Instructional manipulation check

An instructional <a href="/facts/Manipulation_check/cGr0SD6g">manipulation check</a>, often abbreviated IMC, is a special kind of question inserted in a <a href="/facts/Questionnaire/15o4lgqm">questionnaire</a> among the regular questions, designed to check whether respondents are paying attention to the instructions. Discarding responses by participants who fail to read the instructions increases the <a href="/facts/Signal-to-noise_ratio/qohClhyG">signal-to-noise</a> ratio and can thereby increase the <a href="/facts/Statistical_power/5KU54nW1">statistical power</a> of an experiment. The tool was developed by Oppenheimer et al.
Eliminating random responses this way before performing <a href="/facts/Statistical_hypothesis_testing/yv9RPF6U">statistical hypothesis testing</a> may be considered a legitimate form of <a href="/facts/Data_manipulation/Y54zXJVs">data manipulation</a>, but should be duly mentioned in publications reporting on the outcome of the experiment in question.

Instructional manipulation check open-in-new

Instructional manipulation check