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Which of the following is NOT a downside of using a within-participants blind experiment?

1) Confounding variables may be present due to variations between-participants in different conditions.
2) Participants may improve over repeated testing trials.
3)ontinuous testing on one participant may be time consuming.
4) The experimenter may unintentionally promote a desired outcome when conducting the experiment.

1 Answer

2 votes

Final answer:

The incorrect downside of a within-participants blind experiment listed is that confounding variables may be present due to variations between participants, as this is typically a concern with between-subjects designs.

Step-by-step explanation:

The downside of using a within-participants blind experiment that is NOT present among the options given is the first one: Confounding variables may be present due to variations between-participants in different conditions. This is an issue more typical of between-subjects designs, where different individuals participate in different conditions, and thus individual differences can confound the results. The other three options are indeed potential downsides in within-participants designs. For example, practice effects (option 2) can occur because participants may improve due to repeated exposure to the test rather than the intervention itself. Time consumption (option 3) can be an issue since testing each participant in every condition can be lengthy. Lastly, experimenter bias (option 4) can impact the study if the experimenter inadvertently influences the outcome, even in a blind setup where the participant doesn't know which group they are in.

User Jason Thuli
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