Your Research Advisor Conducted a Laboratory Experiment Regarding the Effects

Essay

Your research advisor conducted a laboratory experiment regarding the effects of mood (happy, sad) on people's preference for abstract or representational paintings. Specifically, mood was manipulated by having college student participants watch a pilot-tested happy or sad scene from the same movie, and then asking participants to view images of relatively unknown abstract and representational paintings (counterbalanced) and rate which one they liked more. You want to replicate the findings of this study, but do not have access to a college student sample - so you are going to conduct the study online. Are the experimental procedures of the laboratory experiment easily adaptable to an online format - why or why not? What could you do differently with the mood manipulation to make it more conducive to an online format? You are worried about your online participants being unmotivated and losing interest halfway through the experimental treatment. How might you decrease the likelihood that participants will leave the experiment early? In your response: (a) describe some of the considerations that go into translating a laboratory experiment into an online format, and discuss whether the procedures in the example above are conducive to an online format; (b) how could you manipulate mood (happy, sad) in a more online-friendly way; and (c) describe at least two ways that you would be able to increase the likelihood that participants stay focused and complete the study.