Question

• College students in a cognitive mapping study are asked to use a direction finder (like a compass rose) to point to three unseen locations that differ in distance from the lab. On is the campus bar, one is a nearby city, and the third is a distant city. Is this design vulnerable to carry-over effects? If so, explain why and describe how you would correct this? Is this design vulnerable to progressive effects? If so, explain why and describe how you would correct this?

Answer 1

Assuming that there is only ONE group of students trying to find the location, this makes it a repeated measures design. The IV here are the three locations. While the design may have possible progressive effects such as the practice effect of having to estimate the distance of the distant city. Also in the absence of a True North for the students may yield differing cognitive maps, making the results debatable.

It would be better to make the design into a 2*3 mixed factorial design, where half of the subjects are told the direction of True North in the lab to make estimates, while the other half is not given any such directions.

-DV: Estimating distance by accurate pointing.

-IV1: Locations (withing group difference)

IV2: Told about the North orientation Y/N (between-group difference)