What are the major types of experimental research?
What will be an ideal response?
The major types of experimental research include laboratory (or controlled) experiments, field experiments, natural experiments, and simulations. Laboratory experiments are experiments conducted in artificial settings where researchers have complete control over the random allocation of subjects to treatment and control groups and the degree of well-defined intervention. They represent the ideal prototype of a true experiment. Field experiments are experiments conducted in a natural setting. The experimental observations are unobtrusive and take place as subjects are going about their normal activities.
Natural experiments are truly naturally occurring events in which people have different exposures that resemble an actual experiment. This type of experiment may also be called a social experiment where, in the course of normal social events, nature designs and executes experiments that researchers may observe and analyze. Simulation, or modeling, is a special type of experiment that does not rely on subjects or true intervention. Instead, it is a model in motion that operates over a period of time to show not only the structure of the system, but also the way change in one variable or component affects changes in the values of the other variables or components. It is an imaginative “acting out” of how a program is supposed to be implemented and achieve its effects, and enables researchers to observe as an artificial world moves forward into the future, giving the user the opportunity to intervene and attempt to make improvements to performance.
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