The experimental research It consists of a series of methods and techniques to collect data and information on a topic to be investigated. The experimentation consists of the voluntary repetition of the phenomena to verify a hypothesis. For example: Cycling to work is 40% less stressful than using other types of transportation. / Women who smoke to middle age live 10 years less than those who do not smoke.
This type of research is carried out through the manipulation of one or more variables, under controlled conditions, to describe the causes or ways in which a specific event occurs. Because it is a provoked investigation, the researcher can change the intensity of the variables.
Unlike other types of research, experimental research is characterized by having an object of study and a treatment that depend on the decisions made by the researcher. It is the researcher who provokes the situation to introduce the study variable (s) that he himself manipulates and, according to the increase or decrease in intensity, analyze the effects on the studied behaviors.
Characteristics of experimental research
- Control, manipulation and observation are always present.
- It is a quantitative investigation.
- Two groups are created: a control group, whose variables are not modified, and an experimental group, whose variables are manipulated.
- The variables that are manipulated are called “independent”, while the so-called “dependent” are those that
- they are affected by the manipulation of independents.
- Its results are very specific.
- The experiments can be replicated.
Examples of experimental research
- The lie circulates more than the truth. According to a study published by the journal Science, between 2006 and 2017, more than three million people shared 126,000 rumors on Twitter. Of the stories with the greatest impact, the lie reached between 1,000 and 100,000 users, while the truth rarely exceeded 1,000 impacts. According to the study – carried out at a time when false news disseminated through the networks can influence social well-being, the economy and politics – emotions and the novelty produced by falsehoods could be the reason for their greater spread .
- Poor sleep can lead to relationship problems. A study done at the University of California by psychologist Amie Gordon, assured that poor sleep produces selfish attitudes, in addition to a negative vision of reality. All this, according to the study, could trigger inconveniences in couples. To reach this conclusion, data was collected from 60 couples between 18 and 56 years old, who were consulted about their feelings towards their respective partners and about the ways in which they solved their daily problems. According to the research, those who said they had trouble sleeping expressed less appreciation and appreciation for their peers, in addition to being more inconsiderate than those without sleep problems.
- Centennials are more mature than millennials. A study by The Futures Company stated that centennials (those born after 2000) have a higher degree of maturity than millennials.
As they argue, this is because the former had to live in a time with greater social and economic complications than their predecessors, which makes them see the difficulties to achieve success and the obstacles in life.
60% of millennials prefer to have the assurance that they will never be poor before having the possibility of being rich, ”the study found. - The higher the weight, the less tasty the food tastes. A recent study carried out by Cornell University, New York, affirms that being overweight not only triggers diseases such as diabetes or cardiovascular problems, but also produces a reduction in taste. In other words, the food tastes less than it did before gaining weight.
To reach this conclusion, the researchers worked with mice and concluded that with the increase in adipose tissue in the body, the taste buds do not reproduce normally, resulting in a reduction in the sense of taste. The consequence of the loss of taste is that you eat more to feel the same degree of satisfaction as before. In this way, calorie intake increases weight. - The reasons why people sometimes can’t stop eating. Scientists at the University of North Carolina, United States, managed to describe how a brain circuit encourages food intake for mere pleasure. Professor Thomas Kash detected a specific cellular communication network originating from the emotion-processing region of the brain, motivating mice to continue eating tasty food even when their basic energy needs are already met. This brain circuit, present in mammals, would be the reason why human beings eat more than necessary. According to the study, the circuit is a consequence of evolution. Long ago, high-calorie foods were in short supply (unlike today), so the human brain was designed to eat as many calories as possible because it was unknown when that opportunity would present itself. Basically, it is a survival behavior. “This circuit seems to be the brain’s way of telling you that if something tastes really good, then it’s worth the price you pay to get it, so don’t hold back,” argued Professor Kash.
- Physical activity improves mental health. According to a study published by The Lancet Psychiatry, involving more than 1.2 million Americans over the age of 18, physical activity improves mental health by 43.2%. As the researchers observed, team sports, aerobic activities, and cycling performed for 45 days at least three times a week are the activities that produce the most notable effects.
- Cereals like classical music. According to research carried out by a team of South Korean scientists, two genes in rice respond more actively when exposed to classical music. To carry out the study, which was published in the British magazine New Scientist, the rice plants were exposed to the sound of 14 classical works with different frequencies and, in parallel, the levels of gene activity were analyzed. According to the results, sound would be an alternative to light as a regulatory gene.
- Listening to classical music and sleeping with it helps to memorize. A study published in Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, prepared by American scientists, stated that listening to the same classical music during the study and at bedtime helps to absorb the contents. To carry out the research, 50 students took virtual microeconomics classes while listening to classical music. Later, during the slow sleep phase, they were exposed to the same music or white noise. The participants who made up the active experimental group retained more information and passed the exam with better results than the rest. According to the scientists, the activity of the frontal lobes when people slept explains the better performance. Lack of sleep, on the other hand, can lead to learning difficulties.