You’re right, I wasn’t very clear on my objectives. Also, my previous comment was needlessly snarky, for which I apologize.
To be honest, I’m not very sure of what I want, myself. I have reason to believe that they’ll consider it acceptable regardless of whether there’s a control group or not (this being the CS department and not the psych one), so that’s not actually an issue. And I’ve got some desire to do things “properly”, for its own sake, and also because it might be fun to do this well enough to turn it into a real publication. But I’m also swamped with a bunch of other stuff and don’t have a chance to spend too much effort on this.
To be honest, I’m not very sure of what I want, myself. I have reason to believe that they’ll consider it acceptable regardless of whether there’s a control group or not (this being the CS department and not the psych one)
How about going to the office hours of a professor in the psychology department and ask them for advice on how to run your study?
Your question made me go d’oh, in that I suddenly remembered that there’s an obvious place right nearby to ask help from, both for designing the study and recruiting test subjects. I’ll talk with them, thanks.
Speaking very practically—who will be marking/grading your project?
If psychologists aren’t going to be looking at it, it’s surely going to be fine to do the intervention as best you can and then discuss implications and limitations (including need for control group) in whatever you have to write up. It’s not going to be publishable but then you can deal with that later, depending on your circumstances this would probably mean re-doing the study with random assignment to conditions, starting with your project study as a pilot/proof of concept.
It’s going to be graded by computer scientists, so yeah, I can get away with a less rigorous protocol than what psychologists would insist on. (And then collaborate with actual psychologists with more resources later on.)
In this case I don’t quite understand what are you asking.
LW is unlikely to know whether your adviser / committee will consider the absence of a control group acceptable enough for this project.
You’re right, I wasn’t very clear on my objectives. Also, my previous comment was needlessly snarky, for which I apologize.
To be honest, I’m not very sure of what I want, myself. I have reason to believe that they’ll consider it acceptable regardless of whether there’s a control group or not (this being the CS department and not the psych one), so that’s not actually an issue. And I’ve got some desire to do things “properly”, for its own sake, and also because it might be fun to do this well enough to turn it into a real publication. But I’m also swamped with a bunch of other stuff and don’t have a chance to spend too much effort on this.
So, I guess I dunno what I’m asking, myself.
How about going to the office hours of a professor in the psychology department and ask them for advice on how to run your study?
Your question made me go d’oh, in that I suddenly remembered that there’s an obvious place right nearby to ask help from, both for designing the study and recruiting test subjects. I’ll talk with them, thanks.
Speaking very practically—who will be marking/grading your project?
If psychologists aren’t going to be looking at it, it’s surely going to be fine to do the intervention as best you can and then discuss implications and limitations (including need for control group) in whatever you have to write up. It’s not going to be publishable but then you can deal with that later, depending on your circumstances this would probably mean re-doing the study with random assignment to conditions, starting with your project study as a pilot/proof of concept.
It’s going to be graded by computer scientists, so yeah, I can get away with a less rigorous protocol than what psychologists would insist on. (And then collaborate with actual psychologists with more resources later on.)