Repeated Measures Design - Order Effects

Order Effects

Order effects occur when a participant in an experiment is able to perform a task and then perform it again at some later time. Generally, they either have a positive (subjects become better at performing the task) or negative (subjects become worse at performing the task) effect. Repeated measures designs are almost always affected by order effects; the primary exception to this rule is in the case of a longitudinal study. How well these are measured is controlled by the exact type of repeated measure design that is used. To counteract order effects there is a method which you can use called counter balancing.

Examples of order effects are as follows: practice, boredom and fatigue which can compromise the reliability (consistency) of the results.

Read more about this topic:  Repeated Measures Design

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