lack of a control group but falls short
in relation to showing if a change has occurred.
In the static group comparison study, two groups are chosen, one of which
receives the treatment and the other does not.
A posttest score is then determined to measure the difference, after
treatment, between the two groups.
As you can see, this study does not include any pre-testing and therefore any
difference between the two groups prior to the study are unknown.
PRE-EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Cont..
The major validity threat to this design is selection. Note that no random
assignment (omission of the letter "R") is the indicator that the comparison
group nonequivalent.
In the above design, the group compared is picked up only for the purpose of
comparison. There is no assurance of comparability between it and the
experimental group.
For example, we might wish to test the impact of a new type of math test by
comparing a school in which the program exists with one that does not have the
program. Any conclusions we might reach about the effects of the program
might be inaccurate because of other differences between the two schools.