Questions tagged [methodology]
For questions about experimental and theoretical methods, procedures, and tools used while conducting research in the cognitive sciences.
279
questions
1
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1answer
59 views
Slope of psychometric function too steep?
I am in a project where we are preparing a visual decision making experiment which requires participants to detect vertical grating in a patch of dynamic noise (the noise pattern is updated on every ...
0
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0answers
14 views
Create a Mechanical Turk Experiment That Requires Multiple Subjects Simultaneously
I would like to create a job on Amazon Mechanical Turk that involves two subjects engaging in a dialogue. I already have the javascript interface coded up. How would I manage two subjects ...
0
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0answers
15 views
Does this type of study design have a name?
I'm wondering if the following study design has a specific name: I have an independent variable with m values, and k variations for each value, thus resulting in n = m x k stimuli. Each participant is ...
0
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1answer
32 views
In an experiment with animated stimuli, should I accept answers during Animation Time and count it into the Response Time?
In an experimental task where the response time is an important variable to compare two groups with different conditions, and there are animated stimuli (movement), should the response be accepted ...
2
votes
1answer
82 views
How to measure confidence in non-binary (e.g. ordinal) choice tasks?
In metacognition literature, why is confidence, regardless of scale (Likert-type or continuous) and definition (e.g. decision confidence as a subjective probability of a decision being correct), ...
3
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0answers
39 views
Can the administration of self-report measures of craving prompt participants with addiction to experience craving during the experiment?
My research focuses on measuring the neural correlates (through resting-state EEG) pre-post an improvisational music therapy session (MT sessions) in clients with substance misuse.
One of my variable ...
0
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0answers
18 views
Can you prove a psychological theory on a one-person research design?
Famous psychologists have proven their theories on a few subjects (really small sample sizes, like n = 3). Yet, now, we are taught that to prove any psychological theory right, we need to gather data ...
1
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1answer
62 views
How to determine nerve conduction velocity?
Can anyone suggest good sources or papers to understand about experimental setup and procedure for measuring nerve conduction velocity for various types of neurons?
I wish to learn how such ...
0
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0answers
20 views
What is the research design for the study I am proposing?
I am proposing an experiment in developmental psychology which asks whether the early use of decision rule X at $t_1$ (In children mean aged 9) is correlated with the use of more sophisticated rule Y ...
6
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5answers
236 views
Which function to use for fitting learning curves?
Background
I am fitting learning curves for cochlear implant (CI) users. These folks get a CI, and then need to start learning to understand speech again. They keep on improving for years. Along the ...
2
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3answers
81 views
What statistical tests should be performed to test effect of trials on response times where each subject has different number of data points?
I am running a behavioral experiment where a number of subjects (=20 in my case) perform a simple cognitive task. The experiment consists of a fixed number of trials (say, 40 in my case). During each ...
2
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0answers
23 views
Is there a term for a situation when questions in an anonymous survey may alienate the answers of the survey?
A friend was complaining to me the other day about a anonymous survey that they started to answer online which made them feel as if the survey was making negative presumptions about them which led to ...
6
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2answers
144 views
Is there evidence to support the Dunning-Kruger effect?
The well known Dunning-Kruger effect is oft cited as a general explanation for why people with limited expertise overestimate their abilities. Other than the initial research that described this ...
2
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0answers
13 views
How exactly should the items in the MEC-SPQ be rotated?
citing from the usage instructions of https://academic.csuohio.edu/kneuendorf/frames/MECFull.pdf
"The MEC-SPQ was designed for immediate assignment after media
exposure. Starting with ...
0
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0answers
41 views
Whole brain death diagnosis and false positive
In view of the increasing need for organ transplants( possibly because of the greater ability of the surgeons and physicians to both execute the transplant, prevent a rejection, and/or diagnose the ...
0
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1answer
34 views
Principles of grouping neurons
This is an overview question. I wonder which principles of grouping neurons into higher units are there, and which principles I have overseen.
neurotransmitter systems: all neurons that release or ...
1
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0answers
33 views
Psychological Diagnostic Test
Can a person sway the results of their Psychiatric diagnosis test? Say a person has a mental illness that is more serious that they want to accept, if they know enough about Psychology, can they gear ...
5
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1answer
109 views
Terror management theory: Is this a valid conclusion based on the conducted experiment?
I am currently reading the book ‘The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life’. I have to say that I am a bit skeptical about many of the statements posed, and I’m trying to identify why that is,...
6
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0answers
405 views
Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment with women
In the (in)famous experiment by psychologist Zimbardo at Stanford, also called the Stanford Prison Experiment, my understanding is that only males were selected. Is there any other analogous ...
2
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1answer
33 views
How can I determine which of Brainwave is dominant as one state by EEG data?
I am a student working on EEGs.
I have a EEG data of Brainwave in 4 emotional states, namely anger, sorrow, joy and pleasure. Is there any method for determining the difference between these emotional ...
1
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1answer
64 views
How can we eliminate the effect of psychiatric medication on neuropsychological research with schizophrenic patients?
It is delicate to conduct studies with schizophrenic patients, considering that the results may be altered by the medication factor. What strategies should be used to counteract this effect?
2
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0answers
61 views
Can some one operate 15 points lower during some part of the day and then return to normal?
Few days back I took an IQ test (online mensa norway) and found my IQ score to be 85. I actually had my IQ professionally tested 16 months ago by a psychologist when I was 18, and found out that I am ...
3
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1answer
42 views
Correlation used as explanatory device in ''The neuroscience of Intelligence'
I am currently reading Dr. Richard Haier's book The Neuroscience of Intelligence. I have a base knowledge of statistics, but I am confused about the following extract from page 80 (chapter 2.4):
...
3
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0answers
29 views
How can one detect ACC, PCC or any other medial cortical activity with MEG or EEG if it's inside the brain?
Been reading some research involving various brain imaging techniques and it's not my strong point. Really, if the electrodes or SQUIDS measure surface activity, how does one measure what's going on ...
3
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1answer
41 views
Excluding psychometry and interview methods, is there any physical or molecular method that can confirm mild autism?
ASD is a set of very much heterogeneous symptoms with some common characteristics like lack of eye contact, lack of social guesswork, difficulty in learning unwritten social norms or conventions, ...
0
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1answer
35 views
Methods to find patterns or correlations in MEA spike trains
I am looking for methods currently used to analyze micro-electrode arrays spike trains and figure out patterns, as repeated sequences of activation or spacial correlations.
I know about ISI ...
1
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1answer
52 views
How to determine which scale to use: Nominal vs Interval?
I am currently working on immersion and how it can be quantified. One of the problems I have run into is how to determine which scale to use?
I have performed a literature review but have not ...
3
votes
2answers
110 views
Is there a list of large-scale, free datasets with psychological variables?
Psychologists are not using large, existing, free data to its potential. We don't know what exists, what it contains, or how to use it without a huge investment. Secondary analysis of large, open ...
2
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1answer
50 views
May somebody use oddball paradigm solely for psychophysical studies?
I'm an undergraduate linguistics student with a strong interest in cognitive psychology of visual attention. Nowadays, I'm studying on an undergraduate research project in which I'm planning to use ...
0
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0answers
16 views
Averaging features in NetStation
Does anyone know any resources on how to look at the averages of first and the second part of an ERP experiment?
2
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2answers
56 views
Books on Statistics in R for behavioral data analysis
Are there any statistics books geared towards teaching behavioral data analysis especially in psycholinguistics?
3
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2answers
90 views
Why is deltaE not used as a measure of error?
I've recently read a few articles pertaining to visual memory. Most of them (e.g. Bays et al., 2009 use the continuous color recall task where they ask participants to recall the color of an object by ...
3
votes
2answers
194 views
correction for multiple comparison over many ROIs
I would like to know how to correct a p value of a stiatistic when the same test was run over multiple regions of interest. The modality is MEG.
So, I have 4 Regions Of Interests, and I ran the same ...
3
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0answers
51 views
Does anyone have R code for analyzing skin conductance data?
Similar question here Open-source software for analyzing Electrodermal activity
But with no R code answers provided, and the online EDA explorer appears to be unavailable now.
I am looking for code ...
1
vote
1answer
75 views
What time range between 2 measures for test-retest reliability?
How much time between 2 measurements is needed (at least / at most) to be called test-retest reliability?
Concrete casus:
I am planning a meta-analysis on reliability of various loneliness scales. We ...
1
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1answer
18 views
What speaker is commonly used for low-latency audio stimulation
We need to purchase a new speaker for audio ERP study, so the sound should be played in lowest possible latency with lowest possible jitter. I have seen quite a few suggestion on the OS/driver/sound ...
1
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0answers
35 views
Is there a specified way to shorten the number of questions in an instrument/questionnaire?
If you have found a fitting instrument that measures your interest and has been validated but is a bit too long, what can you do to shorten it?
Edit:
How do you reduce the number of questions ...
2
votes
1answer
53 views
How to control subject's response bias in 2-interval force choice task
I am using a two-interval force choice (2IFC) task to estimate detection threshold and choose an appropriate signal level for my following experiment, by estimating sensitivity ($d'$) for each signal ...
3
votes
1answer
40 views
Fit a psychometric function when the maximum is not 100% (not because of lapse)
I found that currently the form of psychometric function assumes that the proportion correct lies between 0.5-1 given the range of stimulus level, but how to fit a psychometric function when the ...
5
votes
1answer
72 views
Getting useful readings out of GSR sensors while moving?
I'm currently thinking about a project that would involve using a GSR sensor and an Arduino (Probably the Grove GSR Sensor) to measure Stress levels in a person.
It will not be a research project, ...
3
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2answers
68 views
How to answer questions that don't seem to be possible to be answered on a Strongly disagree - Strongly agree scale and what's their point?
I'm continuously being perplexed by psychological tests that display a lot of questions that don't seem to be able to be answered in a simplistic ways, but nevertheless simplistic answers are demanded....
2
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0answers
21 views
How to crowdsource behaviour across > 100.000 humans while each human only solves a very short task (< 10 sec)
I'd like to carry out a behavioural experiment that involves humans classifying a very simple image into one of two classes and there is no right or wrong answer. For the question of the study it is ...
1
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2answers
81 views
Confidence rating in cognitive experiments
Does a confidence rating included in a post task measure the likelihood of correctness to the answer or likelihood of occurrence of an event.
To give an example: participants are given a picture of ...
3
votes
1answer
71 views
Recommended resources (journals, blogs, etc) for nurturing a background of statistical/methodological rigour in behavioural science research?
Background :
There seems to considerable debate regarding the output of psychological research lacking
a) appropriate, rigourous statistical treatment of data
b) replicability
As a second year ...
1
vote
1answer
51 views
What's the best way to calculate an index score based on reaction time, variance and accuracy?
Say I have a go/no-go task and my output data includes 3 parameters:
average reaction time, variance of reaction time, and number of errors.
I want to composite all of the parameters into a single ...
1
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0answers
26 views
Is it okay to use "fixed number of factors" in EFA after contradicting results from MAP test and eigenvalues?
I need help with my data analysis.
I am using a non-validated translated questionnaire in my survey. The purpose of it is not to validate the measure in a different language and its construct validity,...
1
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0answers
75 views
What is the difference between mathematical psychology and quantitative psychology? [closed]
Upon researching this question I realized that there are many graduate programs in quantitative psychology, but not too many for mathematical psychology. If you know of any universities that offer ...
5
votes
1answer
480 views
How to report a quasi-experiment in APA?
As one reads the psychology literature (e.g. social psychology), it seems to me, and I hope I'm not wrong, that such a discipline is highly dependent on quasi experiments (correct me if I'm wrong ...
2
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1answer
174 views
How to design psychology tests for concept formation?
I've read many papers on concepts, but their tests are sparsely described or abstractly mentioned. I want to test for classic, prototype and exemplar theories. How do you approach the problem?
Some ...
4
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0answers
32 views
Timing accuracy in presentation of videos with different frame rates (with COGENT)
For our fMRI study we want to present videos of 3 seconds duration. The videos have different frame rates:
48 videos were recorded with 50 fps
16 videos were recorded with 25fps
64 videos were ...
