It can be important to use a double-blind procedure in a research study in order to prevent the

• Cancer Care
• Clinical Trials

What is a double blind study?

A double blind study is a randomized clinical trial in which:

• You as the patient don’t know if you’re receiving the experimental treatment, a standard treatment or a placebo, and

• Your doctor doesn’t know.

Only those directing the study know the treatment that each participant receives.

Double blind studies prevent bias when doctors evaluate patients’ outcomes. This improves reliability of clinical trial results.

Should you have health complications during a trial, such as a possible drug reaction, your doctor can “unblind” you and find out which treatment you’re receiving. As a result, you could end up being removed from the study. But patients’ health and safety come first. Patients are closely monitored throughout clinical trials.

59.It can be important to use a double-blind procedure in a research study to prevent the:A.independent variable from influencing the dependent variableB.researcher’sexpectations from biasing the outcomeC.participants’expectations from biasing the expectations of the researcherD.Both b and c

60.Of the following, researchers use????to attempt to control for the phenomenon called the“allegiance effect“ which occurs when experimenter bias influences research outcomes.

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61.The following is an example of treatment outcome research:

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62.The following is an example of treatment process research:

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63.Single-case experimental designs utilize several strategies such as????to improve their internalvalidity.A.repeated measuresB.process measuresC.random assignmentD.placebo controls

64.One important difference between a typical case study and the single-case experiment is that duringthe single-case experiment, behavior is generally:

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Blinding techniques are also used to avoid bias. In a single-blind study the participants do not know what treatment groups they are in, but the researchers interacting with them do know. In a double-blind study, the participants do not know what treatment groups they are in and neither do the researchers who are interacting with them directly. Double-blind studies are used to prevent researcher bias. 

Blinding Procedure employed in research to prevent bias in which the participants and/or the researchers interacting with the participations do not know which treatment each case is receiving

Single-Blind Study Research study in which the participants do not know the treatment group that they have been assigned to

Double-Blind Study Research study in which neither the participants nor the researchers interacting with them know which cases have been assigned to which treatment groups

Example: Yogurt Tasting Section

Researchers are comparing a low-fat blueberry yogurt to a high-fat blueberry yogurt. Participants are randomly assigned to receive one type of yogurt. After tasting it, they complete an online survey. The researchers know which yogurt containers are low-fat and which are high-fat, but participants are not told. This is an example of a single-blind study because the researchers know which participants are in the low- and high-fat groups but the participants do not know. A double-blind study may not be necessary in this case since the researchers have only minimal contact with the participants. 

Example: Caffeine Energy Study Section

Researchers want to know if adult males who consume high amounts of caffeine interact more energetically. They obtain a representative sample and randomly assign half of the participants to take a caffeine pill and half to take a placebo pill.  The pills are randomly numbered and coded so at the time the researchers do not know which participants have been given caffeine and which have been given the placebo. All participants are told that they may have been given a caffeine pill. After taking the pill, researchers observe the participants interacting with one another and rate the interactions in terms of level of energy. 

This is a double-blind study because neither the researchers nor the participants know who is in which group at the time the data are collected. After the data are collected, researchers can look at the pill codes to determine which groups the participants were in to conduct their analyses. A double-blind study is necessary here because the researchers are observing and rating the participants. If the researchers know who is in the caffeine group they may be more likely to rate their levels of energy as very high because that is consistent with their hypothesis. 

Why is it important to use a double blind procedure?

What is the main benefit of using a double blind procedure as part of the research design?