Designing Research Projects Human neurobehavioral research or clinical evaluations of populations exposed to chemicals must be carefully planned, and research must additionally be carefully structured.
Planning begins with selecting an hypothesis to be tested.
The first step is to design the study and to select a battery of tests to administer to the study Participants. Proven tests should always form the core of the battery. Selection of primary measures allows the formulation of power analyses to assist in the selection of appropriate tests and determine the number of Participants to be tested to achieve a credible result. Computerized neurobehavioral testing batteries such as the NES2, SPES, and BARS add consistency to the tests, and psychological tests and other questionnaires can be administered with the computerized HSS . Development and implementation of testing protocols, piloting to achieve optimal tests parameters, conduct of the study, quality assurance, data management and steps in analysis are described.