pilot study

English - English

Definition of pilot study in English English dictionary: experimental use of a treatment in a small group of patients to learn if it will be effective and safe on a broad scale; A smaller version of a study is carried out before the actual investigation is done Researchers use information gathered in pilot studies to refine or modify the research methodology for a study and to develop large-scale studies; is a small study carried out before a large-scale study in order to try out a procedure or to test a principle; A trial study carried out before a research design is finalised in order to assist in defining the research question or to test the feasibility, reliability and validity of the proposed study design; A project that is done, to test the basic protocols and design to be used in a research study It is as this stage that the variables are refined to produce results that are meaningful; Preliminary trial of an experimental procedure intended to reveal deficiencies and provide information on the behaviour likely to occur in the main study Pilot studies will pick up Ceiling and Floor Effects as well as things like, checking that questions and instructions are comprehensible as well as indicating the possible number of subjects to include in the full-blown study due to Individual Differences Where pilot studies do not lead to modification of materials or procedure, data can be directly incorporated into the main study, as long as an appropriate Sampling strategy has been used to select subjects