Craft of Research – Day 2

Marie VendettuoliSPIRE-EIT 2011June 15, 2011

Reminders

• Problem paragraph due today: see email from Stephen Gilbert

• IRB application draft due next week (6/22)• Reading for Journal Club updated• Volunteers needed for next week’s Journal

Club

Review: Craft of Research Quiz#2: Moore ISD#4: WorldComp#6: Touchsense#7: ETP

Review: Literature Management

Review: IRB Responses

“…research has to be specific and planned out, which the IRB is ensuring”

“I found the IRB training to be a little unnecessary”

“…why they want you to go through this training: not everyone thinks rationally”

“I feel that they may slow down scientific process”“with all the hoops researchers have to jump through, I’m surprised we’ve had so many advances in science”

“I found a lot of information … to be common sense”

A detour: Type of media Most of Time Some of Time Little Never

Print

TV

YouTube, Hulu, Netflixmusic

Non-music audio

video & computer gamesPhone calls

IM

SMS

email

web

Business productivity

How often do you use each media type with another (multitask)?

A detour: multitaskingIgnore the blue rectangles. Have the red ones changed orientation?

HMM = heavy media multitaskersLMM = low media multitaskers

Ready?What happened?

What is a Research question?

This is the specific matter you are trying to address with your project formulated as a question.

• Don’t overpromise• Define vague terms, e.g. what does

“improve” really mean?

Chronic media multitasking is quickly becoming ubiquitous, although processing multiple incoming streams of information is considered a challenge for human cognition. A series of experiments addressed whether there are systematic differences in information processing styles between chronically heavy and light media multitaskers. A trait media multitasking index was developed to identify groups of heavy and light media multitaskers. These two groups were then compared along established cognitive control dimensions. Results showed that heavy media multitaskers are more susceptible to interference from irrelevant environmental stimuli and from irrelevant representations in memory. This led to the surprising result that heavy media multitaskers performed worse on a test of task-switching ability, likely due to reduced ability to filter out interference from the irrelevant task set. These results demonstrate that media multitasking, a rapidly growing societal trend, is associated with a distinct approach to fundamental information processing.

Chronic media multitasking is quickly becoming ubiquitous, although processing multiple incoming streams of information is considered a challenge for human cognition. A series of experiments addressed whether there are systematic differences in information processing styles between chronically heavy and light media multitaskers. A trait media multitasking index was developed to identify groups of heavy and light media multitaskers. These two groups were then compared along established cognitive control dimensions. Results showed that heavy media multitaskers are more susceptible to interference from irrelevant environmental stimuli and from irrelevant representations in memory. This led to the surprising result that heavy media multitaskers performed worse on a test of task-switching ability, likely due to reduced ability to filter out interference from the irrelevant task set. These results demonstrate that media multitasking, a rapidly growing societal trend, is associated with a distinct approach to fundamental information processing.

Chronic media multitasking is quickly becoming ubiquitous, although processing multiple incoming streams of information is considered a challenge for human cognition. A series of experiments addressed whether there are systematic differences in information processing styles between chronically heavy and light media multitaskers. A trait media multitasking index was developed to identify groups of heavy and light media multitaskers. These two groups were then compared along established cognitive control dimensions. Results showed that heavy media multitaskers are more susceptible to interference from irrelevant environmental stimuli and from irrelevant representations in memory. This led to the surprising result that heavy media multitaskers performed worse on a test of task-switching ability, likely due to reduced ability to filter out interference from the irrelevant task set. These results demonstrate that media multitasking, a rapidly growing societal trend, is associated with a distinct approach to fundamental information processing.

Chronic media multitasking is quickly becoming ubiquitous, although processing multiple incoming streams of information is considered a challenge for human cognition. A series of experiments addressed whether there are systematic differences in information processing styles between chronically heavy and light media multitaskers. A trait media multitasking index was developed to identify groups of heavy and light media multitaskers. These two groups were then compared along established cognitive control dimensions. Results showed that heavy media multitaskers are more susceptible to interference from irrelevant environmental stimuli and from irrelevant representations in memory. This led to the surprising result that heavy media multitaskers performed worse on a test of task-switching ability, likely due to reduced ability to filter out interference from the irrelevant task set. These results demonstrate that media multitasking, a rapidly growing societal trend, is associated with a distinct approach to fundamental information processing.

Chronic media multitasking is quickly becoming ubiquitous, although processing multiple incoming streams of information is considered a challenge for human cognition. A series of experiments addressed whether there are systematic differences in information processing styles between chronically heavy and light media multitaskers. A trait media multitasking index was developed to identify groups of heavy and light media multitaskers. These two groups were then compared along established cognitive control dimensions. Results showed that heavy media multitaskers are more susceptible to interference from irrelevant environmental stimuli and from irrelevant representations in memory. This led to the surprising result that heavy media multitaskers performed worse on a test of task-switching ability, likely due to reduced ability to filter out interference from the irrelevant task set. These results demonstrate that media multitasking, a rapidly growing societal trend, is associated with a distinct approach to fundamental information processing.

Why is this research relevant?

What they did

Results

Implications

Chronic media multitasking is quickly becoming ubiquitous, although processing multiple incoming streams of information is considered a challenge for human cognition. A series of experiments addressed whether there are systematic differences in information processing styles between chronically heavy and light media multitaskers. A trait media multitasking index was developed to identify groups of heavy and light media multitaskers. These two groups were then compared along established cognitive control dimensions. Results showed that heavy media multitaskers are more susceptible to interference from irrelevant environmental stimuli and from irrelevant representations in memory. This led to the surprising result that heavy media multitaskers performed worse on a test of task-switching ability, likely due to reduced ability to filter out interference from the irrelevant task set. These results demonstrate that media multitasking, a rapidly growing societal trend, is associated with a distinct approach to fundamental information processing.

Does chronic media multitasking affect memory and/or task-switching ability?

Exercise: Write a Research Question

Remembering often requires the selection of goal-relevant memories in the face of competition from irrelevant memories. Although there is a cost of selecting target memories over competing memories (increased forgetting of the competing memories), here we report neural evidence for the adaptive benefits of forgetting—namely, reduced demands on cognitive control during future acts of remembering. Functional magnetic resonance imaging during selective retrieval showed that repeated retrieval of target memories was accompanied by dynamic reductions in the engagement of functionally coupled cognitive control mechanisms that detect (anterior cingulate cortex) and resolve (dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex) mnemonic competition. Strikingly, regression analyses revealed that this prefrontal disengagement tracked the extent to which competing memories were forgotten; greater forgetting of competing memories was associated with a greater decline in demands on prefrontal cortex during target remembering. These findings indicate that, although forgetting can be frustrating, memory might be adaptive because forgetting confers neural processing benefits.

Exercise: Write a Research Question

Linking high-throughput experimental data with biological networks is a key step for understanding complex biological systems. Currently, visualization tools for large metabolic networks often result in a dense web of connections that is difficult to interpret biologically. The MetNetGE application organizes and visualizes biological networks in a meaningful way to improve performance and biological interpretability. MetNetGE is an interactive visualization tool based on the Google Earth platform. MetNetGE features novel visualization techniques for pathway and ontology information display. Instead of simply showing hundreds of pathways in a complex graph, MetNetGE gives an overview of the network using the hierarchical pathway ontology using a novel layout, called the Enhanced Radial Space-Filling (ERSF) approach that allows the network to be summarized compactly. The non-tree edges in the pathway or gene ontology, which represent pathways or genes that belong to multiple categories, are linked using orbital connections in a third dimension. Biologists can easily identify highly activated pathways or gene ontology categories by mapping of summary experiment statistics such as coefficient of variation and overrepresentation values onto the visualization. After identifying such pathways, biologists can focus on the corresponding region to explore detailed pathway structure and experimental data in an aligned 3D tiered layout. In this paper, the use of MetNetGE is illustrated with pathway diagrams and data from E. coli and Arabidopsis. MetNetGE is a visualization tool that organizes biological networks according to a hierarchical ontology structure. The ERSF technique assigns attributes in 3D space, such as color, height, and transparency, to any ontological structure. For hierarchical data, the novel ERSF layout enables the user to identify pathways or categories that are differentially regulated in particular experiments. MetNetGE also displays complex biological pathway in an aligned 3D tiered layout for exploration.

• How can your lit review support formulating a quality Research Question?

• How does a strong Research Question direct your lit review?

Tools for finding articles

Ophir E, Nass C, Wagner AD (2009) Cognitive control in media multitaskers PNAS 106: 15583- 15587

• lib.iastate.edu• scholar.google.com• ISI Web of Knowledge• ACM Digital Library• IEEE eXplore

Following the Citation Trail1. Start with an article

2. Look at references for interesting articles

3. Look for references that cite your article

4. Repeat for new articles

Lit review to Organize Paper

For each article in your collection, on a piece of paper:

• Draw a box for each sub-topic discussed by author.

• Label box with sub-topic and author• If multiple papers discuss same sub-topic,

they can be in the same boxThese boxes are the topics in your paper.

Organizing by Lit Review: Example

What makes the perfect cake? (nom)

Cake Flavors• Greenspan, Dorie (2006)

Oven type• Kasper, L.R. (2010)

Frosting Choices• Perelman, Deb (2012) (forthcoming)

Vegan and gluten-free options• Swanson, Heidi (2011)

Chiffon Cakes• Greenspan, Dorie (2006)• Child, Julia (1996)

Butter cakes• Perelman, Deb (2012) (forthcoming)•Beranbaum, R.L. (2009)• Greenspan, Dorie (2006)• Child, Julia (1996)

Refrigerator cakes• Stewart, Martha (2007)

Assembly of layer cakes• Child, Julia (1996)

Decorating• Dudley, Angie (2010)

Storage & Transportation• CIA (2001)• Dudley, Angie (2010)

Questions to answer

• Why do this research? Why is your question relevant?

• What are the important theories in your specialty?

• What are other researchers doing? How is your work different?

• What are the limits of what other researchers’ work?

Looking ahead: Research methodsQualitative Quantitative

Focus groups, interviews, reviews Surveys, measured response (e.g. eye-tracking)

Inductive process to formulate theory Deductive reasoning

Few cases, in-depth Larger sample size

Subjective descriptions Objective measures

Unstructured response Fixed response options

Non-numerical data Numerical data

No statistics Statistical tests for analysis

Quality depends on skill of researcher Reliability depends on instrument or device.

Time: Less planning, more analysis Time: more planning, less analysis

Less generalizable More generalizable

Source: HCI 521

Types of dataType Example Evaluate using…

Nominal Unique in some way

Names

Counts, Frequencies, description

Binary Takes on one of two values

Male/Female; Dead/Alive; Right/Left

Ordinal Ranked, but differences vary between rankings

Top 100 lists

Continuous Numerical, no absolute zero

System usability score

As above + mean, median, average,

summary statistics

Source: HCI 521

Usability Testing: MetricsSatisfaction• Ease of use• SUS (System Usability Score)• Ease to learn• Enjoyment• Usefulness• Expectations

Performance• Time to completion• Success at task• Errors• Efficiency

When should you consider what metrics to capture or what analysis process you will use?

How does the type of data you collect affect the type of analysis that may be performed?

Are there ways to capture satisfaction without self-reporting? Why might this be useful?

Homework (due by next Wed)

1. As a team: Post your problem paragraph (if not already done). Categorize this with your team name.

2. Individually: Respond to two teams with the research question that you think their problem paragraph suggests.

3. Individually: Post two (2) references that will be part of your lit review. Cite as in your reference list.

a) Describe how you came across this reference.b) Summarize the research in ~50 words/articlec) Do not duplicate references posted by fellow internsd) Categorize these posts as “Craft of Research”

4. Sign up for your Journal Club time slot.a) Todd and Sharrod will lead this week’s discussion