Depending which book you read this design may also be referred to as independent groups, independent samples or between groups. The independent subjects design is the one we employed during the word search experiment. In this design participants are divided into entirely separate groups on the basis of random allocation, meaning that each participant has an equal chance of being allocated to either the experimental group or the control group.
Let’s say we have 60 participants, we could put the numbers 1 to 60 in a hat and get participants to pick a number. Participants who pick an even numbers would go into the experimental group and participants who pick an odd numbers would go into the control group.
Each participant will provide us with a single score. It’s then a case of looking at all the scores in the experimental group and comparing them with all the scores in the control group.