I can't point you to any literature regarding potential confounds, but on the face of it, it seems to me that if she's using two separate open-ended instruments pre vs. post, there's no way to assess change, so what would be the point of doing the research?
And I'm with Mark- your IRB has gone way beyond their function. I'd be furious if our IRB did something like this. -----Original Message----- From: Steven Specht [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sun 10/14/2007 8:48 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: [tips] IRB Dear TIPsters, Argh! I need some help. A colleague of mine submitted a study for approval by our IRB. She proposed a pre-/post- design to assess students' attitudes before and after a particular chemistry lab experience. I can provide more detail if necessary, but the point is fairly straight-forward. The IRB rejected her proposal and told her that she should use a different assessment instrument before (i.e., pre-) and after (i.e., post-). They also told her that instead of a Likert scale, she should use open-ended questions. #1 - Changing the assessment tool from pre- to post- certainly introduces a serious confounding variable, imho #2 - Although an open-ended (qualitative?) assessment might be useful, there is nothing wrong with asking the same questions using Likert scales (and shouldn't this be a decision that the researcher makes? With regard to concern #1, I am having a bit of difficulty finding information specifically which addresses this issue (since it is so fundamental, in terms of confounding). Does anyone have any specific information from a source which indicates that the same instrument should be used to avoid confounding the research? Thank you. -S ======================================================== Steven M. Specht, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychology Utica College Utica, NY 13502 (315) 792-3171 "Mice may be called large or small, and so may elephants, and it is quite understandable when someone says it was a large mouse that ran up the trunk of a small elephant" (S. S. Stevens, 1958) --- ---
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