Conducting an experiment
Can be set up in an office or a tent
You can do it anywhere
Even in your underwear
But if you need a group
Like a dancing troupe
Alone and together each plays
There are two standard ways
The between-group and within-group
Choose which method before each tastes the soup
Each member of the between-group
Only gets to taste one of each soup
However, each member of the within-group
Is permitted to try each different one
It depends always on what it is you want
Choose within-group if you want to know
what each thinks of each kind
Or between-group should each be blind
To all the other options they could have had
And in this case, NO learning is good not bad
Though there is one more choice
But do not yet rejoice!
It takes quite some organisational skill
To craft this hybrid experimental drill [1]
And blend between and within
For this new test type to begin
Allow each player to taste one soup
Then move them around as a troupe
Shifting their places along by one
To try a different soup on each run
Keep moving them around the table
Until each taster has been able
To offer an opinion or a thought
On whether the score is one or naught
Giving a label
To each soup on the table
Stating when each soup was tasted
First, second or third position noted and pasted
To indicate the objectivity of their opinion
On whether the soup tasted like carrot, pea or onion
And if their taste buds got confused
By the third tasting, even bemused
At least each soup was tried on the first run
Clear of thought, on the mind only one
This omits learning and fatigue
Instead curiosity and intrigue
But on the first run also consider
The individuality of the figure
What each person brings to the table
Affects the opinion placed on the label
Subjectivity is key to an independent opinion
Without it we would all be minion under imposing dominion
But this is a topic for another time
For now this is already quite a long rhyme
Just to round off with a conclusion
And offset any delusion
Weigh and consider all the labels on the table
The testers have placed willing and able
Giving thought to cons and pros
When choosing the best tongue and nose
For the direction of your results
Will stir up the soup and raise exults!
[1] Jonathan Lazar, Jinjuan Heidi Feng and Harry Hochheiser (2010) Research Methods in Human-Computer Interactions, p49, sect. 3.3.2.
