THE PURPOSE OF EXPERIMENTS - ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY VERSUS COMPARING HYPOTHESES

Authors
DAWES RM
Citation
Rm. Dawes, THE PURPOSE OF EXPERIMENTS - ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY VERSUS COMPARING HYPOTHESES, Behavioral and brain sciences, 19(1), 1996, pp. 20
Citations number
6
Categorie Soggetti
Psychology,"Psychology, Biological",Neurosciences,"Behavioral Sciences
Journal title
Behavioral and brain sciences → ACNP
ISSN journal
0140525X
Volume
19
Issue
1
Year of publication
1996
Database
ISI
SICI code
0140-525X(1996)19:1<20:TPOE-E>2.0.ZU;2-C
Abstract
As illustrated by research Koehler himself cites (Dawes et al. 1993), the purpose of experiments is to choose between contrasting explanatio ns of past observations - rather than to seek statistical generalizati ons about the prevalence of effects. True external validity results no t from sampling various problems that are representatives of ''real wo rld'' decision making, but from reproducing an effect in the laborator y with minimal contamination (including from real world factors).