A deprivation study is a form of research in which an organism is prevented from having something they want or need for a designated period of time in order to examine the effect the deprivation has on the organism. For example, I used to work in a sleep lab where we often deprived people of sleep for days at a time. During the study we presented participants with all sorts of tests to see the effects sleep deprivation had on their cognitive functioning, motor skills, coordination, and many other factors.