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Counterbalancing for Serial Order Carryover Effects in Experimental Condition Orders

Brooks

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Abstract

Reactions of neural, psychological, and social systems are rarely, if ever, independent of previous inputs and states. The potential for serial order carryover effects from one condition to the next in a sequence of experimental trials makes counterbalancing of condition order an essential part of experimental design. Here, a method is proposed for generating counterbalanced sequences for repeated-measures designs including those with multiple observations of each condition on one participant and self-adjacencies of conditions. Condition ordering is reframed as a graph theory problem. Experimental conditions are represented as vertices in a graph and directed edges between them represent temporal relationships between conditions. A counterbalanced trial order results from traversing an Euler circuit through such a graph in which each edge is traversed exactly once. This method can be generalized to counterbalance for higher order serial order carryover effects as well as to create intentional serial order biases. Modern graph theory provides tools for finding other types of paths through such graph representations, providing a tool for generating experimental condition sequences with useful properties.

Acceptance Date Feb 2, 2012
Publication Date Dec 1, 2012
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Psychological Methods
Print ISSN 1082-989X
Publisher American Psychological Association
Pages 600 - 614
DOI https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029310
Keywords carryover effects; condition order; counterbalancing; experimental design; graph theory; repeated measures
Publisher URL http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2012-18632-001

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