Describe the difference on the continuum of formal and informal ...

[brutforce]

Describe the difference on the continuum of formal and informal sources of research ideas.
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Why would counterbalancing help overcome problems of order effects?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

[frejo]

Answer to Question 1

On the continuum of formal and informal sources of research ideas, the least formal sources arise from individual situations that increase our curiosity and ask us to wonder why did that happen? Slightly more formal questions arise in the context of problem solving in a particular situation. Then there is the situation in which a researcher wants to pursue a research question that somebody has already begun studying. Finally, the most formal kind of research arises from a test of a well-developed theory that makes specific predictions that can be falsified.

Answer to Question 2

Counterbalancing helps overcome sequence and order effects by spreading the results of those effects across condition. Thus a participant who goes through condition A then B might perform differently in B because of the experience with A. Another participant who goes through B then A will have his or her performance affected in condition A rather than B. Thus, order effects will be spread out over the different conditions.