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trickykitty) wrote2005-04-04 09:46 pm
trickykitty) wrote2005-04-04 09:46 pm
McNair Research Baby Steps
I'm gearing up for my summer research project. This past week was spent filling out the IRB (Institutional Review Board, apparently not to be confused with the International Rugby Board) form in order to get approval to work with human participants. It may take around a month before that gets approved and we can actually start collecting data. The post-doc in charge of the experimental side of the project originally put me on as the Primary Investigator (PI) for the IRB, but my faculty sponsor decided against it. It would make me primarily liable for anything that may occur during the experiments. She ok'd me to be Co-Investigator, which still puts limited liability on me. It doesn't really matter who's listed as first on the research itself. What matters is where your name falls on any research papers or poster presentations that result once the data has been collected.
Writing out the IRB helped me understand what exactly it is that we will be testing and how the experiment will be designed. Here are the main sections on the form:
TITLE
Correlating reading abilities, phonological abilities, and cognitive word tasks.
HYPOTHESIS QUESTION
At what rate are probabilistic phonemic and graphemic rules learned and adjusted given a person's level of reading and phonological abilities?
POTENTIAL BENEFITS
This study will help to identify correlations between reading/phonological abilities and probabilistic rule learning/task switching abilities. Differences between high level and low level readers and spellers may involve differences in task switching abilities when certain types of rules are used. Knowledge of these differences will further the development of materials designed to facilitate the learning of reading and spelling skills.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
This experiment tests reading and phonological abilities and then has participants complete a cognitive word task.
EDUCATIONAL TESTS
Two educational tests will be administered: the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (CTOPP) for ages 7 through 24 and the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test Revised (WRMT-R) NU.
PROTOCOL FOR THE COGNITIVE TASK
Participants will view pairs of words on a computer monitor and will hear these words spoken through the attached speakers. The pairs will be created by selecting one word each from two sets of words. Each set will consist of words which follow either a phonemic (similar sounding) rule or a graphemic (similar spelling) rule. An example phonemic set will contain words like cake, kite, and quick. All of these words begin with the /k/ sound despite some of them beginning with different letters. An example graphemic set will contain words like cent, call, and cherry. These words all begin with the letter 'c' even though the sounds heard are the /s/, /k/, and /ch/ respectively. One set will be the "correct" set and the other will be the "incorrect" set. So for every pair of words presented, one word will be correct and one word will be incorrect.
Participants will be asked to select the correct word of the two presented. Participants are not told what the rule is or what makes a word correct. They must instead learn the rule for themselves by noticing what kind of face (smiley or frowny) that they receive after their selection has been made. If they have selected the correct word, i.e. the word that follows the rule, then a smiley face will be displayed. If the participant selects the incorrect word which does not follow the rule, then a frowny face will be displayed.
Once the participant has correctly selected a number of words in a row indicating that they have learned the rule, the "correct" set will change. A new rule and a new set of words following that rule will then be "correct". Participants will not be told that the rule has changed, and the pairs will continue to be presented in an uninterrupted manner. Some words in the successive trials may follow the old rule. However, only selection of words following the new rule will receive a smiley face. The old rule will no longer apply.
The number of trials in the second half of the task will be limited to the number of trials which were needed for the participant to learn the first rule plus an additional 20 trials. The task will end when either the participant correctly selects a number of words in a row using the new rule or the trial limit has been reached, whichever comes first. For example, if the participant required 40 trials to learn the first rule, then the second rule will be limited to 60 trials. Should the participant learn the second rule after 40 trials then the task will end. After completing the cognitive task participants will be debriefed on the nature of the experiment and thanked for their time.
PARTICIPANT INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE COGNITIVE TASK
"In this task, words will be presented to you two at a time. The words will appear side-by-side on the computer monitor and you will also hear each word spoken. For each pair of words, one word is correct and the other word is not correct. Your job is to try to select the correct word. You will know that you have selected a correct word because it will be followed by a smiley face. If you select a word that is not correct, then you will see a frowny face. After a moment the face will clear from the screen and the next pair of words will then be presented."
I'm having to learn E-Prime. This is a program that helps with stimulus presentation to the participant as well as response gathering from them. I already know SuperLab Pro which does the same thing, but E-Prime has two added benefits. First, if we eventually move the experiment to the fMRI lab, that lab only uses E-Prime. This way I won't have to re-write the bulk of the experiment at a future date. Second, E-Prime allows changes in the blocks of stimulus which SuperLab does not accommodate. For this experiment, participants must learn the first word rule and be able to show they know it by getting enough words correct in a row before the rule is changed. If we limited the number of trials, then too few will result in not giving some participants enough time to learn the rule, and if we have too many, the participant will get bored once the rule has been learned.
Along with that, I've been given a couple books regarding dyslexia to read and a few research papers that are either based on dyslexia or they are based on neural networks that display the same brain areas we will be modeling.
The draft of the research proposal is due to the McNair people by the end of this month. The final proposal is due at the end of May. I'll be expected to work 30-40 hours each week and am not allowed to work during the day or take any other classes while doing this research. We have a final presentation early-to-mid August. Depending on how far the research goes, I'm also expected to attempt to get professional journal publication.
Right now, we're getting ready to test normal reading ability, college-aged participants. The dyslexia children will probably not be until mid-summer, knowing how much we will have to go through to get that IRB approved, consent forms on the children, etc. We should also have normal-ability children as well as dyslexic adults in order to have proper control on the data, but I'm not sure if we will get that far. The post-doc is the primary researcher over all of the dyslexic stuff, so it's really up to him.
I have a job bookkeeping for a property management company on Friday. I have a few problems with that though. First, I have a McNair meeting right in the middle of the day. I'm supposed to work all day on Friday. Also, McNair does not allow the student to work any during the day during the summer in which the research is taking place. So if I go to work, I'll have to turn around and quit at the end of May – not even a full two months. I may have to let this fish go.
Writing out the IRB helped me understand what exactly it is that we will be testing and how the experiment will be designed. Here are the main sections on the form:
TITLE
Correlating reading abilities, phonological abilities, and cognitive word tasks.
HYPOTHESIS QUESTION
At what rate are probabilistic phonemic and graphemic rules learned and adjusted given a person's level of reading and phonological abilities?
POTENTIAL BENEFITS
This study will help to identify correlations between reading/phonological abilities and probabilistic rule learning/task switching abilities. Differences between high level and low level readers and spellers may involve differences in task switching abilities when certain types of rules are used. Knowledge of these differences will further the development of materials designed to facilitate the learning of reading and spelling skills.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
This experiment tests reading and phonological abilities and then has participants complete a cognitive word task.
EDUCATIONAL TESTS
Two educational tests will be administered: the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (CTOPP) for ages 7 through 24 and the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test Revised (WRMT-R) NU.
PROTOCOL FOR THE COGNITIVE TASK
Participants will view pairs of words on a computer monitor and will hear these words spoken through the attached speakers. The pairs will be created by selecting one word each from two sets of words. Each set will consist of words which follow either a phonemic (similar sounding) rule or a graphemic (similar spelling) rule. An example phonemic set will contain words like cake, kite, and quick. All of these words begin with the /k/ sound despite some of them beginning with different letters. An example graphemic set will contain words like cent, call, and cherry. These words all begin with the letter 'c' even though the sounds heard are the /s/, /k/, and /ch/ respectively. One set will be the "correct" set and the other will be the "incorrect" set. So for every pair of words presented, one word will be correct and one word will be incorrect.
Participants will be asked to select the correct word of the two presented. Participants are not told what the rule is or what makes a word correct. They must instead learn the rule for themselves by noticing what kind of face (smiley or frowny) that they receive after their selection has been made. If they have selected the correct word, i.e. the word that follows the rule, then a smiley face will be displayed. If the participant selects the incorrect word which does not follow the rule, then a frowny face will be displayed.
Once the participant has correctly selected a number of words in a row indicating that they have learned the rule, the "correct" set will change. A new rule and a new set of words following that rule will then be "correct". Participants will not be told that the rule has changed, and the pairs will continue to be presented in an uninterrupted manner. Some words in the successive trials may follow the old rule. However, only selection of words following the new rule will receive a smiley face. The old rule will no longer apply.
The number of trials in the second half of the task will be limited to the number of trials which were needed for the participant to learn the first rule plus an additional 20 trials. The task will end when either the participant correctly selects a number of words in a row using the new rule or the trial limit has been reached, whichever comes first. For example, if the participant required 40 trials to learn the first rule, then the second rule will be limited to 60 trials. Should the participant learn the second rule after 40 trials then the task will end. After completing the cognitive task participants will be debriefed on the nature of the experiment and thanked for their time.
PARTICIPANT INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE COGNITIVE TASK
"In this task, words will be presented to you two at a time. The words will appear side-by-side on the computer monitor and you will also hear each word spoken. For each pair of words, one word is correct and the other word is not correct. Your job is to try to select the correct word. You will know that you have selected a correct word because it will be followed by a smiley face. If you select a word that is not correct, then you will see a frowny face. After a moment the face will clear from the screen and the next pair of words will then be presented."
I'm having to learn E-Prime. This is a program that helps with stimulus presentation to the participant as well as response gathering from them. I already know SuperLab Pro which does the same thing, but E-Prime has two added benefits. First, if we eventually move the experiment to the fMRI lab, that lab only uses E-Prime. This way I won't have to re-write the bulk of the experiment at a future date. Second, E-Prime allows changes in the blocks of stimulus which SuperLab does not accommodate. For this experiment, participants must learn the first word rule and be able to show they know it by getting enough words correct in a row before the rule is changed. If we limited the number of trials, then too few will result in not giving some participants enough time to learn the rule, and if we have too many, the participant will get bored once the rule has been learned.
Along with that, I've been given a couple books regarding dyslexia to read and a few research papers that are either based on dyslexia or they are based on neural networks that display the same brain areas we will be modeling.
The draft of the research proposal is due to the McNair people by the end of this month. The final proposal is due at the end of May. I'll be expected to work 30-40 hours each week and am not allowed to work during the day or take any other classes while doing this research. We have a final presentation early-to-mid August. Depending on how far the research goes, I'm also expected to attempt to get professional journal publication.
Right now, we're getting ready to test normal reading ability, college-aged participants. The dyslexia children will probably not be until mid-summer, knowing how much we will have to go through to get that IRB approved, consent forms on the children, etc. We should also have normal-ability children as well as dyslexic adults in order to have proper control on the data, but I'm not sure if we will get that far. The post-doc is the primary researcher over all of the dyslexic stuff, so it's really up to him.
I have a job bookkeeping for a property management company on Friday. I have a few problems with that though. First, I have a McNair meeting right in the middle of the day. I'm supposed to work all day on Friday. Also, McNair does not allow the student to work any during the day during the summer in which the research is taking place. So if I go to work, I'll have to turn around and quit at the end of May – not even a full two months. I may have to let this fish go.