Standardised and experimental psychological tasks : issues and solutions for research with children
Year: 2016
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: What children do and say provides us with important information about theirdevelopment and wellbeing. However, there is only an indirect relationship
between the former and the latter so that observing children alone cannot help us
understand the underlying mechanisms. Experimental designs are there to explore
specific hypotheses and examine the cause and effect relationship of different
phenomena. This chapter will focus on how behavioural, experimental and
standardised psychological tasks are used within experimental designs. In the first
section, we will discuss the use of standardised tasks, focusing on selecting the
appropriate task, issues that relate to the administration of the task, and how to
correctly interpret the scores obtained from standardised tests. In the second part
of the chapter, we will focus on experimental tasks. More specifically, we will discuss
the advantages and disadvantages of designing your own experimental tasks and
what confounding factors should be taken into account during the design stage.
Next, the issue of validity as well as general issues when using tasks with children
will be explored. Throughout the chapter, we will use examples from research
with children who have neurodevelopmental disorders, not only because it includes
our own research, which we know best, but more importantly, because working
with children with additional needs reinforces certain issues when using experi -
mental and standardised tasks.
Authors: Harry Purser, Jo Van Herwegen
Language: English
Subfield: Applied Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2511225913