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What are "Research Events?"
A research event is anything that is programmed to happen during a study. There are three major kinds of research events.
Treatment Event
A Treatment Event, sometimes called an "intervention" or sometimes in performance research called a "stimulus," is an action taken to manipulate something in an experiment to study its effects on a dependent variable. For example, you might be interested in studying the effects of drinking coffee on reading performance. Treatment events are of central importance in classical experimental designs, but they can be embedded in surveys as in this case.
Measurement Event.
A measurement event is an action taken to learn about the attitudes, beliefs, and behavior of the populations under study. In a survey, measurement events are usually questions but they can be anything from blood pressure readings to camera images.
Support Event
A support event is a strategically placed action that readies, facilitates, guides, or otherwise manages a study. Simple screens that instruct the subject or experimenter are typical support events.
Null Event
A Null Event is a place holder where nothing happens deliberately. The purpose of inserting null events is to fill the time intervals in which other groups are presenting measurements or treatments. This aligns the events in one group with events in another, thereby controlling for the effects of history.