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Statistical Significance01:50

Statistical Significance

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Once data is collected from both the experimental and the control groups, a statistical analysis is conducted to find out if there are meaningful differences between the two groups. A statistical analysis determines how likely any difference found is due to chance (and thus not meaningful). In psychology, group differences are considered meaningful, or significant, if the odds that these differences occurred by chance alone are 5 percent or less. Stated another way, if we repeated this...
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Ideally, the people who observe and record the children’s behavior are unaware of who was assigned to the experimental or control group, in order to control for experimenter bias. Experimenter bias refers to the possibility that a researcher’s expectations might skew the results of the study. Remember, conducting an experiment requires a lot of planning, and the people involved in the research project have a vested interest in supporting their hypotheses. If the observers knew which...
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Updated: Oct 26, 2025

Measurement of Neurophysiological Signals of Ignoring and Attending Processes in Attention Control
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Quantifying the Difference between Active and Passive Control Groups in Cognitive Interventions Using two

Jacky Au1, Benjamin C Gibson2, Kimberly Bunarjo3,4

  • 1Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, 92617.

Journal of Cognitive Enhancement : Towards the Integration of Theory and Practice
|August 2, 2021
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Cognitive training studies often use passive controls, making results hard to interpret. Our meta-analyses found no meaningful performance difference between passive and active controls in cognitive interventions.

Keywords:
Cognitive TrainingExperimental ConfoundsHawthorne EffectsMeta-AnalysisPlacebo Effects

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Intervention science

Background:

  • Cognitive training studies report broad cognitive benefits.
  • Reliance on passive control groups complicates interpretation due to potential placebo effects.
  • Active control groups are increasingly used but their effectiveness is debated.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To estimate the relative effect sizes of passive versus active control groups in cognitive interventions.
  • To clarify the influence of different control group types on intervention outcomes.
  • To assess the efficacy of current active control paradigms in capturing non-specific effects.

Main Methods:

  • Conducted two meta-analyses to compare passive and active control groups.
  • First meta-analysis synthesized data from 34 existing meta-analyses.
  • Second meta-analysis synthesized data from 42 empirical studies using both control types.

Main Results:

  • Both meta-analyses revealed no significant performance difference between passive and active control groups.
  • Findings suggest active control paradigms may not effectively isolate non-specific effects.
  • Alternatively, non-specific effects in this literature may be minimal.

Conclusions:

  • Current active control strategies in cognitive intervention research may not adequately account for placebo effects.
  • Further refinement of active control designs is needed to better understand non-specific intervention effects.
  • The interpretation of cognitive training benefits may require careful consideration of control group methodologies.