My recollection of the use of the word 'naive' is usually in a phrase, such as 'naive subjects' or perhaps 'naive rats' and was usually used in connection with conditioning studies of the 1970s and earlier to describe animals that had not been previously used in behavioral experiments. When used in the context of human subjects research, my sense is that the term is usually used in a manner consistent with Allen's post and it is typically expressed as something like 'naive as to the purpose of the experiment' or 'naive as to experimental hypothesis'. Actually, when reviewing certain studies with small 'n', I usually look for this expression because I suspect that the expected assumption of subjects' naivete as to the nature of the hypothesis/study may not be met.
Miguel ----- Original Message ----- From: "Allen Esterson" <[email protected]> To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, June 29, 2013 4:33:18 AM Subject: Re:[tips] tips digest: June 28, 2013 In the context of an Oxford University psychology team's research report Rick Froman wondered if the term " naïve participant" was specifically British usage. A Google search shows it occurs in A Dictionary of Psychology , Oxford University Press, 2008 and in The SAGE Handbook of Social Psychology: Concise Student Edition in line with what Rick suggested, namely, a participant who is unaware of the purpose of the research or the hypothesis being tested. But it also comes up in American publications, so it is not exclusively British usage: http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1320&context=ijes Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London [email protected] http://www.esterson.org -----Original Message----- From: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) digest <[email protected]> To: tips digest recipients <[email protected]> Sent: Sat, Jun 29, 2013 6:30 am Subject: tips digest: June 28, 2013 Subject: tips digest: June 28, 2013 From: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) digest" < [email protected] > Reply-To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" < [email protected] > Date: Sat, 29 Jun 2013 01:00:01 -0400 TIPS Digest for Friday, June 28, 2013. 1. A flavorful research article --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected] To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13076.897dfc4f20f0edf00528e4c6f4ad2c5b&n=T&l=tips&o=26272 or send a blank email to leave-26272-13076.897dfc4f20f0edf00528e4c6f4ad2...@fsulist.frostburg.edu Attached Message From: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: A flavorful research article Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2013 10:50:30 -0500 While reading a research report on the topic of the effect of cutlery on taste in the open access journal Flavour , I noted this sentence: “Forty naïve Oxford University undergraduate students participated in Experiment 2…”. After wondering if that wasn’t a redundancy (or if this description would apply to a majority or only a minority of Oxford students), I wondered what the word “naïve” might mean in this usage. It was used as if it were familiar jargon to describe an element of the design. Is this a common British term to mean “blinded to the experimental design or hypothesis”? My next favorite line from the article was, “all of the participants were British, that is, native English speakers, save one participant who was bilingual”. I would have thought such as assumption to be more likely made of American than British university students (imagine the humor if the sentence had read, “all of the participants were American, that is, native English speakers”). Maybe they weren’t really referring to how many languages of fluency but just that their first language was English. It was also interesting that the Methodology section came after the Results and Conclusions. If you couldn’t access the hyperlink above, the URL of the article is: http://www.flavourjournal.com/content/pdf/2044-7248-2-21.pdf . Rick Dr. Rick Froman, Chair Division of Humanities and Social Sciences Professor of Psychology Box 3519 John Brown University 2000 W. University Siloam Springs, AR 72761 [email protected] (479) 524-7295 http://bit.ly/DrFroman --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected] . To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=466839.0421d1005414eed82340aa280e7ce629&n=T&l=tips&o=26276 (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) or send a blank email to leave-26276-466839.0421d1005414eed82340aa280e7ce...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=26277 or send a blank email to leave-26277-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
