What might be the advantages and limitations of a laboratory experiment?

The main advantage of conducting an experiment in a lab is that variables are easier to control. This is often not the case in a field experiment, as this takes place in a normal environment for the participant, where external control over experimental variables is more limited.On the other hand, a disadvantage of this method is that it may lack ecological validity. Ecological validity is the extent to which a finding is true to real life. As laboratory experiments are not typically conducted in a normal environment for the participant, this can put a question mark over whether the findings are true to real life events.