7. Collect your data

One of the biggest advantages of experimental research is that the data collection is custom-designed to optimize the relevance and quality of the data for your specfic set of hypotheses. You don’t have to rely on other researchers’ data and explain why it might be relevant for your hypotheses. Instead, you go out and collect your own data.

This Task focuses on your data collection activities. Data collection is actually quite complex, and you’ve already completed most of the process. It makes no sense to collect data without a research problem, in particular a research problem that you can show is important and interesting. It’s self-defeating to collect data without planning what you will collect and how you will do it – without proper planning, the data collected is most often useless. And you’re simply not allowed to collect data without permission if you work in some organization. You’ve completed all of these steps already if you put together your Research Proposal.

Homework:
This table is what you have to build with the data that you collect:

Of course, you will also need a key on a separate sheet of paper, so that we all know what your numbers mean:
Gender (1 = Feminine; 2 = Masculine)
Major (1 = Psychology; 2 = Other)
First Language (1 = English; 2 = Other)
Music Exposure (1 = no music; 2 = with music)
Reading Order (1 = narrative, technical; 2 = technical, narrative)

What you need to do:
7.1 Prepare all materials and equipment
7.2 Recruit participants
7.3 "Run" the participants
7.4 Organize and code the data

Read this topic next:

7.1 Prepare all materials and equipment