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Scientific Method

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The Scientific Method was first used during the Scientific Revolution (1500-1700). The method combined theoretical knowledge such as mathematics with practical experimentation using scientific instruments, results analysis and comparisons, and finally peer reviews, all to better determine how the world around us works. In this way, hypotheses were rigorously tested, and laws could be formulated which explained observable phenomena. The goal of this scientific method was to not only increase human knowledge but to do so in a way that practically benefitted everyone and improved the human condition.

A New Approach: Bacon 's Vision

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was an English philosopher, statesman, and author. He is considered one of the founders of modern scientific research and scientific method, even as "the father of modern science " because he proposed a new combined method of empirical (observable) experimentation and shared data collection so that humanity might finally discover all of nature's secrets and improve itself. Bacon championed the need for systematic and detailed empirical study, as this was the only way to increase humanity's understanding and, for him, more importantly, gain control of nature. This approach sounds quite obvious today, but at the time, the highly theoretical approach of the Greek philosopher Aristotle (l. 384-322 BCE) still dominated thought. Verbal arguments had become more important than what could actually be seen in the world. Further, natural philosophers had become preoccupied with why things happen instead of first ascertaining what was happening in nature.

Bacon rejected the current backward-looking approach to knowledge, that is, the seemingly never-ending attempt to prove the ancients right. Instead, new thinkers and experimenters, said Bacon, should act like the new navigators who had pushed beyond the limits of the known world. Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) had shown there was land across the Atlantic Ocean. Vasco da Gama (c. 1469-1524) had explored the globe in the other direction. Scientists, as we would call them today, had to be similarly bold. Old knowledge had to be rigorously tested to see that it was worth keeping. New knowledge had to be acquired by thoroughly testing nature without preconceived ideas. Reason had to be applied to data collected from experiments, and the same data had to be openly shared with other thinkers so that it could be tested again, comparing it to what others had discovered. Finally, this knowledge must then be used to improve the human condition; otherwise, it was no use pursuing it in the first place. This was Bacon's vision. What he proposed did indeed come about but with three notable factors added to the scientific method. These were mathematics, hypotheses, and technology.

The Importance of Experiments & Instruments

Experiments had always been carried out by thinkers, from ancient figures like Archimedes (l. 287-212 BCE) to the alchemists of the Middle Ages, but their experiments were usually haphazard, and very often thinkers were trying to prove a preconceived idea. In the Scientific Revolution, experimentation became a more systematic and multi-layered activity involving many different people. This more rigorous approach to gathering observable data was also a reaction against traditional activities and methods such as magic, astrology, and alchemy , all ancient and secret worlds of knowledge-gathering that now came under attack.

At the outset of the Scientific Revolution, experiments were any sort of activity carried out to see what would happen, a sort of anything-goes approach to satisfying scientific curiosity. It is important to note, though, that the modern meaning of scientific experiment is rather different, summarised here by W. E. Burns: "the creation of an artificial situation designed to study scientific principles held to apply in all situations" (95). It is fair to say, though, that the modern approach to experimentation, with its highly specialised focus where only one specific hypothesis is being tested, would not have become possible without the pioneering experimenters of the Scientific Revolution.

The first well-documented practical experiment of our period was made by William Gilbert using magnets; he published his findings in 1600 in On the Magnet . The work was pioneering because "Central to Gilbert's enterprise was the claim that you could reproduce his experiments and confirm his results: his book was, in effect, a collection of experimental recipes" (Wootton, 331).

There remained sceptics of experimentation, those who stressed that the senses could be misled when the reason of the mind could not be. One such doubter was René Descartes (1596-1650), but if anything, he and other natural philosophers who questioned the value of the work of the practical experimenters were responsible for creating a lasting new division between philosophy and what we would today call science. The term "science" was still not widely used in the 17th century, instead, many experimenters referred to themselves as practitioners of "experimental philosophy". The first use in English of the term "experimental method" was in 1675.

The first truly international effort in coordinated experiments involved the development of the barometer. This process began with the efforts of the Italian Evangelista Torricelli (1608-1647) in 1643. Torricelli discovered that mercury could be raised within a glass tube when one end of that tube was placed in a container of mercury. The air pressure on the mercury in the container pushed the mercury in the tube up around 30 inches (76 cm) higher than the level in the container. In 1648, Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) and his brother-in- law Florin Périer conducted experiments using similar apparatus, but this time tested under different atmospheric pressures by setting up the devices at a variety of altitudes on the side of a mountain. The scientists noted that the level of the mercury in the glass tube fell the higher up the mountain readings were taken.

The Anglo-Irish chemist Robert Boyle (1627-1691) named the new instrument a barometer and conclusively demonstrated the effect of air pressure by using a barometer inside an air pump where a vacuum was established. Boyle formulated a principle which became known as 'Boyle's Law'. This law states that the pressure exerted by a certain quantity of air varies inversely in proportion to its volume (provided temperatures are constant). The story of the development of the barometer became typical throughout the Scientific Revolution: natural phenomena were observed, instruments were invented to measure and understand these observable facts, scientists collaborated (sometimes even competed), and so they extended the work of each other until, finally, a universal law could be devised which explained what was being seen. This law could then be used as a predictive device in future experiments.

Experiments like Robert Boyle's air pump demonstrations and Isaac Newton 's use of a prism to demonstrate white light is made up of different coloured light continued the trend of experimentation to prove, test, and adjust theories. Further, these endeavours highlight the importance of scientific instruments in the new method of inquiry. The scientific method was employed to invent useful and accurate instruments, which were, in turn, used in further experiments. The invention of the telescope (c. 1608), microscope (c. 1610), barometer (1643), thermometer (c. 1650), pendulum clock (1657), air pump (1659), and balance spring watch (1675) all allowed fine measurements to be made which previously had been impossible. New instruments meant that a whole new range of experiments could be carried out. Whole new specialisations of study became possible, such as meteorology, microscopic anatomy, embryology, and optics.

The scientific method came to involve the following key components:

• conducting practical experiments
• conducting experiments without prejudice of what they should prove
• using deductive reasoning (creating a generalisation from specific examples) to form a hypothesis (untested theory), which is then tested by an experiment, after which the hypothesis might be accepted, altered, or rejected based on empirical (observable) evidence
• conducting multiple experiments and doing so in different places and by different people to confirm the reliability of the results
• an open and critical review of the results of an experiment by peers
• the formulation of universal laws (inductive reasoning or logic) using, for example, mathematics
• a desire to gain practical benefits from scientific experiments and a belief in the idea of scientific progress

(Note: the above criteria are expressed in modern linguistic terms, not necessarily those terms 17th-century scientists would have used since the revolution in science also caused a revolution in the language to describe it).

Scientific Institutions

The scientific method really took hold when it became institutionalised, that is, when it was endorsed and employed by official institutions like the learned societies where thinkers tested their theories in the real world and worked collaboratively. The first such society was the Academia del Cimento in Florence, founded in 1657. Others soon followed, notably the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris in 1667. Four years earlier, London had gained its own academy with the foundation of the Royal Society . The founding fellows of this society credited Bacon with the idea, and they were keen to follow his principles of scientific method and his emphasis on sharing and communicating scientific data and results. The Berlin Academy was founded in 1700 and the St. Petersburg Academy in 1724. These academies and societies became the focal points of an international network of scientists who corresponded, read each other's works, and even visited each other as the new scientific method took hold.

Official bodies were able to fund expensive experiments and assemble or commission new equipment. They showed these experiments to the public, a practice that illustrates that what was new here was not the act of discovery but the creation of a culture of discovery. Scientists went much further than a real-time audience and ensured their results were printed for a far wider (and more critical) readership in journals and books. Here, in print, the experiments were described in great detail, and the results were presented for all to see. In this way, scientists were able to create "virtual witnesses" to their experiments. Now, anyone who cared to be could become a participant in the development of knowledge acquired through science.

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Bibliography

• Burns, William E. The Scientific Revolution in Global Perspective. Oxford University Press, 2015.
• Burns, William E. The Scientific Revolution. ABC-CLIO, 2001.
• Bynum, William F. & Browne, Janet & Porter, Roy. Dictionary of the History of Science . Princeton University Press, 1982.
• Henry, John. The Scientific Revolution and the Origins of Modern Science . Red Globe Press, 2008.
• Jardine, Lisa. Ingenious Pursuits. Nan A. Talese, 1999.
• Moran, Bruce T. Distilling Knowledge. Harvard University Press, 2006.
• Wootton, David. The Invention of Science. Harper, 2015.

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Presidential Column

The tradition of experimentalism in psychology.

• Experimental
• History of Psychology
• John Darley Columns

It sometimes makes sense to examine a discipline in terms of what I am tempted to call its “tribal customs.” By this I mean its habitual, frequently unexamined, ways of doing its everyday activities and communicating about the results of those activities both to itself and to adjacent tribes. Continuing the metaphor, it is useful to compare the customs of psychology with scientifically adjacent tribes such as sociology, cognitive science, and anthropology, and even more distant tribes such as literary criticism and philosophy.

One reason for this sort of examination is celebratory – to revel in the superiority of the customs of our discipline over those of the adjacent disciplines. Once that is completed to the satisfaction of all, and the moral and intellectual superiority of our ways demonstrated to all of open mind, then it is possible to grudgingly consider whether a thing or two might be learned or a practice or two adopted from the competition.

I propose to go forward exactly in this vein, coming to the conclusion that scientific psychology is in good order, and that its everyday practices and ideological commitments to ways of doing things are generally contributing to its strengths. But I will manage to discover some difficulties, artfully casting them as the reverse side of our strengths, and see whether some friendly amendments to our customs might not be worth considering. In this month’s column, I will explore the strengths of our traditions, in the next months we will see how those traditions might be limiting us.

The central field of psychology, the one that set the paradigm to which we all aspired, has been “experimental psychology.” The remarkable fact here is that it was seldom necessary to specify what processes the experimentation was about; we were just “experimentalists.” The topics on which we were experimenting differed over time, but our commitment to the experiment as the preferred technique for unlocking the secrets of the universe has been constant.

We were able to privilege experimentation because of the derivations that followed from another tenet of our ideology, which was that our task was to discover the universal laws of learning, or of perception, or of reasoning. The ways in which experimentation could strip down a complicated, messy situation to its apparent essence fit well with an emphasis on the project of discovering the universals of process.

With those universal processes in hand, we could then understand the complexities of, for instance, college students learning, experienced pilots perceiving, or experts reasoning. The laws of learning could be discovered by experimentation on infra-human species, and of memory by having subjects – people this time – learn nonsense syllables, and so on.

Other fields of psychology looked at problems that were less tractable to an experimental approach – or seemed so. But triumphs could be achieved by bringing the experimental method to those fields; many readers will remember the stir caused by Leon Festinger’s first set of dissonance experiments, exactly because they demonstrated that it was possible to do experiments in a field in which they had not previously seemed possible. (Lewin carried out several studies that are broadly referred to as “experimental,” but looked back on don’t support that claim very well.)

And it is useful to remember that Festinger, who had a remarkably broad competitive streak, chose a reinforcement theory as the one he would challenge in those experiments. Reinforcement theory at that time was the paradigmatic center of the search for universals in psychology and so in challenging it, one announced the arrival of a new kid on the block, ready to challenge the system. But and again, the challenge was carried out by experimentation. In personality psychology, a number of scales of single constructs were designed, and validated by a procedure that resembled experimentation; groups of individuals who scored high or low on a particular personality construct were put through, for instance, an experimental procedure that measured conformity-proneness.

Ideological elements intertwine and support each other. Our preference for the experimental method fit well with our emphasis on the analysis of causality. (As introductory textbooks often proclaim, experimentation is the one method that can unequivocally establish causality.) And of course we were aware of the difficulties attendant on other modes of inference. We were aware, for instance, of the demonstrations that introspection gave a rather poor account of perceptual phenomena.

For me the power of experimentation to identify cause with immediate lucidity was learned in my undergraduate laboratory courses with Hans Wallach, who gently led us to hypotheses we could test about Gestalt perceptual phenomena. And when we had the hypothesis right, and the experiment properly designed, we could instantly see which stimulus alterations controlled the perceptual phenomena. I have talked to many other psychological researchers and it is amazing the frequency with which some similar story of discovering the joys of doing clean experimental designs in the laboratory of a beloved mentor is the life-altering event that led to our career choice.

So our program, to sum it up, involved discovering through experimentation, the basic laws of human functioning, laws that would identify the true causal events in a confused world of multiple possibilities. The laws would be universals, would transcend differences among persons brought about by culture or upbringing, would transcend the multiple differences brought about by the details of the contexts in which people existed. And we have the intellectual characteristics that are the internal representations of that program. We insist on clear causal thinking, we are skeptical about unproven (that is, experimentally untested) claims, and we scorn those whose theories seem to be nothing but long lists of complex and underspecified assertions. Metaphorically, psychologists pride themselves on being from Missouri.

This ideological program, or paradigm to stray into Kuhnian terms, has stood us in good stead. That is, it has led us to some remarkable and important discoveries. Anyone concerned with learning who ignores the far reaching discoveries of reinforcement theory is making a serious mistake. And we have outlined the workings of the perceptual system, and are now making important discoveries about the ways in which sensory and motor information are merged in the cortex. From judgment and decision making research we have prospect theory, and a bias- and heuristic-driven account of human decision making. Using priming and response latency measurement techniques, and the power of modern computers, we have made some fascinating discoveries about cognitive associationistic structures and their workings, and on the ways in which the mind represents information, events, and perceptions of people.

The paradigm has also protected us from what many would now consider fads and excesses. To say that the post-modernist perspective, that all “readings of a situation,” all interpretations of an event, have equal validity (or perhaps equally no validity) had little influence on psychology is putting it mildly. Even though we hold that many aspects of an individual’s view of the world are social constructions, we hold that those constructions are determined by causal circumstances, and constrained by the external realities of both the physical and the social worlds. And our commitment to experimentation as revealing causal truth has made us a far too rocky soil for notions of science being merely another cultural ritual, similar to augurs consulting chicken entrails or astrological signs to determine “truth,” to take root. Compared to some other sciences, psychologists have spent little time in these debates and that seems to me to be on balance to be a good thing.

Each reader will have many more examples to add to a list of successes our scientific ideology has brought about, and the excesses it has allowed us to avoid. So with the security of “a job well done,” it might now make some sense to consider what limits or difficulties the adherence to what we might call the causal/experimental paradigm has visited on us. Next column, I will make some suggestions about that.

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experimental psychology

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• American Psychological Association - Understanding Experimental Psychology

experimental psychology , a method of studying psychological phenomena and processes. The experimental method in psychology attempts to account for the activities of animals (including humans) and the functional organization of mental processes by manipulating variables that may give rise to behaviour; it is primarily concerned with discovering laws that describe manipulable relationships. The term generally connotes all areas of psychology that use the experimental method.

These areas include the study of sensation and perception , learning and memory , motivation , and biological psychology . There are experimental branches in many other areas, however, including child psychology , clinical psychology , educational psychology , and social psychology . Usually the experimental psychologist deals with normal, intact organisms; in biological psychology, however, studies are often conducted with organisms modified by surgery, radiation, drug treatment, or long-standing deprivations of various kinds or with organisms that naturally present organic abnormalities or emotional disorders. See also psychophysics .

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How the Experimental Method Works in Psychology

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The Experimental Process

Types of experiments, potential pitfalls of the experimental method.

The experimental method is a type of research procedure that involves manipulating variables to determine if there is a cause-and-effect relationship. The results obtained through the experimental method are useful but do not prove with 100% certainty that a singular cause always creates a specific effect. Instead, they show the probability that a cause will or will not lead to a particular effect.

At a Glance

While there are many different research techniques available, the experimental method allows researchers to look at cause-and-effect relationships. Using the experimental method, researchers randomly assign participants to a control or experimental group and manipulate levels of an independent variable. If changes in the independent variable lead to changes in the dependent variable, it indicates there is likely a causal relationship between them.

What Is the Experimental Method in Psychology?

The experimental method involves manipulating one variable to determine if this causes changes in another variable. This method relies on controlled research methods and random assignment of study subjects to test a hypothesis.

For example, researchers may want to learn how different visual patterns may impact our perception. Or they might wonder whether certain actions can improve memory . Experiments are conducted on many behavioral topics, including:

The scientific method forms the basis of the experimental method. This is a process used to determine the relationship between two variables—in this case, to explain human behavior .

Positivism is also important in the experimental method. It refers to factual knowledge that is obtained through observation, which is considered to be trustworthy.

When using the experimental method, researchers first identify and define key variables. Then they formulate a hypothesis, manipulate the variables, and collect data on the results. Unrelated or irrelevant variables are carefully controlled to minimize the potential impact on the experiment outcome.

History of the Experimental Method

The idea of using experiments to better understand human psychology began toward the end of the nineteenth century. Wilhelm Wundt established the first formal laboratory in 1879.

Wundt is often called the father of experimental psychology. He believed that experiments could help explain how psychology works, and used this approach to study consciousness .

Wundt coined the term "physiological psychology." This is a hybrid of physiology and psychology, or how the body affects the brain.

Other early contributors to the development and evolution of experimental psychology as we know it today include:

• Gustav Fechner (1801-1887), who helped develop procedures for measuring sensations according to the size of the stimulus
• Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894), who analyzed philosophical assumptions through research in an attempt to arrive at scientific conclusions
• Franz Brentano (1838-1917), who called for a combination of first-person and third-person research methods when studying psychology
• Georg Elias Müller (1850-1934), who performed an early experiment on attitude which involved the sensory discrimination of weights and revealed how anticipation can affect this discrimination

Key Terms to Know

To understand how the experimental method works, it is important to know some key terms.

Dependent Variable

The dependent variable is the effect that the experimenter is measuring. If a researcher was investigating how sleep influences test scores, for example, the test scores would be the dependent variable.

Independent Variable

The independent variable is the variable that the experimenter manipulates. In the previous example, the amount of sleep an individual gets would be the independent variable.

A hypothesis is a tentative statement or a guess about the possible relationship between two or more variables. In looking at how sleep influences test scores, the researcher might hypothesize that people who get more sleep will perform better on a math test the following day. The purpose of the experiment, then, is to either support or reject this hypothesis.

Operational definitions are necessary when performing an experiment. When we say that something is an independent or dependent variable, we must have a very clear and specific definition of the meaning and scope of that variable.

Extraneous Variables

Extraneous variables are other variables that may also affect the outcome of an experiment. Types of extraneous variables include participant variables, situational variables, demand characteristics, and experimenter effects. In some cases, researchers can take steps to control for extraneous variables.

Demand Characteristics

Demand characteristics are subtle hints that indicate what an experimenter is hoping to find in a psychology experiment. This can sometimes cause participants to alter their behavior, which can affect the results of the experiment.

Intervening Variables

Intervening variables are factors that can affect the relationship between two other variables. 

Confounding Variables

Confounding variables are variables that can affect the dependent variable, but that experimenters cannot control for. Confounding variables can make it difficult to determine if the effect was due to changes in the independent variable or if the confounding variable may have played a role.

Psychologists, like other scientists, use the scientific method when conducting an experiment. The scientific method is a set of procedures and principles that guide how scientists develop research questions, collect data, and come to conclusions.

The five basic steps of the experimental process are:

• Identifying a problem to study
• Devising the research protocol
• Conducting the experiment
• Analyzing the data collected
• Sharing the findings (usually in writing or via presentation)

Most psychology students are expected to use the experimental method at some point in their academic careers. Learning how to conduct an experiment is important to understanding how psychologists prove and disprove theories in this field.

There are a few different types of experiments that researchers might use when studying psychology. Each has pros and cons depending on the participants being studied, the hypothesis, and the resources available to conduct the research.

Lab Experiments

Lab experiments are common in psychology because they allow experimenters more control over the variables. These experiments can also be easier for other researchers to replicate. The drawback of this research type is that what takes place in a lab is not always what takes place in the real world.

Field Experiments

Sometimes researchers opt to conduct their experiments in the field. For example, a social psychologist interested in researching prosocial behavior might have a person pretend to faint and observe how long it takes onlookers to respond.

This type of experiment can be a great way to see behavioral responses in realistic settings. But it is more difficult for researchers to control the many variables existing in these settings that could potentially influence the experiment's results.

Quasi-Experiments

While lab experiments are known as true experiments, researchers can also utilize a quasi-experiment. Quasi-experiments are often referred to as natural experiments because the researchers do not have true control over the independent variable.

A researcher looking at personality differences and birth order, for example, is not able to manipulate the independent variable in the situation (personality traits). Participants also cannot be randomly assigned because they naturally fall into pre-existing groups based on their birth order.

So why would a researcher use a quasi-experiment? This is a good choice in situations where scientists are interested in studying phenomena in natural, real-world settings. It's also beneficial if there are limits on research funds or time.

Field experiments can be either quasi-experiments or true experiments.

Examples of the Experimental Method in Use

The experimental method can provide insight into human thoughts and behaviors, Researchers use experiments to study many aspects of psychology.

A 2019 study investigated whether splitting attention between electronic devices and classroom lectures had an effect on college students' learning abilities. It found that dividing attention between these two mediums did not affect lecture comprehension. However, it did impact long-term retention of the lecture information, which affected students' exam performance.

An experiment used participants' eye movements and electroencephalogram (EEG) data to better understand cognitive processing differences between experts and novices. It found that experts had higher power in their theta brain waves than novices, suggesting that they also had a higher cognitive load.

A study looked at whether chatting online with a computer via a chatbot changed the positive effects of emotional disclosure often received when talking with an actual human. It found that the effects were the same in both cases.

One experimental study evaluated whether exercise timing impacts information recall. It found that engaging in exercise prior to performing a memory task helped improve participants' short-term memory abilities.

Sometimes researchers use the experimental method to get a bigger-picture view of psychological behaviors and impacts. For example, one 2018 study examined several lab experiments to learn more about the impact of various environmental factors on building occupant perceptions.

A 2020 study set out to determine the role that sensation-seeking plays in political violence. This research found that sensation-seeking individuals have a higher propensity for engaging in political violence. It also found that providing access to a more peaceful, yet still exciting political group helps reduce this effect.

While the experimental method can be a valuable tool for learning more about psychology and its impacts, it also comes with a few pitfalls.

Experiments may produce artificial results, which are difficult to apply to real-world situations. Similarly, researcher bias can impact the data collected. Results may not be able to be reproduced, meaning the results have low reliability .

Since humans are unpredictable and their behavior can be subjective, it can be hard to measure responses in an experiment. In addition, political pressure may alter the results. The subjects may not be a good representation of the population, or groups used may not be comparable.

And finally, since researchers are human too, results may be degraded due to human error.

What This Means For You

Every psychological research method has its pros and cons. The experimental method can help establish cause and effect, and it's also beneficial when research funds are limited or time is of the essence.

At the same time, it's essential to be aware of this method's pitfalls, such as how biases can affect the results or the potential for low reliability. Keeping these in mind can help you review and assess research studies more accurately, giving you a better idea of whether the results can be trusted or have limitations.

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By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Experimental Psychology: 10 Examples & Definition

Dave Cornell (PhD)

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Experimental psychology refers to studying psychological phenomena using scientific methods. Originally, the primary scientific method involved manipulating one variable and observing systematic changes in another variable.

Today, psychologists utilize several types of scientific methodologies.

Experimental psychology examines a wide range of psychological phenomena, including: memory, sensation and perception, cognitive processes, motivation, emotion, developmental processes, in addition to the neurophysiological concomitants of each of these subjects.

Studies are conducted on both animal and human participants, and must comply with stringent requirements and controls regarding the ethical treatment of both.

Definition of Experimental Psychology

Experimental psychology is a branch of psychology that utilizes scientific methods to investigate the mind and behavior.

It involves the systematic and controlled study of human and animal behavior through observation and experimentation .

Experimental psychologists design and conduct experiments to understand cognitive processes, perception, learning, memory, emotion, and many other aspects of psychology. They often manipulate variables ( independent variables ) to see how this affects behavior or mental processes (dependent variables).

The findings from experimental psychology research are often used to better understand human behavior and can be applied in a range of contexts, such as education, health, business, and more.

Experimental Psychology Examples

1. The Puzzle Box Studies (Thorndike, 1898) Placing different cats in a box that can only be escaped by pulling a cord, and then taking detailed notes on how long it took for them to escape allowed Edward Thorndike to derive the Law of Effect: actions followed by positive consequences are more likely to occur again, and actions followed by negative consequences are less likely to occur again (Thorndike, 1898).

2. Reinforcement Schedules (Skinner, 1956) By placing rats in a Skinner Box and changing when and how often the rats are rewarded for pressing a lever, it is possible to identify how each schedule results in different behavior patterns (Skinner, 1956). This led to a wide range of theoretical ideas around how rewards and consequences can shape the behaviors of both animals and humans.

3. Observational Learning (Bandura, 1980) Some children watch a video of an adult punching and kicking a Bobo doll. Other children watch a video in which the adult plays nicely with the doll. By carefully observing the children’s behavior later when in a room with a Bobo doll, researchers can determine if television violence affects children’s behavior (Bandura, 1980).

4. The Fallibility of Memory (Loftus & Palmer, 1974) A group of participants watch the same video of two cars having an accident. Two weeks later, some are asked to estimate the rate of speed the cars were going when they “smashed” into each other. Some participants are asked to estimate the rate of speed the cars were going when they “bumped” into each other. Changing the phrasing of the question changes the memory of the eyewitness.

5. Intrinsic Motivation in the Classroom (Dweck, 1990) To investigate the role of autonomy on intrinsic motivation, half of the students are told they are “free to choose” which tasks to complete. The other half of the students are told they “must choose” some of the tasks. Researchers then carefully observe how long the students engage in the tasks and later ask them some questions about if they enjoyed doing the tasks or not.

6. Systematic Desensitization (Wolpe, 1958) A clinical psychologist carefully documents his treatment of a patient’s social phobia with progressive relaxation. At first, the patient is trained to monitor, tense, and relax various muscle groups while viewing photos of parties. Weeks later, they approach a stranger to ask for directions, initiate a conversation on a crowded bus, and attend a small social gathering. The therapist’s notes are transcribed into a scientific report and published in a peer-reviewed journal.

7. Study of Remembering (Bartlett, 1932) Bartlett’s work is a seminal study in the field of memory, where he used the concept of “schema” to describe an organized pattern of thought or behavior. He conducted a series of experiments using folk tales to show that memory recall is influenced by cultural schemas and personal experiences.

8. Study of Obedience (Milgram, 1963) This famous study explored the conflict between obedience to authority and personal conscience. Milgram found that a majority of participants were willing to administer what they believed were harmful electric shocks to a stranger when instructed by an authority figure, highlighting the power of authority and situational factors in driving behavior.

9. Pavlov’s Dog Study (Pavlov, 1927) Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, conducted a series of experiments that became a cornerstone in the field of experimental psychology. Pavlov noticed that dogs would salivate when they saw food. He then began to ring a bell each time he presented the food to the dogs. After a while, the dogs began to salivate merely at the sound of the bell. This experiment demonstrated the principle of “classical conditioning.”

10, Piaget’s Stages of Development (Piaget, 1958) Jean Piaget proposed a theory of cognitive development in children that consists of four distinct stages: the sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years), where children learn about the world through their senses and motor activities, through to the the formal operational stage (12 years and beyond), where abstract reasoning and hypothetical thinking develop. Piaget’s theory is an example of experimental psychology as it was developed through systematic observation and experimentation on children’s problem-solving behaviors .

Types of Research Methodologies in Experimental Psychology 

Researchers utilize several different types of research methodologies since the early days of Wundt (1832-1920).

1. The Experiment

The experiment involves the researcher manipulating the level of one variable, called the Independent Variable (IV), and then observing changes in another variable, called the Dependent Variable (DV).

The researcher is interested in determining if the IV causes changes in the DV. For example, does television violence make children more aggressive?

So, some children in the study, called research participants, will watch a show with TV violence, called the treatment group. Others will watch a show with no TV violence, called the control group.

So, there are two levels of the IV: violence and no violence. Next, children will be observed to see if they act more aggressively. This is the DV.

If TV violence makes children more aggressive, then the children that watched the violent show will me more aggressive than the children that watched the non-violent show.

A key requirement of the experiment is random assignment . Each research participant is assigned to one of the two groups in a way that makes it a completely random process. This means that each group will have a mix of children: different personality types, diverse family backgrounds, and range of intelligence levels.

2. The Longitudinal Study

A longitudinal study involves selecting a sample of participants and then following them for years, or decades, periodically collecting data on the variables of interest.

For example, a researcher might be interested in determining if parenting style affects academic performance of children. Parenting style is called the predictor variable , and academic performance is called the outcome variable .

Researchers will begin by randomly selecting a group of children to be in the study. Then, they will identify the type of parenting practices used when the children are 4 and 5 years old.

A few years later, perhaps when the children are 8 and 9, the researchers will collect data on their grades. This process can be repeated over the next 10 years, including through college.

If parenting style has an effect on academic performance, then the researchers will see a connection between the predictor variable and outcome variable.

Children raised with parenting style X will have higher grades than children raised with parenting style Y.

3. The Case Study

The case study is an in-depth study of one individual. This is a research methodology often used early in the examination of a psychological phenomenon or therapeutic treatment.

For example, in the early days of treating phobias, a clinical psychologist may try teaching one of their patients how to relax every time they see the object that creates so much fear and anxiety, such as a large spider.

The therapist would take very detailed notes on how the teaching process was implemented and the reactions of the patient. When the treatment had been completed, those notes would be written in a scientific form and submitted for publication in a scientific journal for other therapists to learn from.

There are several other types of methodologies available which vary different aspects of the three described above. The researcher will select a methodology that is most appropriate to the phenomenon they want to examine.

They also must take into account various practical considerations such as how much time and resources are needed to complete the study. Conducting research always costs money.

People and equipment are needed to carry-out every study, so researchers often try to obtain funding from their university or a government agency. 

Origins and Key Developments in Experimental Psychology

Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt (1832-1920) is considered one of the fathers of modern psychology. He was a physiologist and philosopher and helped establish psychology as a distinct discipline (Khaleefa, 1999).  

In 1879 he established the world’s first psychology research lab at the University of Leipzig. This is considered a key milestone for establishing psychology as a scientific discipline. In addition to being the first person to use the term “psychologist,” to describe himself, he also founded the discipline’s first scientific journal Philosphische Studien in 1883.

Another notable figure in the development of experimental psychology is Ernest Weber . Trained as a physician, Weber studied sensation and perception and created the first quantitative law in psychology.

The equation denotes how judgments of sensory differences are relative to previous levels of sensation, referred to as the just-noticeable difference (jnd). This is known today as Weber’s Law (Hergenhahn, 2009).    

Gustav Fechner , one of Weber’s students, published the first book on experimental psychology in 1860, titled Elemente der Psychophysik. His worked centered on the measurement of psychophysical facets of sensation and perception, with many of his methods still in use today.    

The first American textbook on experimental psychology was Elements of Physiological Psychology, published in 1887 by George Trumball Ladd .

Ladd also established a psychology lab at Yale University, while Stanley Hall and Charles Sanders continued Wundt’s work at a lab at Johns Hopkins University.

In the late 1800s, Charles Pierce’s contribution to experimental psychology is especially noteworthy because he invented the concept of random assignment (Stigler, 1992; Dehue, 1997).

Go Deeper: 15 Random Assignment Examples

This procedure ensures that each participant has an equal chance of being placed in any of the experimental groups (e.g., treatment or control group). This eliminates the influence of confounding factors related to inherent characteristics of the participants.

Random assignment is a fundamental criterion for a study to be considered a valid experiment.

From there, experimental psychology flourished in the 20th century as a science and transformed into an approach utilized in cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, and social psychology .

Today, the term experimental psychology refers to the study of a wide range of phenomena and involves methodologies not limited to the manipulation of variables.

The Scientific Process and Experimental Psychology

The one thing that makes psychology a science and distinguishes it from its roots in philosophy is the reliance upon the scientific process to answer questions. This makes psychology a science was the main goal of its earliest founders such as Wilhelm Wundt.

There are numerous steps in the scientific process, outlined in the graphic below.

1. Observation

First, the scientist observes an interesting phenomenon that sparks a question. For example, are the memories of eyewitnesses really reliable, or are they subject to bias or unintentional manipulation?

2. Hypothesize

Next, this question is converted into a testable hypothesis. For instance: the words used to question a witness can influence what they think they remember.

3. Devise a Study

Then the researcher(s) select a methodology that will allow them to test that hypothesis. In this case, the researchers choose the experiment, which will involve randomly assigning some participants to different conditions.

In one condition, participants are asked a question that implies a certain memory (treatment group), while other participants are asked a question which is phrased neutrally and does not imply a certain memory (control group).

The researchers then write a proposal that describes in detail the procedures they want to use, how participants will be selected, and the safeguards they will employ to ensure the rights of the participants.

That proposal is submitted to an Institutional Review Board (IRB). The IRB is comprised of a panel of researchers, community representatives, and other professionals that are responsible for reviewing all studies involving human participants.

4. Conduct the Study

If the IRB accepts the proposal, then the researchers may begin collecting data. After the data has been collected, it is analyzed using a software program such as SPSS.

Those analyses will either support or reject the hypothesis. That is, either the participants’ memories were affected by the wording of the question, or not.

5. Publish the study

Finally, the researchers write a paper detailing their procedures and results of the statistical analyses. That paper is then submitted to a scientific journal.

The lead editor of that journal will then send copies of the paper to 3-5 experts in that subject. Each of those experts will read the paper and basically try to find as many things wrong with it as possible. Because they are experts, they are very good at this task.

After reading those critiques, most likely, the editor will send the paper back to the researchers and require that they respond to the criticisms, collect more data, or reject the paper outright.

In some cases, the study was so well-done that the criticisms were minimal and the editor accepts the paper. It then gets published in the scientific journal several months later.

That entire process can easily take 2 years, usually more. But, the findings of that study went through a very rigorous process. This means that we can have substantial confidence that the conclusions of the study are valid.

Experimental psychology refers to utilizing a scientific process to investigate psychological phenomenon.

There are a variety of methods employed today. They are used to study a wide range of subjects, including memory, cognitive processes, emotions and the neurophysiological basis of each.

The history of psychology as a science began in the 1800s primarily in Germany. As interest grew, the field expanded to the United States where several influential research labs were established.

As more methodologies were developed, the field of psychology as a science evolved into a prolific scientific discipline that has provided invaluable insights into human behavior.

Bartlett, F. C., & Bartlett, F. C. (1995).  Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology . Cambridge university press.

Dehue, T. (1997). Deception, efficiency, and random groups: Psychology and the gradual origination of the random group design. Isis , 88 (4), 653-673.

Ebbinghaus, H. (2013). Memory: A contribution to experimental psychology.  Annals of neurosciences ,  20 (4), 155.

Hergenhahn, B. R. (2009). An introduction to the history of psychology. Belmont. CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning .

Khaleefa, O. (1999). Who is the founder of psychophysics and experimental psychology? American Journal of Islam and Society , 16 (2), 1-26.

Loftus, E. F., & Palmer, J. C. (1974).  Reconstruction of auto-mobile destruction : An example of the interaction between language and memory.  Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal behavior , 13, 585-589.

Pavlov, I.P. (1927). Conditioned reflexes . Dover, New York.

Piaget, J. (1959).  The language and thought of the child  (Vol. 5). Psychology Press.

Piaget, J., Fraisse, P., & Reuchlin, M. (2014). Experimental psychology its scope and method: Volume I (Psychology Revivals): History and method . Psychology Press.

Skinner, B. F. (1956). A case history in scientlfic method. American Psychologist, 11 , 221-233

Stigler, S. M. (1992). A historical view of statistical concepts in psychology and educational research. American Journal of Education , 101 (1), 60-70.

Thorndike, E. L. (1898). Animal intelligence: An experimental study of the associative processes in animals. Psychological Review Monograph Supplement 2 .

Wolpe, J. (1958). Psychotherapy by reciprocal inhibition. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Appendix: Images reproduced as Text

Definition: Experimental psychology is a branch of psychology that focuses on conducting systematic and controlled experiments to study human behavior and cognition.

Overview: Experimental psychology aims to gather empirical evidence and explore cause-and-effect relationships between variables. Experimental psychologists utilize various research methods, including laboratory experiments, surveys, and observations, to investigate topics such as perception, memory, learning, motivation, and social behavior .

Example: The Pavlov’s Dog experimental psychology experiment used scientific methods to develop a theory about how learning and association occur in animals. The same concepts were subsequently used in the study of humans, wherein psychology-based ideas about learning were developed. Pavlov’s use of the empirical evidence was foundational to the study’s success.

Experimental Psychology Milestones:

1890: William James publishes “The Principles of Psychology”, a foundational text in the field of psychology.

1896: Lightner Witmer opens the first psychological clinic at the University of Pennsylvania, marking the beginning of clinical psychology.

1913: John B. Watson publishes “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It”, marking the beginning of Behaviorism.

1920: Hermann Rorschach introduces the Rorschach inkblot test.

1938: B.F. Skinner introduces the concept of operant conditioning .

1967: Ulric Neisser publishes “Cognitive Psychology” , marking the beginning of the cognitive revolution.

1980: The third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) is published, introducing a new classification system for mental disorders.

The Scientific Process

• Observe an interesting phenomenon
• Formulate testable hypothesis
• Select methodology and design study
• Submit research proposal to IRB
• Collect and analyzed data; write paper
• Submit paper for critical reviews

• Dave Cornell (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/dave-cornell-phd/ 23 Achieved Status Examples
• Dave Cornell (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/dave-cornell-phd/ 25 Defense Mechanisms Examples
• Dave Cornell (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/dave-cornell-phd/ 15 Theory of Planned Behavior Examples
• Dave Cornell (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/dave-cornell-phd/ 18 Adaptive Behavior Examples

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 23 Achieved Status Examples
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• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 25 Defense Mechanisms Examples
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Experimental Studies

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Intervention studies

Experimental study is “study in which conditions are under the direct control of the investigator” (Last 2001 ). It is employed to test the efficacy of a preventive or therapeutic measure.

Experimental studies can provide the strongest evidence about the existence of a cause-effect relationship .

Basic Characteristics

Types of experimental studies.

There are two different types of experimental studies: therapeutic and prevention studies (Webb et al. 2005 ).

In therapeutic studies ( clinical trials ), different medicines or medical procedures for a given disease are compared in a clinical setting.

Trials that are conducted on healthy or apparently healthy individuals with the aim of preventing future morbidity or mortality are called preventive studies . Preventive studies include community study , in which the intervention is applied to groups, and field study , in which the intervention is applied to healthy individuals at usual or high risk of...

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Bhopal R (2002) Concepts of epidemiology. An integrated introduction to the ideas, theories, principles, and methods of epidemiology. Oxford University Press, Oxford

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Dawson B, Trapp R (2001) Basic and clinical biostatistics, 3rd edn. Lange Medical Books/McGraw-Hill, New York

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Experimental Psychology: History, Method and Characteristics

The Experimental psychology Is a stream that studies the psychological phenomena using an experimental methodology based on observation.

It guarantees a scientific practice and involves the observation, manipulation and registration of the variables that affect a subject under study.

Experimental psychologists are interested in studying human behavior by manipulating variables in controllable situations and in unnatural environments that affect and influence behavior.

Gustav Theodor Fechner Was one of the pioneers in the use of the experimental when trying to prove the relation between physical and sensorial magnitudes, in 1860.

However, it was in 1879 when Wilhelm Wundt , Considered one of the founders of this current, created the first laboratory of experimental psychology.

Definition of experimental psychology

This current of psychology defends the experimental method as the most suitable form for the study of human behavior.

Experimental psychology considers that psychological phenomena can be analyzed by experimental methods consisting in the observation, manipulation and recording of dependent, independent and extraneous variables that influence the object of study.

Many psychologists have used this method when carrying out their work to address multiple issues such as memory , Learning, sensation, perception, motivation and development processes, among others.

Professionals who adopt this method want to know the behavior of a subject by manipulating variables in controlled environments. The contexts in which they are carried out are the laboratories and instruments are used that guarantee a control and an exhaustive precision in their investigations.

The experiments can be performed in humans but mostly animals are used, because many times for ethical reasons people can not be used to perform such tests. In addition, animals provide greater availability and control to researchers.

The most scientific part of psychology is unified with experimental psychology, because the use of its methodology guarantees a scientific practice through observation and experimentation, removing the laws of behavior and mental processes.

With its emergence in the nineteenth century, psychology begins to focus and become interested in the study of observable phenomena, thus giving rise to an empirical science, that is, based on observation and experience of events.

Later, experimental psychology would use rigorous methods and instruments to carry out the measurements in its investigations.

Experimental psychology emerges in Germany as a modern discipline with Wundt, who created the first experimental laboratory in 1879 and introduced a mathematical and experimental approach to research.

Earlier in 1860 Gustav Theodor Fechner, a German psychologist, attempted to test and reason the link between physical and sensory magnitudes through experimental data in his work Elements of psychophysics .

Other authors who contributed to this growing science were Charles Bell , A British physiologist who investigated nerves; Ernst Heinrich Weber , A German physician and considered one of its founders and Oswald Külpe , The principal founder of the Würzburg School in Germany, among others.

The appearance of different schools was due to this tendency to the experimentation of the time, whose purpose was to try to observe the degree of relationship between the biological and the psychological.

Among these schools is the Russian who was interested in neurophysiology and was initiated by Pavlov Y Bechterev . Functionalism, which seeks to demonstrate the biological laws that delimit the behavior and behaviorism of Watson .

In the twentieth century behaviorism was the predominant school within psychology in general and especially in the United States. It is the branch of psychology that set aside mental phenomena within experimental psychology.

In Europe, however, this was not the case, since psychology was influenced by such authors as Craik, Hick and Broadbent who focused on subjects such as attention, thought and memory, thus laying the foundations of cognitive psychology.

In the last half of the century, psychologists used multiple methods, not only focused and limited to a strictly experimental approach.

In addition, the experimental method is used in many different fields within psychology such as social psychology and developmental psychology.

Experimental method

Experimental psychology considers that psychological phenomena can be studied through this method, thus constituting one of the bases of psychology as a science.

It involves the observation, manipulation and recording of dependent, independent and extraneous variables that are the object of study, in order to be able to describe and explain them in terms of their relation to human behavior.

This method aims to identify the causes and evaluate the consequences, the researcher tries to find a causality between different variables.

On the one hand, there is the medium variable that would act as an independent variable. The dependent would be that which is related to the behavior of the subject. Finally, all external factors influencing this would be weird variables.

The experiment is carried out in a controlled environment such as a laboratory, where the experimenter can manipulate variables and control those that can affect the others. In addition, it can thus form specific experimental groups of subjects according to their study interests.

The researcher is the one who creates the necessary conditions to be able to carry out the study and to apply the independent variable when he sees fit. In addition to this method can be repeated conditions to check the results as well as alter them to see the differences of behavior to study between different situations.

In this approach, the experimenter manipulates circumstances to control their increase or decrease as well as their effect on the observed behaviors, to be able to describe why that situation or change occurs.

Many times before carrying out an investigation one resorts to pilot experiments that are tests of the experiment to study some aspects of him. In addition the experiments have another positive part because being carried out in these controlled contexts can be replicated by other researchers in future situations.

Characteristics of experimental research

Some of the characteristics of experimental research are as follows:

• Subjects are randomly arranged into equivalent groups, giving rise to statistical equivalence so that the differences between the results are not due to initial differences between groups of subjects.
• Existence of two or more groups or conditions to be able to carry out the comparison between them. Experiments can not be performed with a single group or condition to be compared.
• Management of an independent variable, in the form of different values ​​or circumstances. This direct manipulation is done to be able to observe the changes that it produces in the dependent variables. In addition, the assignment of values ​​and conditions must be done by the researcher, because if this were not so, it would not be considered a real experiment.
• Measure each dependent variable by assigning numerical values ​​so that the result can be evaluated and thus speak of an experimental investigation.
• Have a design with which you can control to a greater extent the influence of the foreign variables and to avoid that the results are affected by them.
• Use inferential statistics to make generalizations of research to the population.

Phases of an experiment

1- approaching a knowledge problem.

Choosing the problem to be investigated depends on the experimenter and what you want to study, the research questions have to be able to be solved through an experimental process.

Depending on the problem, the methodological approach to be followed will be delimited.

2- Hypothesis Formulation

The hypotheses are statements that are formulated and that anticipate the results that could be obtained from the research, relate at least two variables and must be described in empirical terms, being able to be observed and measurable.

3- Making an appropriate design

With the design, the procedure or work plan of the researcher is plotted, indicating what is going to be done and how the study will be carried out, from the variables involved to the assignment of the subjects to the groups.

4- Collection and analysis of data

For the collection of data there are multiple instruments that are valid and reliable, and techniques that will be better or worse adapted and that will present advantages and disadvantages.

The analysis of the data is carried out by organizing the information so that it can be described, analyzed and explained.

5- Conclusions

In the conclusions, it is developed the fulfillment or not of the hypotheses raised, the limitations of the research work, the methodology that has been followed, implications for the practice, generalization at the population level, as well as future lines of research.

Objective and conditions of the experimental method

Its objective is to investigate the causal relationships between variables, that is, to analyze the changes that occurred in the dependent variable (behavior) as a consequence of the different values ​​presented by the independent variable (external factor).

The conditions to be able to conclude that there is a relationship between variables are:

• Temporal contingency between variables. The variable cause that would be the independent, has to precede the variable consequence, that would be the dependent one.
• Covariation between variables. In order for there to be a relationship between the two, a change in the values ​​of one would imply a proportional change in the values ​​of the second.
• The correlation between variables should not be attributable to the effect of foreign variables.

In short, the researcher must manipulate the independent variable, establish a temporal order among variables and have to eliminate the effect that is exerted as a consequence of extraneous variables.

• Experimental psychology. Recovered from ecured.cu.
• Experimental psychology. Retrieved from wikipedia.org.
• Definition of experimental psychology. Recovered from definicion.de.
• Definition, characteristics and objective of the experimental method. Retrieved from psikipedia.com.

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1.1 - a quick history of the design of experiments (doe).

The textbook we are using brings an engineering perspective to the design of experiments. We will bring in other contexts and examples from other fields of study including agriculture (where much of the early research was done) education and nutrition. Surprisingly the service industry has begun using design of experiments as well.

  All experiments are designed experiments, it is just that some are poorly designed and some are well-designed.  

Engineering Experiments Section  

If we had infinite time and resource budgets there probably wouldn't be a big fuss made over designing experiments. In production and quality control we want to control the error and learn as much as we can about the process or the underlying theory with the resources at hand. From an engineering perspective we're trying to use experimentation for the following purposes:

• reduce time to design/develop new products & processes
• improve performance of existing processes
• improve reliability and performance of products
• achieve product & process robustness
• perform evaluation of materials, design alternatives, setting component & system tolerances, etc.

We always want to fine-tune or improve the process. In today's global world this drive for competitiveness affects all of us both as consumers and producers.

Robustness is a concept that enters into statistics at several points. At the analysis, stage robustness refers to a technique that isn't overly influenced by bad data. Even if there is an outlier or bad data you still want to get the right answer. Regardless of who or what is involved in the process - it is still going to work. We will come back to this notion of robustness later in the course (Lesson 12).

Every experiment design has inputs. Back to the cake baking example: we have our ingredients such as flour, sugar, milk, eggs, etc. Regardless of the quality of these ingredients we still want our cake to come out successfully. In every experiment there are inputs and in addition, there are factors (such as time of baking, temperature, geometry of the cake pan, etc.), some of which you can control and others that you can't control. The experimenter must think about factors that affect the outcome. We also talk about the output and the yield or the response to your experiment. For the cake, the output might be measured as texture, flavor, height, size, or flavor.

Four Eras in the History of DOE Section  

Here's a quick timeline:

• R. A. Fisher & his co-workers
• Profound impact on agricultural science
• Factorial designs, ANOVA
• Box & Wilson, response surfaces
• Applications in the chemical & process industries
• Quality improvement initiatives in many companies
• CQI and TQM were important ideas and became management goals
• Taguchi and robust parameter design, process robustness
• The modern era, beginning circa 1990, when economic competitiveness and globalization are driving all sectors of the economy to be more competitive.

Immediately following World War II the first industrial era marked another resurgence in the use of DOE. It was at this time that Box and Wilson (1951) wrote the key paper in response surface designs thinking of the output as a response function and trying to find the optimum conditions for this function. George Box died early in 2013. And, an interesting fact here - he married Fisher's daughter! He worked in the chemical industry in England in his early career and then came to America and worked at the University of Wisconsin for most of his career.

The Second Industrial Era - or the Quality Revolution

W. Edwards Deming

The importance of statistical quality control was taken to Japan in the 1950s by W Edward Deming. This started what Montgomery calls a second Industrial Era, and sometimes the quality revolution. After the second world war, Japanese products were of terrible quality. They were cheaply made and not very good. In the 1960s their quality started improving. The Japanese car industry adopted statistical quality control procedures and conducted experiments which started this new era. Total Quality Management (TQM), Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) are management techniques that have come out of this statistical quality revolution - statistical quality control and design of experiments.

Taguchi, a Japanese engineer, discovered and published a lot of the techniques that were later brought to the West, using an independent development of what he referred to as orthogonal arrays. In the West, these were referred to as fractional factorial designs. These are both very similar and we will discuss both of these in this course. He came up with the concept of robust parameter design and process robustness.

The Modern Era

Around 1990 Six Sigma, a new way of representing CQI, became popular. Now it is a company and they employ a technique which has been adopted by many of the large manufacturing companies. This is a technique that uses statistics to make decisions based on quality and feedback loops. It incorporates a lot of previous statistical and management techniques.

Clinical Trials

Montgomery omits in this brief history a major part of design of experimentation that evolved - clinical trials. This evolved in the 1960s when medical advances were previously based on anecdotal data; a doctor would examine six patients and from this wrote a paper and published it. The incredible biases resulting from these kinds of anecdotal studies became known. The outcome was a move toward making the randomized double-blind clinical trial the gold standard for approval of any new product, medical device, or procedure. The scientific application of the statistical procedures became very important.

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experimental

Definition of experimental

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Examples of experimental in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'experimental.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Middle English, borrowed from Medieval Latin experīmentālis, from Latin experīmentum "testing, experience, proof" + -ālis -al entry 1 — more at experiment entry 1

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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“Experimental.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/experimental. Accessed 30 Aug. 2024.

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Experimental Psychology: Learn everything about its history

The field of experimental psychology branches out into many various sub-fields and directions with people believing in various things. Even now scientists do not have a clear picture of the connection between the mind and the body. There have been many different attempts to unravel and end the dilemma. Understanding even the majority of the connection and the brain by itself will be a major development in today’s science. The attempt has brought on many big collaborative initiatives with big names like the Human Brain Project coming to mind. Psychology in itself has had a long history and has shaped itself in various ways and directions. To understand it, one needs to look at the first mentions of what we now call psychology from centuries ago.

History of Experimental Psychology

Experimental psychology today is completely different from what the discipline looked like years and centuries ago.  Back then we didn’t have the technology and the infrastructure available to us today. The question of mind and body was on the lips of many prominent philosophers. Names like Plato and Aristotle come to mind when the first mentions of the mind-body problem arise. The arguments and debates over free will and determinism and nature vs. nurture take roots centuries ago. These debates are still prevalent nowadays. They turn into years long research projects in the fields of experimental psychology and neuroscience.

Philosophical beginnings: nature vs. nurture & free will vs. determinism

Famous philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, and René Descartes made the first references to experimental psychology. Plato and Aristotle both contemplated the famous nature vs. nurture question. They disagreed on the fundamental point of the origin of what makes us human comes from. Plato argued from the genetic point of view, saying that certain things are a part of our biological configuration. He believed that everything is set in stone from the very beginning. Aristotle, on the other hand, put the emphasis on the nurture side of the debate. He preached that humans are sponges that soak up the information with every new experience and learning opportunity.

Descartes looked at a different question that boggles the minds of scientists and researchers nowadays. He believed that actions and behaviors of people are predetermined and free will in itself does not exist. According to Descartes, pineal gland controls every behavior in the brain. His view formed a very popular belief called the mind-body dualism. The pineal gland being the master gland for all actions was proven wrong at a later point. The free will vs. determinism debate, however, still remains open in the 21st century.

Research into decision making has become one of the hottest topics in neuroscience nowadays. We now have different research studies that show neuronal spiking activity before a decision is made (1). This sparked a lot of controversy in favor of determinism. Many started proclaiming that if there is neuronal activity before a behavior, that means, that all actions are predetermined beforehand. All the philosophical questions are still very present today and experimental psychology tries to answer the questions with various methods. It does so by looking at the problem in hand from various perspectives.

First steps to science

The beginning of psychology as a discipline emerged in Leipzig, Germany. In 1879 Wilhelm Wundt built his first experimental laboratory on the grounds of the University of Leipzig. Wundt governed the term introspection. Wundt believed that by asking subjects to talk in detail about the experience during an assigned task, he will be able to develop a guideline for the consciousness elements. That became the ultimate goal for introspection. Wundt believed that since conscious experiences could be described by people, there was a possibility to explore and observe these experiences and create a map of them.

Nowadays, looking back, the approach that Wundt had was a bit naïve. Despite that, it became the first milestone in creating what is now known as cognitive psychology . Wundt and his colleagues have discovered that there is a difference in realizing that something is happening or sensing it and understanding what that something is or,  perceiving it. He noted a time difference between this notion of sensation and perception. Perception seemed to occur later than sensation.

Wundt’s impact on science today

Nowadays, in cognitive psychology, measuring reaction times happening during various mental tasks is a regular occurrence. Scientists try to show exactly which events happen in the brain first and which ones occur later. Researchers are attempting to acquire the answer to the origin of consciousness. They want to unravel where and when the very first series of neuronal spikes occur in the brain with the introduction of a new stimulus. Researchers trace it back to that same question of free will and determinism. They are still trying to figure out what happens first, the behavior or the action itself or a certain event that happens in the brain.

Of course, nowadays, scientists have a lot more advanced tools to measure these time lapses and series of events. Despite that fact, we seem to not be a lot closer to the truth. We are still trying to figure out the truth behind the conscious experiences and the external behaviors and actions.

Functionalism: evolutionary psychology

Another branch of experimental psychology went into quite the opposite direction from what Wundt and his colleagues were doing. It solidified the ground for what later would become behavioral psychology. Behavioral psychology would dominate the field of the entire discipline for quite some time.

The functionalists, as they called themselves, tried to understand why humans and nonhuman animals behaved in the way they do. Functionalism thesis moved onto to what is also known as evolutionary psychology . It quite heavily operates upon the principles of Darwin’s natural selection. The notion that the best genetic components survived and the not useful ones have disappeared over the years. All actions intend to pass our genes on to our descendants with the goal of keeping our species alive.

Evolutionary psychology is still quite a prominent part of the discipline right now. Despite that it poses a slight problem in the face of experimental psychology. Experimental psychology values reliable and valid experiments. Evolutionary psychology experiments are quite difficult to arrange. Because of this, it is not as popular as some other branches of psychology.

Psychoanalysis: what do you dream of?

After Wundt’s laboratory and the waves of functionalism have died off, a new branch of psychology developed. It is the branch that the majority of the population associated with psychology nowadays. Despite the fact that not many practitioners use it nowadays, it is still quite popular.

Sigmund Freud created the psychodynamic approach was created and it focuses a lot on the unconscious. Id (the unconscious), desires, feelings , memories, and dreams are prime targets for psychodynamic therapists. Compared to other branches of psychology this one does not have very reliable results when it comes to proving its theories. Despite that fact, it came as a result of Freud’s observations of his many patients and their behaviors. Ordinary public associates it with clinical psychology and the methods of treatments for various psychological disorders up to this day.

Freud focused a lot on experiences that a patient cannot remember that could result in various disorders and dysfunctions in the adult life. Freud governed concepts like Oedipal complex, ego, superego, and interpretations of dreams. As mentioned above, not a lot of research went into the psychodynamic theory. Sometimes experimental psychology doesn’t consider the psychodynamic approach a part of it. Despite that, the contributions that the psychodynamic approach provided to the discipline still resonate to this day.

Behaviorism

Behaviorism is one of the prime examples of experimental psychology. Behaviorists believe that the true way to study the mind is by the actions and behaviors themselves and they attempt to do so in an objective and a clear way.

Ivan Pavlov and B.F. Skinner are the big names for behaviorism. Their experiments in classical and operational conditioning are popular in classes to this day. The experiments that they did became the premise for behaviorism. This approach understands everything as results of things happening in the environment – stimuli – and the actions that these stimuli produce – responses.

John. B. Watson was one of the famous American behaviorists with his experiments involving fear stimuli. His experiments were highly unethical and would be quite illegal today, but, despite that, they were the ones that brought quite a lot of light into the concepts of learning and developed phobias. Nowadays, the treatment for various phobias comes exclusively from the behaviorist point of view. Clinicians use exposure therapy to treat phobias and are quite successful in curing the majority of them.

Revolution of cognition

After behaviorism, the cognitive approach became popular as well. It did so due to the fact that scientists at that time became more and more interested in the brain and how the brain influences the behaviors that we do. The development of computers was a big step forward. Researchers saw the potential of how the brain is similar to a computer and how they can utilize information technologies in order to measure the brain and see the anatomy and functions and be able to model different events that happen in the nervous system . Cognitive psychology studies mental processes , memory, learning , attention , judgment, language and uses a variety of different methods including eye tracking and both, non-invasive and invasive neuroimaging methods.

Collaboration of all

Overall, the entire field of experimental psychology encompasses many different sub-disciplines and fields. It developed quite a bit from the first laboratory that Wundt created to hundreds upon hundreds experimental laboratories around the world today. Modern state-of-the art machinery and popular technology methods equip these laboratories in an attempt to help objectively study the mind and the body and the relationship between the two.

Marcos E, Genovesio A. Determining Monkey Free Choice Long before the Choice Is Made: The Principal Role of Prefrontal Neurons Involved in Both Decision and Motor Processes. Front Neural Circuits [Internet]. 2016;10:75. Available from: http://journal.frontiersin.org/Article/10.3389/fncir.2016.00075/abstract

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Experimental Bias: Psychology Definition, History & Examples

Experimental bias in psychology refers to systematic errors in the research process that can lead to inaccurate results. These biases can stem from various sources, including the experimenter’s expectations , participant selection, data analysis, or experimental design.

The history of experimental bias is intertwined with the development of psychological research methodology, as early studies often overlooked the importance of controlling for such biases. Persistent efforts to refine experimental procedures have led to an increased awareness of these issues.

Examples of experimental bias include confirmation bias, where researchers might unintentionally seek out information that confirms their hypotheses, and demand characteristics, where participants are influenced by their perceptions of what the experiment requires.

Understanding and mitigating experimental bias is crucial for the integrity of psychological research and the advancement of the field.

Table of Contents

Experimental bias refers to any factors that can distort the results of a psychological study, making them less accurate and reliable. These biases can come from the expectations of the researcher, the preconceived ideas of the participants, or the environment in which the study takes place.

To minimize these biases, researchers need to carefully design their studies, including using control groups, blinding procedures, and standardized instructions.

It is important to be aware of and carefully consider any potential biases throughout the research process to ensure the integrity of psychological studies.

Experimental bias has a rich historical background that can be traced back to the early days of psychological research. The term originated in the late 19th century when pioneers in psychology, such as Wilhelm Wundt and William James, recognized the need for more systematic and objective research practices.

During this time, psychological experiments, much like those in other scientific fields, often lacked rigorous standards, making them susceptible to various biases. However, Wundt and James were instrumental in advocating for the importance of systematic observation and measurement in psychological research.

As the field of psychology continued to evolve, there were significant events and studies that contributed to the understanding and mitigation of experimental bias. One key event was the development of statistical methods for controlling bias. This allowed researchers to identify and account for various types of bias, such as selection bias, confirmation bias, and experimenter bias.

Another significant contribution to the evolution of understanding experimental bias came from the replication crisis in psychology. In recent years, there have been concerns raised about the replicability of psychological studies, highlighting the need for more robust research practices to minimize experimental bias.

Examples of experimental bias in psychology can be found in everyday situations.

Imagine you are at a job interview and the interviewer asks you a question about your strengths. You may feel pressured to provide an answer that aligns with what you think they want to hear, rather than giving an honest response. This is similar to demand characteristics, where participants in a study may alter their behavior based on perceived expectations.

Confirmation bias is another common example that we encounter in our daily lives. Suppose you are having a debate with a friend about a controversial topic. You might selectively acknowledge information that supports your own viewpoint while disregarding evidence that contradicts it. This tendency to seek out information that confirms our existing beliefs is a manifestation of confirmation bias.

In medical trials, double-blind studies are conducted to mitigate experimenter bias. Imagine you are participating in a clinical trial for a new medication. Neither you nor the researchers know if you received the actual drug or a placebo. This blinding of both parties helps ensure that the researchers’ expectations or biases do not influence the outcomes of the study.

Sampling bias can also impact research findings and real-life situations. Let’s say a political candidate conducts a survey to gauge public opinion on a particular issue. However, they only distribute the survey at their campaign events, resulting in a biased sample of individuals who support their agenda. This sampling bias can lead to skewed results that are not representative of the broader population .

These real-life examples highlight the importance of being aware of and controlling for biases in psychological research as well as in our day-to-day interactions. By understanding these biases, we can strive for more objective and accurate conclusions in both scientific studies and our own decision-making processes.

Related Terms

Understanding related terms such as the ‘placebo effect,’ ‘observer effect,’ and ‘subject-expectancy effect’ is essential for grasping the nuances of experimental bias in psychological research. These terms are closely linked because they all involve potential sources of bias in research settings. However, they differ in their specific mechanisms and how they influence participant behavior.

The placebo effect occurs when individuals exhibit a physiological or psychological response to a treatment that has no therapeutic effect. This effect is relevant to experimental bias because it highlights the importance of control groups. By comparing the response to a treatment with a group receiving a placebo, researchers can determine if the observed effects are due to the treatment itself or are influenced by other factors.

The observer effect refers to changes in participants’ behavior resulting from their awareness of being observed. This effect is relevant to experimental bias because it can potentially skew the results. Participants may alter their behavior consciously or unconsciously in response to the presence of an observer, leading to inaccurate or biased data. Researchers must be aware of this effect and take steps to minimize its impact, such as using hidden cameras or employing unobtrusive observation methods.

The subject-expectancy effect involves participants’ preconceived notions and expectations influencing their behavior in a study. This effect is relevant to experimental bias because it can introduce confounding variables. If participants have certain expectations about the study or the desired outcome, their behavior may be influenced accordingly, leading to biased results. Researchers must consider and control for these expectations to ensure the validity and reliability of their findings.

These terms collectively underscore the multifaceted nature of bias in psychological research. Analyzing the placebo effect, observer effect, and subject-expectancy effect methodically enables researchers to design studies that minimize confounding variables and yield more valid and reliable data. By understanding the relationships between these terms, researchers can effectively address bias and enhance the quality of their research.

The following references provide a foundation for further reading on the topic of experimental bias in psychological research. These reputable sources have made significant contributions to our understanding of this phenomenon and are widely recognized within the academic community. They offer valuable insights into the challenges and consequences of experimenter expectations, subjectivity, and procedural variables in distorting study outcomes. By consulting these academically credible references, researchers and students can gain a deeper understanding of the complex nature of bias and develop strategies to minimize its impact on experimental design. These sources serve as essential resources for anyone interested in exploring and addressing the issue of bias in psychological research.

• Rosenthal, R., & Jacobson, L. (1968). Pygmalion in the Classroom: Teacher Expectation and Pupils’ Intellectual Development. The Urban Review, 3(1), 16-20. This classic study examines how teacher expectations can influence students’ intellectual development. It demonstrates the power of experimenter expectations on observed outcomes and highlights the importance of controlling for bias in research settings.
• Greenwald, A. G., & Krieger, L. H. (2006). Implicit Bias: Scientific Foundations. California Law Review, 94(4), 945-967. This article provides a comprehensive overview of implicit bias, which refers to unconscious biases that can affect perception , judgment, and behavior. It outlines the scientific foundations of implicit bias research and discusses its implications for understanding and addressing biases in various domains, including psychology.
• Strack, F., Martin, L. L., & Stepper, S. (1988). Inhibiting and Facilitating Conditions of the Human Smile: A Nonobtrusive Test of the Facial Feedback Hypothesis . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(5), 768-777. This influential study investigates the facial feedback hypothesis, which suggests that facial expressions can influence emotional experience. It highlights the importance of considering and controlling for experimenter biases that may inadvertently influence participants’ behavior and responses.
• Open Science Collaboration. (2015). Estimating the Reproducibility of Psychological Science. Science, 349(6251), aac4716. This landmark paper examines the reproducibility of psychological research by replicating 100 studies from three prominent psychology journals. The study highlights the prevalence of bias and other methodological issues, emphasizing the need for improved research practices and increased transparency in the field.

These references represent a small sample of the extensive literature available on experimental bias in psychological research. They offer valuable insights and serve as starting points for further exploration into this important topic.

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What is Experimental Film — History, Examples & Movements

W hat is an experimental film? This elusive and niche genre can be difficult to define, and there are many common misconceptions about experimental filmmaking, but we’ll be sorting through the fact and the fiction to provide a comprehensive overview of what it means for a film to be “experimental”. We’ll get started with a definition, then dig deeper into experimental filmmaking as a genre, and finally close things out by taking a look at some notable examples.

Avant garde film definition

First, let’s define experimental film.

There are many film terms and phrases that could use simple definitions, and we’ve compiled them all in our ultimate guide to filmmaking terminology . You can also look up definitions for every genre of film in our ultimate guide to movie genres .

EXPERIMENTAL FILM DEFINITION

What is an experimental film.

An experimental film is a project bucks the trends of conventional cinema and pushes the medium of film in unexplored ways. The spectrum of experimental films is extremely broad; this genre encompasses a great many types of projects of varying lengths, styles, and goals.

There are experimental feature films, though more experimental projects have shorter runtimes. This is due in part to many experimental films being made for low budgets and/or the fact that the majority of experimental films are never intended for mainstream appeal or traditional distribution.

AVANT GARDE FILM CHARACTERISTICS

• Can be any length
• Niche and often artsy
• Pushes boundaries and tries new things

Experimental filmmakers

Digging deeper into experimental film.

Let’s dig a little deeper into what it means for a project to be classified as an experimental film. There is a modicum of debate over what exactly constitutes an experimental film, and some projects blur the line between traditional cinema and experimental filmmaking by including elements of each. Experimentation can be found in the editing, in the filming, in the subject matter, or in the manipulation of the camera and celluloid’s chemical and mechanical processes.

A beginner’s guide to experimental cinema

There are many misconceptions about what experimental filmmaking is, so let’s dispel a couple. One common belief is that experimental films have no story. While some experimental films certainly lack anything that could be considered a traditional narrative, that does not hold true for all experimental films.

Another commonly held notion is that experimental films are weird for the sake of being weird or that they are simply filmed nonsense. This is quite a reductive stance to take on the entire genre, but it is an opinion shared by many. The audience for experimental films can be extremely niche, and experimental filmmakers are aware of this. They are not made for everyone.

Surreal = experimental is another common misconception. Containing an element of surrealism does not automatically make a project experimental in nature. However, there is an intrinsic linkage between surrealism and experimental cinema, so the misconception is understandable. Let’s clarify this point with an example.

Sexy Beast  •  dream sequence

This dream sequence from the gangster flick Sexy Beast is undoubtedly surreal yet there is nothing experimental at play. The surrealism is conjured through traditional filmmaking means only. So, while surrealism and experimental cinema often go hand-in-hand, surrealism alone is not enough to constitute a film being labeled as experimental; the filmmaking methods and the pushing or warping of boundaries play important roles as well.

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The history of experimental cinema

Experimental filmmaking over the years.

Since the first camera was invented , artists have been experimenting with the tool. At the dawn of cinema, everything was an experiment. It was only through the intervention of time that certain techniques and methods became standard.

While many of the techniques used in Voyage dans la Lune seem antiquated by modern filmmaking standards, they were absolutely boundary shattering way back in 1902. Radical experimentation was necessary to pull off so many things that had never before been seen or created in the medium of film.

A Trip to the Moon

As cinematic techniques improved and became seen as standards, there were still filmmakers willing to experiment and push the envelope. 1929’s Un Chien Andalou was an early masterpiece of both surrealism and experimental filmmaking. Many of the techniques used in Un Chien Andalou were experimental at the time but have since been integrated into more standard filmmaking techniques as the decades have passed. Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel were two master surrealists and played an important role in the common linkage between surrealism and experimentation through their boundary pushing methods.

Un Chien Andalou

By the 1940s, surrealism and experimental filmmaking were further linked through the work of Maya Deren. Over time, she has proven to be one of the most influential experimental filmmakers of all time. She created a number of experimental short films, the first of which, Meshes of the Afternoon , is often credited as a turning point for experimental and avant garde cinema. The short remains a highlight of the genre more than 70 years after it was first released.

If you are interested in making your own short films, check out our how to make a short film guide first.

Meshes of the Afternoon  •  Maya Deren

Andy Warhol is a name well known in the pop art world, but he made numerous contributions to the experimental film world as well. Warhol made nearly 150 experimental short films throughout his lifetime, and a number of them made throughout the 1960s were considered important contributions to the form. Below is a compilation of six of Warhol’s shorts made between 1964 and 1966.

Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests

David Lynch is perhaps the most well-known filmmaker to consistently experiment in his films. He earned a spot on our list of the best directors of all time . Some Lynch projects explore a blend between experimental cinema and traditional filmmaking, while other Lynch projects comfortably fall into the “wholly experimental” category. Since his debut feature in 1977 with Eraserhead , Lynch has continued to employ experimental techniques in his feature films to this day. A significant degree of Eraserhead’s experimentation can be found in the atmospheric sound design . Listen closely to the trailer below.

Eraserhead  •  trailer

Now that we’ve explored a brief history of experimental filmmaking, let’s see if we can sort experimental films into a few distinct categories.

Experimental film examples

Types of experimental films.

Though experimental films in general can be a bit difficult to categorize as they defy convention by their very nature, there are a few common types we can examine from a bird’s eye view . The first type is: experimental films that challenge the form of filmmaking . This includes projects that defy the expectation of what a film is and manipulate the creation process, like Stan Brakhage’s Dog Star Man .

Dog Star Man  •  complete

This piece of experimental filmmaking was originally produced as four shorts before being compiled as a singular project. Dog Star Man is often hailed as an experimental masterpiece and was made through various manipulations to the film stock, experimenting with different exposure types, and radical editing techniques.

Another film that lands in the “challenges the form” category is Derek Jarman’s Blue . This one-hour-19-minute experimental film features just a single, unchanging visual for the entire duration: a solid blue screen. An intricately orchestrated audio track underscores the static visual, and the two combine to form a highly emotional experience.

Blue  •  Derek Jarman

Our next type of experimental film is the experimental documentary . Check out our list of the best documentaries to set a baseline for traditional documentary filmmaking before we jump into the experimental side of the genre. This experimental category encompasses projects like the nearly century old Soviet-produced Man With a Movie Camera . The full documentary is available to watch below.

Man With a Movie Camera

Another experimental documentary found in this category comes from none other than Orson Welles with For for Fake . This documentary, essay-film hybrid blurs the lines between fact and fiction in a fascinating way.

F for Fake Video Essay

Experimental Animation is a tried and true category of experimental filmmaking with many worthwhile and envelope pushing entries. Again, you can set a baseline for the non-experimental side of this genre by checking out our list of the best animated films ever made . As for the experimental side of the medium, first, we can return to David Lynch for his contribution to the category.

Six Men Getting Sick

The above short film, Six Men Getting Sick , was David Lynch’s very first foray into filmmaking. He began his journey into the arts as a painter, and you can see him bridging the gap with this painted filmmaking experiment.

For further examples of experimental animation, we can look to the Quay Brothers. Their shorts utilize a dreamy blend of stop-motion animation and puppetry. A number of their shorts are in the criterion collection; here is a highlight reel for four of their shorts.

Criterion teaser for the Quay Brothers

And for one last example of experimental animation found in a recent film, we can look to 2018’s German-Chilean production La Casa Lobo . Sculpture, stop-motion, traditional animation, and other artistic techniques were blended together in jaw dropping fashion that utilized life-size sets and dizzying camerawork. This experimental production pushes the boundaries of animation and accomplishes things never before seen in the medium. It gives the absolute best stop-motion films a run for their money.

The Wolf House  •  trailer

Experimental filmmaking remains alive and well in the modern filmmaking age. As long as there are boundaries left to push, filmmakers will continue to experiment.

What Was Dogme 95?

If you’re interested in experimental filmmaking, the Dogme 95 cinematic vow of chastity makes a fascinating case study into a radical filmmaking experiment. Learn about the movement, why and how it was created, the films that comprise it, and more, up next.

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The Bitter Fight Over the Meaning of ‘Genocide’

Debates over how to describe conflicts in Gaza, Myanmar and elsewhere are channeling a controversy as old as the word itself.

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By Linda Kinstler

Linda Kinstler is a junior fellow at Harvard’s Society of Fellows and the author of “Come to This Court and Cry: How the Holocaust Ends.” She has written extensively about legal history and the politics of memory.

• Aug. 20, 2024

On Feb. 26, 2007, Smail Čekić stormed out of the Peace Palace, the seat of the International Court of Justice, carrying the decision the judges had just handed down. The case that concluded that day, Bosnia v. Serbia, was to determine whether Serbia had violated the Genocide Convention during the Bosnian War, when Bosnian Serb forces killed an estimated 100,000 civilians. Čekić, then the director of Sarajevo University’s Institute for Research of Crimes Against Humanity and International Law and a Bosnian victim of the war, had hoped the court, which is based in The Hague, would punish his compatriots’ deaths and acknowledge them as victims of genocide. Instead, the court declined to classify a vast majority of the Bosnian deaths as genocidal. For Čekić and other survivors, the ruling was a betrayal: They felt that the court had refused to recognize the true nature of the violence. Newspapers reported that Serbia had been found not guilty of genocide; a celebration was planned at the Serbian Embassy. Standing outside the I.C.J., the top court of the United Nations, Čekić tore the text of the judgment to pieces.

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That day, the court ruled that over the course of the war, Serbia committed genocide only in one instance. During the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, Bosnian Serb fighters took roughly 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys to predetermined sites before killing them and throwing their bodies into mass graves. In a vast landscape of murder that, as the judges acknowledged, included horrors like the systematic torture, rape and beatings of Bosnians in detention camps and the expulsion of thousands of non-Serbs, this episode alone appeared sufficiently genocidal to the judges. Only there did the perpetrators explicitly display the dolus specialis , or specific intent, “to destroy, in whole or in part, the group as such” required for a killing to be considered an instance of genocide. Killings elsewhere in Bosnia may have been war crimes or crimes against humanity — acts that were equally grave — but the decision argued that wherever there were any other plausible reasons for why the killings took place, the court could not rule that genocide definitively occurred. In a dissenting opinion, Judge Awn Shawkat Al-Khasawneh of Jordan chastised his colleagues for failing to appreciate the “definitional complexity” of genocide by interpreting the intent requirement so narrowly.

Marko Milanović, now a scholar of international law, was working as a clerk at the I.C.J. that day in 2007. He watched on TV as Čekić tore up the verdict in anger. For him, the episode heralded a rupture that by then was already underway. The moral force of the word “genocide” and the public understanding of the word had become fully detached from its relatively narrow legal meaning. Ever since the Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin coined the word in 1944, by combining the Greek word genos , meaning “race or tribe,” with the Latin cide, or “killing,” it has been pulled taut between languages — Greek and Latin, legal and moral.

In his book from that year, “Axis Rule in Occupied Europe,” Lemkin explains that he saw the word as describing “an old practice in its modern development.” In his view, genocide encompassed a broad array of crimes committed with the intent to destroy a national, religious, racial or ethnic group. A secular Jew who believed that every people carried its own distinct spirit, Lemkin argued that genocide included acts not just of physical obliteration but also of cultural annihilation. For him, the word described any attempt to stamp out a people’s essence from the earth. It included mass killings as well as actions to eliminate the “essential foundations of the life of national groups”: the destruction of language, traditions, monuments, artworks, archives, libraries, universities and places of worship. Lemkin’s hope was that coining the word, and persuading nations to recognize it as a crime, might somehow prevent it from recurring. He wanted his neologism to convert what Winston Churchill once called a “crime without a name” into an identifiable, obvious and abhorrent thing.

But by the time the United Nations approved the Genocide Convention on Dec. 9, 1948, making genocide a crime under international law, only a shadow of Lemkin’s original idea survived. After years of contentious deliberation and diplomatic negotiation, the convention limited genocide to five categories of acts: killing members of a group; causing group members serious bodily or mental harm; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; forcibly transferring children from one group to another; and “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.” Each one of these acts could constitute genocide only if and when committed with the specific intent to destroy a protected group. All state parties agreed to prevent and punish any instance of this crime.

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The legends of Judge, Ohtani grow with historic years

Mike Petriello

In the American League, Aaron Judge is having, by just about any definition that matters, one of the greatest hitting seasons in the history of the sport. His production is so massive that getting to 60 or more home runs is somehow more a bonus than the main story, which is to say that even if he ends up with “only” 57 or 59, it’s still going to be one of the best years anyone’s ever seen – Ruthian, you might say, given their shared pinstriped power, except that even Babe Ruth only had a single season better than this.

In the National League, Shohei Ohtani is having a different kind of all-time season, this one of the power-speed variety now that he has 42 homers and 42 steals. That a mere 40/40 – and maybe 50/50 – season won’t without question rate as his greatest overall year speaks only to what’s come before, when he was an ace pitcher at the same time as an elite slugger. He, too, has often been compared to the great Babe, given their two-way brotherhood, but Ohtani surpassed that juxtaposition years ago . Ruth didn’t really hit and pitch at the same time for very long; he certainly never stole bases like this.

We have, repeatedly, talked about how Ohtani’s two-way dominance is unlike anything anyone has ever seen, and asked more than once if he’s having the best season ever . That, it seems, ought to have been enough for us, as baseball fans: the pleasure of knowing we’re watching a player in his prime who has already surpassed comparisons to the most legendary figure in the game’s history. But Ohtani doesn’t stand alone, because Judge, who already has one historic year under his belt, has entered the chat with another.

It’s not enough, apparently, to have one all-time player doing something unprecedented. We have two. At the same time. It might be easy to overlook how special that is.

We have more than two of those players right now, to be fair, lest we unfairly overlook Juan Soto having a career season in what already looked like it was going to be an all-time career, or Bobby Witt Jr. having the kind of power-speed-and-defense combination that’s probably going to leave him eternally at or near the lists of “best season to not end with an MVP Award.” Thanks to Witt, we’re going to have multiple 10-WAR position players in a season for just the second time in 75 years . We are not short on legendary talent in baseball in the year 2024.

Yet with all due respect to that pair of stars, Ohtani is in his own universe, on and off the field, and this is hardly a career year; this will be his sixth excellent-to-great season. It’s not just about 2024. Judge is a three-time 50-homer slugger having his seventh excellent-to-great season: It’s also not just about 2024. These are wonderful seasons, yet they’re also not outliers, not really; they’re more like additional notches in the belt.

That’s important, because while the story of this season for Judge is going to be his march to – or past – 60 homers again, which would make him only the third player to ever do it multiple times, or the fact that he’s having what is, at the moment, the fifth-best offensive season anyone has ever had, compared to the league average for that year …

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Best hitting seasons (wRC+), min. 400 PA

• 244 // Barry Bonds, 2002
• 235 // Barry Bonds, 2001
• 234 // Babe Ruth, 1920
• 233 // Barry Bonds, 2004
• 225 // Aaron Judge, 2024 <<---
• 225 // Babe Ruth, 1923
• 223 // Ted Williams, 1957
• 218 // Babe Ruth, 1921

( wRC+ is Weighted Runs Created Plus, a park- and era-adjusted stat like OPS+ where 100 is average for that season.)

… consider that it’s as or more impressive that his career mark is now tied for third-best in recorded history , at least among those who stepped to the plate at least 4,000 times.

Best hitting careers (wRC+), min. 4,000 PA

• 194 // Babe Ruth
• 187 // Ted Williams
• 173 // Aaron Judge <<--
• 173 // Barry Bonds
• 173 // Turkey Stearnes
• 171 // Lou Gehrig
• 170 // Mickey Mantle
• 170 // Rogers Hornsby
• 169 // Mike Trout

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It’s not just a great season for Judge. It’s the middle of a peak that is going to end in Cooperstown’s inner circle.

That’s not dissimilar to Ohtani, whose career achievements barely need to be recited – but we will, so remember the pair of MVP wins, the Rookie of the Year, the 2022 where he finished top-four in both Cy Young and MVP balloting, the jersey sales , the massive contract, the nearly-as-famous dog , the repeated questions about if he’s had the best day , month , or year ever – so seeing greatness from him is hardly something new.

What’s different this year is that it’s a different kind of elite play, because the pitcher/slugger threat has been replaced by a slugging/speed one, given his ongoing recovery from last year’s elbow surgery that has kept him off the mound. If Ohtani was imitating Ruth before, then this year he morphed into something more akin to Willie Mays, at least on offense.

Consider this:

• Only one player has more homers than Ohtani. That would be Judge (51).
• Only one player has more steals than Ohtani. That would be Elly De La Cruz (61).

Only twice before in history has a player finished in the top two in the Majors in both home runs and steals, and not only was no one alive today around to see it, the league-leading number of home runs it took makes clear how different a sport we’re talking about. In 1909 , Ty Cobb led the bigs with a mere nine homers to go with his 76 steals. The year before , Honus Wagner swiped 53 bases, and finished second in the Majors with 10 round-trippers. (Though we can’t verify, it’s likely that more than a few were inside-the-parkers, too.)

Assuming that Ohtani does end up leading the NL in homers – he has five more than Atlanta’s Marcell Ozuna as of Aug. 29 – he’ll be the first player in more than 100 years to lead his league in homers and steal at least 40 bases while doing so. None of the previous men to do it (most recently Tris Speaker and Frank Baker, in 1912 ), hit more than 10 homers.

Now: Much like when Ronald Acuña Jr. established the 40/70 mark last season, it can’t be ignored that the rule changes put into place for 2023 that hoped to encourage base stealing have done exactly that – Ohtani, like Acuña, is stealing in a more favorable environment than anyone before them enjoyed. We need not ignore those changes, because imagine what, say, Mike Trout or Mays might have done under these rules at their peak performance.

But at the same time, while it might be easier for Ohtani to steal bases now, it’s easier for everyone else, too. That means it’s harder than ever to finish in the top two in steals in a season. The baseline has risen. Ohtani has risen even further.

By one particular power/speed metric , created years ago by Bill James, Ohtani is having the sixth-best such combo season in history, and he’ll all but certainly get to number two in the next week – with Acuña’s 2023, at the top of the list, still in view.

Despite how close Francisco Lindor is trying to make the race in the NL, and Witt in the AL -- as we said, there are many great players right now -- Ohtani is overwhelmingly likely to become the rare player to win a third MVP award . That he hasn't already done so is entirely due to Judge, who topped him in 2022 thanks to the 62 homers that year.

Judge may or may not get to 60 homers. Ohtani may or may not get to 50/50. At the end of the season, the difference between those marks and Judge getting to 59 or Ohtani managing a 49/47 comes down only to our predilection for round numbers. They matter, but they also don’t. Judge is an all-time slugger having a season that isn’t a “career year” only because he did the same thing two years ago; it will go down as one of the best seasons in the sport’s history. Ohtani is an all-time talent having a record-breaking year that might not even be one of his two best, just because of what he’s done before.

The hype, as they say, has been lived up to. Exceeded, really.

MLB.com’s Sarah Langs contributed research to this article.