Experimental audiology research (EAR) methods

Learning Outcomes

Learning Outcomes

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Critically evaluate the trends in the results of a simple experimental study within the context of the statistical analyses undertaken and the strengths and weaknesses of the study design
• Select and apply the appropriate methods, including statistical, to analyse data from a simple experimental study, and interpret and present/report the findings appropriately

- W1 Setting the scene Introduction to the module, assignment, context and general aspects of experimental design and statistics - W2 Introduction to the assignment Populations, samples and estimation; chance and bias; independent, dependent and extraneous/confounding variables; hypotheses; general sources of bias; BS vs. WS designs - W3 Distributions Histograms (age and SRT); axes/labels; bins; intro to descriptive stats - W4 Descriptive stats Box plots and more on descriptive stats; outliers; emerging trends - W5 Checking out trends: within-subjects Bringing together judgement of normality, the Shapiro-Wilk test and introduction to t-tests; paired vs independent samples; reminder about tails; thinking about t-tests; checking assumptions (normal distribution, homogeneity of variance); non-parametric alternatives - W6 'Reading week' No sessions but use it to catch up with the demo analysis and crack on with the assignment - W7 RM-ANOVA Introduction to ANOVA and repeated measures ANOVA in particular; factors and levels; checking assumptions (e.g. sphericity); interactions; problem of multiple comparisons and Bonferroni correction - W8. Some theory Sum of the squares, ANOVA table and pros & cons of within- vs between-subjects designs - W9. Checking out trends: between-subjects Using the independent samples t-test (and non-parametric alternatives) and whether we can assume homogeneity of variances - W10. Interaction ANOVA including at least one between-subjects factor and multiple ways to analyse and interpret interactions - W11 Power Confidence interval on mean difference; how big could the effect be; what could we have missed; revisiting the sample size - W12 Discussion & conclusion What to cover; revisiting estimation and bias; critical thinking; type q and 2 errors; conclusions; the things you want to go over - Additional Lab Searching for literature Picking a question; using web of Science: casting a wide net, narrowing down, cited reference search - Throughout Good scientific/ethical practice

The teaching and learning methods will include: > W1. Introductory lecture, where we'll cover the background concepts and issues. > W2-12. In week 2, you will be given the assignment and all associated files (including the data file), which we’ll work through together across the following weeks. Specifically, you will be given a description of a study and the data; the assignment will be to write the Results chapter and some of the Discussion chapter of a scientific report on the study. You will be given a template for that, indicating the sorts of issues to consider in each sub-section. The weekly activities each week will be structured to step-by-step guide them through writing it. There will be weekly pre-recorded lectures (up to 60 min) ahead of tutorials explaining the relevant concepts. There will also be pre-recorded general instructional videos on use of Excel and stats software. The tutorials will involve you sharing with each other your progress, what you have and haven’t understand, how you got the graphs/results from the software or what you’re struggling with, the problems you’ve been having etc, and then we’ll discuss those together. > One (45-min) computer lab providing an introduction to literature searching using Web of Science. > Drop-in sessions with the module lead.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.