Processing Survey Data using Excel for Import into SPSS

Hi All,

Here is a video that I have recently made on my process for getting surveymonkey data into SPSS via Excel.

There are a number of general steps illustrated, laying out the worksheets, coding questions that have mixed text and numeric answers and formatting for export to SPSS.

Near the end of the video I demonstrate the quick way to set up an SPSS data file using names autogenerated in Excel and then copy/paste the formatted data into the worksheet. 

Thesis Tools for Research Students

As it's that time of the year again(big thesis docs time), this is my essential writing tools email.   I recommend using both a reference manager and an automated proofreading tool.  Find one of each that you like and get to know it very well.  Your supervisor might thank me.... 

Every year I fix broken thesis documents that have all kinds of manually created messes.  Spend your time focusing on writing (or procrastination); but don't spend it working on reference lists or looking for typos and poor writing style.  Make your computer do the heavy lifting where it can help.

Reference Managers

Endnote  - http://libguides.scu.edu.au/content.php?pid=455662&sid=3732637 (PC & Mac. The SCU solution and it works) 

Mendeley - http://www.mendeley.com/features/reference-manager/  (Has fans among the phd's )

MS Word Reference Manager - http://libguides.scu.edu.au/content.php?pid=356517&sid=2915399

More Reference Managers

Reference Managers Comparison on Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_reference_management_software 

Automated Proofreading tools

StyleWriter - http://www.editorsoftware.com/  (PC. This is the one I have the most experience with and use) 

GingerPage  http://www.gingersoftware.com/  (PC, Android, IOS ... Mac via online service) Grammerly http://www.grammarly.com/  (Web based...??) 

Whitesmoke http://www.whitesmoke.com/  (Web based... ??)

 PerfectIt - http://www.intelligentediting.com/ (Word plugin...?)

More Proofreading tools

http://www.bloggertipstricks.com/online-proofreading-tools.html

Using the tools you already have

Get familiar with the automated tools in MS Word that are there to help. (Anyone working in another editor... you're on your own)

1) Use the Style manager to style your document.

2) Use the cross-reference tool to create in-text references to tables, graphs and figures.

3) Use the "Table of Content" generator to automatically create and update your TOC. Ditto for tables of figures

4) Use the Page break and section break tools to split your sections. 

5) Use the caption tool on all tables, figures, graphs etc. 

6) Use your reference manager to automatically inject and style your Table of references. 

All these tools work together to automate the "grunt" work of producing large documents.  Use them or go crazy.  

Guides for working with Word on large docs
http://libroediting.com/blog/students-small-businesses-word-users/#wrd

More advanced Tools 

Reference Checker - Word macro to verify correctness of a reference.
http://www.goodcitations.com/

APA Style Guides
http://www.apastyle.org/learn/tutorials/

Connecting to a Lab calendar 2015

Connecting to a Lab calendar in 2015

Open up your University Email client.  via http://email.scu.edu.au 

Select the Calendar View by clicking on the little grid of boxes in the top left of the layout. (This will be different on phones )

Once you have the calendar view open.... you will see a list of your calendars on the left hand side (Again... different layout on phones... try to hum along with the tune.)

As this is my calendar, you can see I have all the labs already added.... you will probably see only 1 personal calendar.


If you right click (CTRL + Click on a Mac) on the calendar list heading, you should see an option to "Open Calendar".  Select this option.

You should now see the "Open Calendar" dialogue.

If you type "COF-M.1" into the "From Directory" box... you should get some results... but more importantly you should get the "Search Contacts and Directory" option at the bottom of the list.

Click on the "Search Contacts and Directory" option to open the search tool results. You should now see the list of all the labs (you may also see some other stray room calendars that are not labs)

Select the lab calendar that you are working in. Then click "Open".  You should now see that calendar added to your calendar lists on the left hand side of the calendar layout.

You can now select the calendar (tick the tick box) to view activity in the lab and make a booking.

Obviously, you do not need to subscribe to lab calendars that you are not working in.  So you should only see one or two calendars in this view rather than all of the labs as above.

Making a booking on a Lab calendar 2015

Making a booking on a Lab calendar in 2015

Making a booking is pretty straight forward.  Your experience will be slightly different to mine as I am an administrator of the calendar... so we will see slightly different options.  But again... try to hum along.


First, find the correct calendar for the lab you are working in.  (see above)

Turn the calendar on so you can view its days. Adjust your view to either day, week or month as you prefer. 

Find the day that you wish to make the booking on and Right click on it.  You will see a "New" option.  Select this to create a new booking.
Click on the "New" item in the top left corner below the blue "office 365" bar.   You will then see the form for a new event open.

You can now fill in the form fields as you need and save the booking.

Form Fields

Event - Put YOUR NAME and some code about your participant or the activity you will be running.  DO NOT PUT YOUR PARTICIPANTS NAME IN THIS FIELD.  Use their initials at most.

Location - You must use the "Add room" button to select the Lab you wish the event to be in.

Step 1. Click the "Add room" button on the right side. This will start looking for availible rooms.

Step 2.  Find the Lab that you wish to use for the location (This list may get jammed if there are no rooms free.  You may need to close the whole booking and create a new one to get this working again)

This will add the lab as a Location and as an Attendee.  This is correct.

Attendees - If you want to schedule other people into this event... then include them and let outlook send them messages and reminders.  I would tend not to include participants email addresses as this is confidential information and should not be included in a public calendar.

Duration/Start - Set the start time and the duration as you need.  Try not to block book the lab beyond a reasonable period as this will conflict with other lab users.

Reminder - set this as you see fit.

Show As - Set this to Busy.

Calendar - This will only allow you to create the event in your personal calendar.  This is correct.  (The location step above will create the event in the lab calendar)

Repeat -  Set this to Never.

Mark as Private - Do not set this field or other lab users will not be able to see your booking.

Notes Field -  Use this for your own purposes.  DO NOT PUT CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION IN THIS FIELD.  DO NOT PUT YOUR PARTICIPANTS NAME IN THIS FIELD.


When you are happy with the booking, click "Save" in the top left corner of the booking dialogue to save and close the booking editor.

You should now see the booking visible in your personal calendar and in the lab calendar.

NOTE - This new booking may take some time to Synchronise with other people.  Various times have been observed by different users.  

Editing a Booking 

Participants re-schedule.  Life gets in the road.  You need to change a booking.

First find the booking in the calendar (note if you have added yourself as an Attendee to the event, it may now be in both the lab calendar and your personal calendar... but its the same event)

Select the booking and you should see some options appear.

Click the "Edit" option to display the booking property fields and change the field values as you require. Then click "Send" in the top right corner to save and update all the attendees.

By editing the booking in the lab calendar, you should also see the changes applied to your personal calendar. 

Cancelling a Booking

Previously we had a policy of not deleting bookings that were cancelled.  This was so we could track activity in the labs.  This policy is now pointless as it creates additional chaos in the calendar system and make lab users lives more difficult.

If you need to cancel a booking.. do so. 

Simply click on the event in the calendar as above, but select the "Cancel" option rather than "Edit".  Where you have multiple Attendees, you will be given the option to send them a message about the cancellation. It would seem polite to use this opportunity.. but its up to you.

Afterword

Please let me know if you have problems following this guide or you have problems getting the results you wish from the system. The TS help desk can provide additional assistance in the use of the Outlook system if you require support.

Thanks.

Setting your timezone in Outlook Correctly

Hi All,

A number of students have had trouble with the Lab Calendars due to the fact that the timezone has defaulted to an incorrect value in their Outlook Online/Office 365 client.

Please check your settings as it makes a real mess in the Calendars.


Steps to check or set your timezone correctly.

Step 1.  Open your Office365/Outlook account.

Step2. Click on the "Cog" icon in the top right corner.

Step 3. Select the "Option" item from the menu.

Step 4. Select the "General" options set from the list on the left hand side of the screen.

Step 5. Select the "Region and time zone" item on the sub list.

Step 4.  Check or set the option in the "Current time zone" box at the bottom to "(UTC+10:00) Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney"

Step 5.  Click the "Save" option above the "Region and time zone" title.

You should now have the correct timezone set and your appointments should make sense in the lab calendars.

Lab Calendars for 2015

Hi All,

We are trying a different method with the lab calendars this year... so consider it an experiment.  Please let me know if you have problems using the system.


This post has been UPDATED.  See the linked posts below for more details. 

Overview of the Lab Calendar process

Before you begin:  Please check your timezone is set correctly in Outlook ... see here for instructions

Step 1.  You will need to connect to the correct lab calendar to see what booking exist.  See this post for details on connecting to the calendars.

Step 2. You will need to make bookings in the lab calendars.  See this post for details on making bookings.

When using a lab, please remember to tag the door with the "Experiment in Progress" door hanger, so that you are not disturbed. It also serves to remind people to be a bit quiet in the corridor...

Duty of Candour in UK

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-33286601

This gives me hope for humanity.  The culture of lying by omission in organisations is incredibly destructive.  Fingers crossed that this is taken up in other professions. 

Psychology Labs Technical Wiki is Up

Southern Cross University Psychology Labs Technical Wiki

https://sites.google.com/site/sculabsequipmentwiki/

This is a collection of knowledge about the labs, the equipment, specifications and such.  This will serve to document the technical details and give access for the students who are hunting these details during a midnight writing session. 

Let me know any additional details that you would like to see here and I will add them.

2014 year in review... now with more hindsight!!!

After a pretty heavy year on the politics side some of us are still standing.

The labs are still here, (most) of the staff are still here and another cohort of students have launched successfully.  I'm calling it a win.... but at a cost.

The Uni has been through the wringer with the Federal Budget shenanigans.  Yet another round of funding cuts, impending funding cuts and systematic changes topped off with a whole lot of drawn out uncertainty.  This has resulted in a general grinding on the staff and a big overdraft on the goodwill that keeps the place running.  

Another round of accreditation has been navigated with high praise for the quality of the course and the staff.  The politics around the structure of the school aside, it was fairly painless.  However the tension between the idealism of the APAC rules and the reality of where higher education is going has continued.  This tension mostly plays out between APAC's idealistic staffing model and the reality of the downsize pressure that all the Uni's are under.

It's always interesting to spectate on these kinds of processes.  Watching the slow evolution of the professional organisations as they struggle not to modernise while the commercial reality of operating in an environment that does not in any way resemble the one from the 70's that fostered (and educated) the mindset that is creating the drag on any attempt to change.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate some idealism in all things. But the reality is that a combination of factors and players are working at cross purposes to keep many of the professions (like psych) still functioning as though it was 1956. The problem is that mostly this results in the systems being completely non-viable within the current funding envelopes.  Genius! 

Before I start ranting too much.....

On the research side, there are lots of projects bubbling along.  All manner of bits and pieces need building.  I currently have about 14 projects on my to-do list but a few of them I would count as inactive at the moment pending further interest by the clients. I need to clear them before the honours students get too busy. 

We have a good active cohort of PhD students at the moment with a number in the end game. (This will clear a couple of desks ... I hope)  Not sure how many will be coming on board this year so it will be interesting to see how the desks play out. I can always stack a couple in a spare staff office I guess.

Speaking of staff, we lost a number of core staff over the last year through reorganisation and redundancies.  Organisational change is always difficult.  There is loss and sadness along with renewal and hope.... but that doesn't me we don't miss them.

The Uni is continuing its constant evolution (like any reactive organisation) and we are charging ahead at a considered pace.  Not fast enough for many but too fast for some.  There are new administration systems, more online courses and new campus locations.  I personally am not missing some of the old administration systems.  They were very aged in many of the design assumptions and were well past time for replacement.  But the trade off is the pain of learning the new systems and figuring out how to get stuff done with them.

We have lost a number of admin staff and the rest have been centralised.  This has created some renewal but also a concentration of pressure on the remaining staff.  They have also been loaded with the new software systems, more duties (from the redundant staff) and a constantly evolving policy landscape and organisation which is making it very difficult to form new knowledge networks.  Hopefully, we will have some time to stabilise and consolidate this year so that they can get over the learning curve of the new systems and find the productive sweet spots.

Just a few weeks now until the new honours cohort lands... time to shine the brass and grease the hinges....

Automating the export of edat2 files from E-DataAid

So, you have a data set collected in E-Prime and you want to export for processing in another tool suite?  Since it takes half a dozen mouse clicks per file, you can only image how un-fun this gets once the data set grows to dozens or hundreds of files.

There are three methods for exporting a data set of edat2 files that I know of:

1) Manually click your way through the whole data set and export each individually.
2) Use E-Merge to merge the all the files into one huge file... then export it in one step... then figure out how to process it (either split it back into individual participant chunks or do a population study on the whole lot)

3) Use the below script to get it all done automagically in one mouseclick.

 My problem is that each year I have dozens of E-Prime data sets to handle.  This has resulted in needing to process literally hundreds of edat2 files every year.  I usually teach the student how to do the manual export method but that was still prone to human error and often resulted in me having to go and find a file that had been miss-named or skipped in the process.  More time and effort spent.  This is a repetative problem with no variability... there had to be an automated solution.

So after appropriate googling around and some futile autohotkey hacking, I contacted PST help and found a helpful customer support person.  After explaining my need and establishing that the first two solutions above were not suitable for my problem, the support person produced some documentation for a simple command line interface to E-DataAid.  This provided me with a scriptable interface that I needed.  Add a little Perl hacking and tada.... solution.

Find below my solution and some notes.

The Solution for Exporting edat2 files to text files

For this solution I used perl as my scripting language of choice. I recomend the ActiveState ActivePerl. 

To use this file you will need perl and E-Prime 2 installed on the computer.  Then simply copy this script into a text file and name it something useful, like "DumpEdatToText.pl" and save it in the directory with the edat2 files.

The doubleclick the perl script to run it. It should export each edat2 file to a tab-delimited text file named with the participant id and session id. For example "p1s1.csv"  (Note: while this is not strictly speaking a CSV file, the file extension makes it easy to import into Excel for my purposes)

Following is my perl script:

#get all the edat2 files in the current directory
my @files = glob("*.edat2");

#process file each individually
foreach my $file(@files){

    print $file . " being processed\n";

    #get the participant ID and session ID from the file name
    my $p = "partID not found";
    #my $p = substr $file, index($file, "-"), 1;
    if ($file =~ /\-([^-]+)\-/)
    {
        $p = $1;
    }
   
    my $s = "SessionID not found";
    if ($file =~ /\-([^-]+)\./)
    {
        $s = $1;
    }
   
    my $outfileName = "p" . $p . "s" . $s . ".csv";

    #process the command file
    my $theCommandFileName = "cmdFile.txt";
    unless( open cmdFile, '>:crlf', $theCommandFileName){
        die "\nUnable to open $theCommandFileName\n";
    }

    print cmdFile ("Inheritance=true" . "\n");
    print cmdFile ("InFile=" . $file . "\n");
    print cmdFile ("OutFile=" . $outfileName . "\n");
    print cmdFile ("ColFlags=0" . "\n");
    print cmdFile ("ColNames=1" . "\n");
    print cmdFile ("Comments=0" . "\n");
    print cmdFile ("BegCommentLine=" . "\n");
    print cmdFile ("EndCommentLine=" . "\n");
    print cmdFile ("DataSeparator=    " . "\n"); #<tab character
    print cmdFile ("VarSeparator=    " . "\n"); #<tab character
    print cmdFile ("BegDataLine=" . "\n");
    print cmdFile ("EndDataLine=" . "\n");
    print cmdFile ("MissingData=" . "\n");
    print cmdFile ("Unicode=1" . "\n");

    close cmdFile;
   
    #pass the command file to E-DataAid for export
    system('"C:\Program Files (x86)\PST\E-Prime 2.0\Program\E-DataAid.exe" /e /f cmdFile.txt');
}

End Perl Script

Notes

Error Messages from E-DataAid
Error 1
No Output and no error message generated when running the following command
"C:\Program Files (x86)\PST\E-Prime 2.0\Program\E-DataAid.exe" /e  exampleB.txt

Solution – forgot to include the /f flag on command line. Now works.
"C:\Program Files (x86)\PST\E-Prime 2.0\Program\E-DataAid.exe" /e /f exampleB.txt
The missing flag should generate an error message.

Error 2
Message: “Error Reading Unicode from command file”
Solution – Added “Unicode=1” to end of command file.  Guessed that it’s a flag field. Seems to work.

Error 3
Message: “Error Reading E-Prime data file: D:\TestDumper\test.edat2 file” 
Solution – Had the full path to the file in the command file. Replaced with a relative path and the command worked. 
InFile=D:\TestDumper\test.edat2  <-Failed
InFile=nBackVerbal-1-1.edat2 <- Worked

Error 4
Leaving the “InFile=” field empty will crash E-DataAid
E-DataAid should correctly handle and report the missing field.

Error 5
Leaving the “OutFile=” field empty will generate a spurious error message.  “Error exporting to text file: .” 
E-DataAid  should detect the missing field and correctly report that there is no output file name supplied.

Error 6
Absolute file path in the “InFile=” field to edat2 file cause failure.
This may be due to assuming that the file is in the current working directory????
Solution- Use a relative path or work in the same directory.

Research Instrument Design and Anonymity

Here's a scenario...

Your research design means you are collecting data using an online survey instrument.  You have ethical clearance to collect data from your participant population anonymously. You then embed a question in the survey asking the participants to provide their email address if they would like a summary of the results of the research; as per your ethical obligation.

Later....

When looking at the raw data from your instrument, you see a row of the responses provided by the participant... next to their email address. 

Now tell me how this is anonymous... and show your working!

Why is this a problem?

1) You know the population that was invited to participate.
2) You know some or all of the email addresses of those participants. By elimination you may be able to guess more identities. With additional demographic information you can further refine your guesses.
3) You now need to store and secure the data from your instrument at a much higher level of security.
4) You are now required to store ALL this data for seven years in such a way that it can be reivewed by third parties (who you do not know) at any time in the future.
5) This data exists on multiple computer systems already.
6) This data may leak in a number of obvious and in-obvious ways.
7) You are ledgislated to handle and secure this data as of 12/3/2014.
8) It's really hard to be sure that data is actually deleted. Sooner or later, a search engine will find it.

How is this ethical research?  How are you in compliance with the NHMRC guidelines?  How are you in compliance with the Australian Privacy Legislation? How are you in compliance with the University Policies? 

The government has passed some updates to the privacy laws and now they have real and specific applicability to this data.

Penalties for non-compliance

 You are individually liable for penalties if you do not comply (up to $220,000 for individuals, $1.7 Million for organisations... I.e your employer, the University)  See the Privacy Legislation below.

What is Personal Information?

 Personal information has the meaning as set out in s 6 of the Privacy Act:

information or an opinion (including information or an opinion forming part of a database), whether true or not, and whether recorded in a material form or not, about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion.

Sensitive information is a subset of personal information. The Privacy Act defines sensitive information as:

1. information or an opinion about an individual’s:
   1. racial or ethnic origin; or
   2. political opinions; or
   3. membership of a political association; or
   4. religious beliefs or affiliations; or
   5. philosophical beliefs; or
   6. membership of a professional or trade association; or
   7. membership of a trade union; or
   8. sexual preferences or practices; or
   9. criminal record;
   that is also personal information; or
2. health information about an individual; or
3. genetic information about an individual that is not otherwise health information.

What are your obligations once you collect Personal Information in a research data set?

• Securely storing the data (Copying, publishing, data requests, integrity investigations)
• Securely destroy the data
• Authentication of access to the data
• Manditory reporting of data breaches
• Transfer of control of the data
• Hosting the data on foreign servers
• Implications of the Freedom of Information Act

The list of obligations and the cost for compliance is quite substantial..... are you sure you want to collect this information for your research project?

Academic Email is subject to the Freedom of Information Act under Australian Law.  This means that if your data set has been emailed (say between the student and their supervisor) then it could be leaked via that mechanims.

What can Students and Supervisors do?

Avoid this whole mess by not collecting personally identifying information (Email Addresses specifically) as part of the data set. Design around this potential risk.

Do not sample very small, specific, known populations. 

Beware when the Ethics review hands back a requirement for this kind of mechanism in your study.  Be prepared to push back with some alternate design strategies to avoid this problem.

Be aware of the legislation and the implications of compliance.  

Design research to seperate identity and data, if the participants are known.  Do not embed their identities in the data set or research materials (which must then be stored and shared)

Alternate Design Strategies

Case 1 - Ethical Requirement for optional feedback of research results to research participants.

The recomended (by me) strategy is to provide the particiants with a contact email address (researcher or supervisor) from whom they can request a copy of the results of the research.
This strategy avoids the issue of collecting and holding a list of email addresses with their associated cost and the risk of violating the anonymity of the participants. 

Case 2 - Repeated measures design requiring followup contact with participants.

Request participants to contact the researcher and be added to a pool prior to the data collection starting.  Then the researcher can broadcast to this list an anonymous link to the data collection instrument at each measure time.

This provides a dis-connect between the participants activity and their identity.  Unless the researcher has a very small pool or makes other attempts to link the particiant and their data... there is no way to identify who has provided which data record.

This then allows the list of email addresses to be stored seperatly and destroyed securely independ of the data set that results from the research. 

Further Reading

10 Steps to Protect Other Peoples Personal Information
http://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-resources/privacy-fact-sheets/other/privacy-fact-sheet-7-ten-steps-to-protect-other-people-s-personal-information

How to de-identify data
http://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-resources/privacy-business-resources/privacy-business-resource-4-de-identification-of-data-and-information

The 17  Australian Privacy Principles (APPs)

General information on Information security
http://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-resources/privacy-guides/guide-to-information-security

Random Stimuli Sequences

When is a sequence of stimuli "Random" enough?

Students often have a "pre-conceived" idea of what they think "Random" looks like.  Which if you think about it for a second is interesting in itself.  (Go look up Apophenia)

The correct answer is: When then sequence appears to have no pattern perceivable by the participant!

Note that this is not the same as "No pattern perceivable to the researcher".  The researcher is often conditioned to the sequence simply by their understanding of the research design and having tested the experiment a few (or hundreds) of times.  Their brain is already trying to detect patterns in the sequence.  This is what brains do.  

This is always in contrast to a naive participant who will only experience the sequence once.  (If you design calls for repeated measures... different design)


What are the options?

Random Sequence With replacement

Imagine a bag that contains all the possible sequence items,  reach in and take an item without looking,  record the item and then return it to the bag.  Repeat as needed. 

This method uses a sampling mechanism of reaching blindly into a bag.  This means that each sample is independant.

For example, if we have  possible items in the bag (5,9,4,2,7), then a sequence of five samples could be any of the following:

5,9,4,2,7

5,5,5,5,5

7,7,7,7,2

5,9,5,9,5

While these sequences that appear to be patterns are "legal" and can quite possibly be generated using this mechanism, there are  5 * 5 * 5 * 5 * 5 (3125) possible different sequences that could be generated. 

Much like a coin-walk,  the distribution of the items in this random system will approch being perfectly even.... as the sample size grows... but it will not be anything like even at small sample sizes. Keep in mind that for any participant, who expereinces the sequence once, this is a sample size of 1... I.e lots of noise in the distribution. . Due to this fact, these sequences that appear to have a pattern are generally not what the researchers "want" to see.  And while this is still a very effective mechanism for generating the stimuli sequence, the possiblity of there appearing to be a pattern can mess with the researchers head. 

Random Sequence Without Replacement

Imagine a bag that contains all the possible sequence items,  reach in and take an item without looking, record that item but do not return it to the bag.  Now pick the next item from those remaining in the bag.  Obviously the bag will eventually be exhausted.  (At which point your sequence may be finished, or you may return all items to the bag and start again)

For instance, again with our items of ( 5,9,4,2,7), some sequences could be

7,5,9,2,4

2,4,5,7,9

There are 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 (120) possible sequences if we are creating five item sequences.

If we are creating say a ten item sequence, then we would run this method twice. 

i.e 2,4,5,7,9,7,5,9,2,4

Which would give us a possible  120 * 120 ( 14400 ) possible sequences.

This mechanism will generate sequences that do not have the same possibility of repetition of items as the first mechanism. 

The distribution of items in this method is much closer to even at small sample sizes and so creates a safe feeling for the researchers.  However, keep in mind that where the number of items in the bag is small, this can create a repeating sequence that the participants can still detect.  (7 plus or minus 2 being a useful rule of thumb for the number of items a person can remember )

Generally, if the number of sequence items is less than 9, the participant can start to anticipate by elimination what item may come next.  This is unavoidable, as its part of the "normal" function of the brain. The longer the sequence runs... the better they will feel at this.  (This does not mean they will be right... but over time, it can be better than chance for people who are good at this task)


So what is the best mechanism to generate your stimuli sequence?

Well this gets tricky because often stimuli sequences involve repetition of some items, some contains distractor items with their own frequency, others may include cueing rules and other rules for follow order.  Some sequences include "idiot check" items, some are trying to cause patterns and anticipation, while others are trying to control for these effects.... some have blocks of similar stimuli, some have intruders, control blocks and neutral effect stimuli.  There are as many permutations as there are researchers and research design.

Find some experts and talk it over.  There is a sequence generator for you out there.

The biggest problem however is when the right generator has been build and verified and the researcher says "I don't think its random enough...."

SCU Interlectual Property Rights in Research Projects

http://policies.scu.edu.au/view.current.php?id=00017

Optical Illustion Resources

http://news.distractify.com/culture/mind-blowing-optical-illusions/?v=1

Copyright, Video and Model Releases for Research Purposes

The current copyright legal framework.   The general rule is you need to obtain permission to use from the rights holder.  This may include payment for the license to use.  There are some exemptions under the copyright act for education and research purposes. 

COPYRIGHT ACT 1968 - SECT 40 

Fair dealing for purpose of research or study

 There are various issues that have arisen since the copyright act was written (digital technology) that are more complex to argue.  There are proposals to change the copyright system, but it has not yet reached the legislation stage.  

ALRC Proposals to change Copyright - Educational Use section

Copyright and the Digital Economy (DP 79) 5 June 2013

Fair Use and various examples...



Taking Photographs/Video for use in research projects need an SCU model release form signed by the model. This needs to be archived with your project records.

Talent Release /Permission to Use Form

Survey Design - Participant Information Sheets

The following is a good template for a functional participant information sheet:  (Your milage may vary) This follows the format in the ethics application docs.

Research Title: SOME TITLE HERE

My name is *Researcher Name* and I am conducting research, under the supervision of *Suerpvisor Name*, as part of the Honours year of the Bachelor of Psychology degree at Southern Cross University. My research project investigates the *very brief description*

What does this research involve?

*Description of the process from the participants point of view...* This questionnaire will include questions about your .... This questionnaires should take approximately 20 minutes so overall. All data collection can be done from any computer with internet access. What time of day you decide to complete the questionnaire is completely up to you.

Responsibilities of the Researcher

It is our responsibility as the researchers to provide you with sufficient information to understand the implications of participation in the research. Your participation in the study is voluntary. To ensure anonymity...... Demographic details, such as age and sex, will be linked to the data. We will keep data and consent forms securely in a Psychology Office at SCU for seven years, after which time they will be destroyed. On completion of participation in the study, we are happy to provide you with a summary of the results if you provide contact details. We are unable to provide information on individual scores or provide any clinical advice.

Responsibilities of the Participant

The measures used in the study require that participants have normal or corrected-to-normal vision and hearing. Although there have been no reports of adverse reactions to the methods used in this project, if at any time you are bothered by the experience of recording your emotions or thinking about personality variables during the online component we are asking that you access support as you require. We will give you contact details for the SCU Counselling Service, but you may choose to contact your GP or other sources of support if necessary. As the tasks involved in this project require that you log on the internet, we are looking for participants who:

• have access to a computer
• are fluent in English
• are at least 18 years of age.

Possible Discomforts and Risks

This research is considered very low risk. It is possible that reflecting on your mood or personality may cause you concern. If you are distressed as a result of participating in this research, you are advised to contact a counsellor (e.g., SCU Counselling Service, (02) 6659 3263, or by email on counselling@scu.edu.au) or other forms of support of your choosing. You are welcome to discontinue your involvement at any time without any negative consequences.

Publication of Results of this Research

The findings of this research may be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals or presented at conferences. A complete account of the findings of this research will be available at the Southern Cross University Library at a later stage. No identifying information will be included as all participants will just be referred to by a number.

Informed Consent

Participation in this research is voluntary. Your agreement to participate will be assumed from your completion of the survey. You are free to withdraw your consent and participation from the study at any time. Your decision will be treated with respect, no questions will be asked and there will be no negative consequences associated with your withdrawal. All your data will be destroyed immediately.

Inquiries

Any questions you may have regarding this research can be directed to the researcher or research supervisor.
*Supervisor Name here*
Lecturer
Psychology
School of Health and Human Sciences
Southern Cross University,
Coffs Harbour, NSW 2450
Ph: *****
Email:*****


Student Researcher Details
*Researcher Name Here*
Psychology
Southern Cross University
Coffs Harbour Campus NSW 2450
Email: *****

This research has been approved by the Southern Cross University Human Research Ethics Committee. The approval number is: ******.

If you have concerns about the ethical conduct of the research, please write to:
The Ethics Complaints Officer, Southern Cross University
PO Box 157
Lismore
NSW 2480
email: ******

 Do you give Consent

By pressing the "Next" button, you consent to your data being used in this project. Remember you can withdraw at any time simply by closing the survey window. 

Survey Questions on Gender

Question:  How to ask demographics questions about gender.

The scenario:  You are creating a survey that includes a demographics section and asks about the gender of the participant.  You are interested in equity and diversity as dictated by the policy of the University and respecting your participants rights under state and federal Law....


Old form of the question:

What is your gender?
A) Female
B) Male


Whats changed? The Australian High Court has upheld the right of individuals to be identified as being of "non-specific" gender. Note that this is a NSW specific issue, but other states are working on their own legislation.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-02/high-court-recognises-gender-neutral/5361362


New form of the question:

What is your gender?
A) Female
B) Male
C) Non-specific

Please note that this is not nearly as inclusive as it could be, but its a step forward.   There are more issues here that need attention if you are a social researchers.

• Distinction between public and private gender 
• Self selected terms used to identify current gender state
• Distinction between physical gender expression and social gender/role expression
• Distinction between biological gender (DNA) and physical gender expression
• Gender Role descriptions

 As always, with survey design, there is a tention between asking a question to shape the answers given for the conveinence of the researcher and asking a question to be as inclusive as possible.  If your question format is categorical (multiple choice) then you may need to include an "Other" text entry box to fully capture the range of answers your sample population may choose to respond with.

Resources for Digital Researchers

Below are the most useful tools I have found for dealing with the "Digital Researcher" problem.

SCU "Official" University Publications Managment System

These are the minimum systems you need to get set up to be "official".

ePublications@SCU (Division of Research is the gatekeeper - Submit Pub here)
Personal Researcher Pages at SCU  ( This is a "Managed" system so you can create the profile but SCU will "Control" it.  Create the profile here )
Staff Directory ( Update your listing here )

Academic Social Networks (Also for Publication Management)

Both the following systems are useful.  I prefer RG for the pubs management and A.edu for the discovery system for other interesting stuff. 


ResearchGate
Academia.edu

Publication Managment via Researcher Identity Numbers

At some point you will need to register for one or all of these to submit publications to a journal.  ORCID seems to be the top of the pile.  They are interacting well with each other so they are all linked together. I recomend starting with ORCID.

ORCID
ResearcherID
Google Scholar

General Purpose Social Networks

Twitter
Facebook
Linkedin

Blogging 

Blogger via a Google account

Door Pin Codes in the Coffs Harbour Psychology Labs

Hi All,

This post is to capture information about the Pin Code situation for the labs.


The Labs have Pin locks.  You will need a Pin Code, key or escort to get into the labs. 

If you are not currently a Research Student, Research Staff or Research Associate, there is no reason you need or will be issued with a Pin code. 

The Pin Codes are allocated using the following logic.

Research Students

Each Lab has a generic Pin code for all the honours students using that Lab.  This code is changed each year to keep out the students from the previous year(s).

Each Lab has a generic code for all PhD students using that Lab. This code is changed when we need to keep out previous PhD students.

Individual pin codes are created for students who need access to multiple labs. These are deleted when the student completes their research.

NOTE - Please do not simply knock on my door every day to get access because you cannot manage to remember/write down/tattoo on your arm, your allocated pin code.

Research Staff

All full time research staff are issued with a Pin Code to access all the lab spaces.  These will be changed when that person ceases to be employed or moves to a non-research role.

Research Associates and Casual Staff

Short term, continuing or visting researcher and staff will be issued with an Individual Pin which will be configured to allow access to the areas they are required to work in.  This Pin will be deleted when they complete their project or their contract ends.

Research Participants

All research participants need to be escorted into and out of the labs by the researcher, student or RA that they are working with. 

DO NOT GIVE PIN CODES TO RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS.  EVER! 

They are your responsibility.  Escort them in, escort them out and call security if you think they are stealing from the labs.

Walk and Talk Tours, Visitors, Family Members, Groupies, Pets, Kids 

PIN CODES ARE NOT TO BE GIVEN TO ANY OTHER GROUPS.  DO NOT ASK.

Anyone visiting the labs does so under the escort of a student or staff member who has permission to be in the lab.  Your visitors are your responsibility. 

Tradespeople, Security and Facilities Staff

Security hold the only keys to the labs.
Tradespeople will be escorted on and off campus by security staff.
Facilities staff have a generic pin code which will be changed on a yearly basis.

2013 The Psychology Labs Year in Review

So who's where in the Southern Cross University Psychology Labs over the 2013 honours rush?   I'm writing this just after the lab rush has finished.  Currently the students are in data analysis. We're all getting ready for the Presentations Panic so this is a good time to clear my head of this info before I forget.

M.1.54 - EEG Lab (Prof. Robert O'She and Dr. Urte Rober)

Tom Sanderson (Hons)
Emily Prowse (Hons)
Ho (Ken) Ko (Hons)
Ruth Titherington (Hons)
Brad Jack (Phd)
Lachlan Foster (Hons) 

M.1.53 - VR Lab

Yezen Nwiran (Hons)
Nicole Foldes (Hons) (Co Super between Rick van der Zwan and Desiree Kozlowski)

M.1.52 - Perception Lab

Margurite Rowe (RA)

M.1.49 - Accoustic Lab (Assc. Prof. Rick van der Zwan)

Graeme Hacker (Phd)
Samantha Joplin (Hons)
Elise Morris (Hons)
Abbie McPherson (Hons) (Co Super between Rick van der Zwan and Heather Winskel)
Nicole Foldes (Hons) (Co Super between Rick van der Zwan and Desiree Kozlowski)

M.1.47 - Motion and Planning Lab (Dr. Mitchell Longstaff)

Gemma Doust (Hons)
Taryn Payne (Hons)
Tristan Hazelwood (Hons)
Suellen Jenkins (Hons)
Kevin Minotti (Phd)
Richard Tindle (Phd)

M.1.46 - Eyetracking Lab (Dr. Alison Bowling)

Nick Batty (Hons)
Kyla Brogmus (Hons)
Sharna Gale (Hons)
Leigh Grant (Hons)
Jacqueline Ruello (Hons)

M.1.45 - Conditioning and Learning Lab (Dr. Steve Provost)

Madeline Begg (Hons)
Lachlan Foster (Hons)
Royce Willis (Hons)
Elisabeth Hanley (Hons)
Kristel Broderick (Hons) (Co Super between Steve Provost and Desiree Kozlowski)

M.1.44 - Cognitive Neuroscience and Behaviour Lab (Dr. Anna Brooks)

Natalie Doring (Hons)
Monica Heafey (Hons)
Yezen Nwiran (Hons) (Co super between Anna Brooks and Desiree Kozlowski)
Alice Murphy (Hons)
Selena Ravot (Hons)
Desiree Kozlowski (Phd)
Justin Gaetano (Phd)

M.1.43 - Executive Function and Emotion Lab (Dr. Jim Donnelly)




Leah Gould-Anthony (Hons)
Michele Oaten (Hons)
Andrew Sheldon (Hons)
Matthew Snow (Hons)
Martin Tedeschi (Hons)
Tara Kocek (Phd)

M.1.42 - Language and Reading Lab (Dr. Heather Winskel)

David Beet (Hons)
Emma Peart (Hons)
Tiffany Web (Hons)
Julie-Anne Nicholson (Hons)
Abbie McPherson (Hons) (Co Super between Rick van der Zwan and Heather Winskel)

M.1.33 - Social Psychology Lab (Dr. Gail Moloney)

Noor Alkazali (Hons)
Ashlee Pennington (Hons)
Catherine Scott (Hons)

Remote Students (Supervised by Jacquie Yoxal)

Alexandria Brown (Hons) (Supervised by Jacquie Yoxal)
Kai Das (Hons) (Supervised by Jacquie Yoxal)

Part Timers

Aimee Doyle
Christine Farrell
Heulwen Gordon
Carmel Gray
Emma Turner
Philippa Visser