Why did the researchers use a longitudinal design? Why didn't they just study the children
They had to use a longitudinal design because they had to control the children's care, whether they were at home or at a daycare. It would be hard to find children with the same care at home, daycare, and such. Therefore, to get a very good research, they had to control it. Studying the children when they were in grade 2 would be hard because they would have to find children with very similar backgrounds. It would be easier to start when the children were young and control all that.
The longitudinal design was used because the children had to be observed through the stages in their life. Each observation made attributes to the child's cognitive abiliity. A thorough research only made possibe within a long time span. They didn't use children at Grade 2 level because it would had been harder to control. So many aspects could had contributed to their learning ability such as the speed of their individual learning process.
First of all this would cut down on subject characteristic errors. By using the same subjects, you are controlling for many other characteristics (ie. personality, personal experiences, intelligenc etc). This increases the validity of the study. Studying people in grade two would result in what was mentioned before, a retrospective study. You are able to test for pre-existing differences using this sort of study.
Using the longitudinal desing they were able to study an appropriate nuber of subjects over time at different points in time. They were able to see the actual effects of day care. They were able to have a lot of control on thier subjects. If they had just studied the children in grade 2, they wouldn't have known backgrounds very well. It would have lacked control. There could have been so many other factors that could have affected heir DV.
A longitudinal deign is appropiate for this experiment because it allows an extensive look at "patterns of influence" that may have an effect on positive effects of day-care. Therefore researchers can control any confounding that may occur and search other factors that may influence the development of cognitive abilities.
The longitudinal design was appropriate becuase it was used to show that daycare can have an effect over a period of time. If they simply studied the children in grade two, there is no ruling out of extraneous or confounding variables. Testing 5 times over the time period is a type of control.
Reseacher used a longitudial design so not to rely on retrospective data. "Interpretation is limited" "in nature and controlled for only in the most obvios aspects of the child's enviroment." By studying the group over time it could be more a more accurat and more informative study.
when they were in grade 2? What was the point of using the longitudinal design?
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