An Investigation of Experiment Designs for Applications in Biofeedback-Performance Research Methodologies

摘要

For a number of years biofeedback techniques, to control physiological responses, have been gaining wide acceptance in the area of clinical research. A previous thesis experiment explored the possibility of using these techniques to enhance task performance; however, no significant results were obtained. The purpose of this thesis was to research the literature on experiment design techniques to gain a better understanding of experiment design complexity and, in so doing, find other avenues of approach which may lead to more significant results. The material covered included five general experiment designs which are considered to be the basic building block techniques for numerous other hybrid designs; experiment design with humans concentrating on the important concepts of internal and external validity; and biofeedback experimental research efforts with an eye toward task performance and any relationships to the previous thesis effort. As a result of the investigation several shortcomings of the original experiment were pointed out and two recommendations were advanced for increasing the validity of any future attempts at biofeedback/task performance research. (Author)