Research key concepts

• Maturation: the processes within subjects which act as a function of the passage of time. i.e. if the project lasts a few years, most participants may improve their performance regardless of treatment.

The term maturation comes from maturatio, a Latin word for ripening; thus, many dictionaries describe maturation as the process of “becoming ripe” or “mature,” and being mature as “being ripe.” In the social sciences, when we describe developmental changes as maturational, we are describing the change as having three characteristics: First, maturational change is an intrinsically teleological or endgoal oriented process. Second, maturational change is a systematic process. Finally, the end-goal of maturational change is an adaptive state. Maturity represents this goallike apex of adaptive functioning, and maturation describes the systematic and time-consuming processes that achieve maturity. Consequently, maturity does not just “happen”; it is a time-consuming and organized growth process.

Maturation is a problem that can threaten the researcher’s ability to conclude that the treatment caused or produced the change from pretest to posttest.

• Maturation is any physical or mental change that occurs over time that affects performance on the dependent variable.
• Children are especially prone to maturation because they are naturally changing so rapidly.

·        In short, if you have a maturation effect operating, it is confounded with the treatment and you do not know whether the change observed from pretest to posttest is due to the treatment or simply due to maturation.

Maturation: the processes within subjects which act as a function of the passage of time. i.e. if the project lasts a few years, most participants may improve their performance regardless of treatment.

Example: Subjects become tired after completing a training session, and their responses on the Posttest are affected.

Example: Subjects become tired after completing a training session, and their responses on the Posttest are affected.

Maturation refers to the general developmental changes in subjects during the course of the research. 

Maturation is the process of learning to cope and react in an emotionally appropriate way. It does not necessarily happen along with aging or physical growth, but is a part of growth and development. A situation a person must deal with at a young age prepares them for the next and so on into adulthood. Maturation does not stop when physical growth ends - it continues through adulthood. An adult who loses a parent, for instance, learns to cope with a new emotional situation that will affect the way he or she deals with situations that follow.

A moderator variable is a special type of the independent variable which you may select for study in order to investigate whether it modifies the relationship between the dependent and the major independent variables.