My JOUR3251 Blog

Research is Everywhere: Part 15

2012-12-06T06:08:48Z

For my absolute last research journal I felt it was fitting to link to this website (http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Instruction/What-research-says-about-the-value-of-homework-At-a-glance). Why? Because it gives the research on the subject of homework. Which is what this is, homework. The very first point is that there is no strong link between homework and student achievement.

I'll let you read the rest, but my one thing to say about that is there is a very strong link between homework and student achievement. Meaning if you don't do the homework don't expect to achieve good grades.

Have a great winter -and-homeworkless- break :D

Research is Everywhere: Part 14

2012-12-06T01:17:07Z

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I found the the above image while I was surfing the web today...I'm not sure whether to be proud or not that I've only seen two of those movies (Oceans 11 and Interview with a Vampire) anyways...thoughts on how effective this poll is?
My thoughts is not very because what if 1. The person has more than one favorite and 2. What if they absolutely hate the actor (are they just supposed to bypass this poll?)

Research is Everywhere: Part 13

2012-12-06T00:35:02Z

http://josephsoninstitute.org/surveys/ found this link to a character study revealing predictions about lying and cheating (academic cheating).

The study, conducted by the Josephson Institute of Ethics conducted the survey studying high school character and adult conduct.

Some of their findings:
*Each generations is more likely to be unethical (lie and cheat) than the previous one.
*Our generations is more cynical than previous generations, and more likely to believe lying and cheating are necessary for success.
*And those who cheat in high school are far more likely to lie as an adult.

There's some happy information for you to chew on (says this 'cynical' author)

Research is Everywhere: Part 12

2012-12-05T22:09:43Z

(link: http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/pesticides-tap-water-linked-food-allergies-130240479--abc-news-health.html)

So I ran across this article a few days ago. It's about Tap water pesticides being linked to food allergies. I decided to comment on it because 1. I never had tap water until I moved to Minneapolis. 2. I have no food allergies. So I thought maybe, just maybe there might be something there.

A few comments:
According to the article they were only looking for statistical significance, which means their data, at best, is correlative. But still...am I even more of an advocate for well water? I think yes.

Research is Everywhere: Part 11

2012-12-05T21:03:13Z

Today I saw a flier asking for research participants in a couples memory study. Intrigued I looked closer. The study offered $25 for one hour of the participants time. It's a two part study, one part is done individually where the participants respond to a memory and perception questionnaire. The second part takes the couples into a lab for a memory and perception task.

Requirements are that the participants must be in a romantic relationship for at least three months, both must be willing to participate, and neither can have taken the test previously offered.

Sounds like a good deal, now if only that $25 were per person instead of per couple (rats).

But still, just further proof that research shows up all around us, especially on a college campus.

Research is Everywhere: Part 10

2012-12-05T06:39:03Z

Okay, last post tonight, I swear, I have to get some sleep some time.

Because I'm addicted to reading Yahoo! articles I often stumble across the most random things. I've been holding onto this article for awhile now because it's just so peculiar that I knew I had to write about it. The title of the article is "Study Investigates what Women Want" now first off, that could get me going because...well lets not go into that philosophical/psychological/political rant right about now.

( http://health.yahoo.net/experts/dayinhealth/study-slim-men-are-sexiest is the link in case you were curious)

The opening sentence follows through in great humor "Guys--size matters, but not in the way you think. Women are drawn to men with low body fat--not macho features" what an ego blow to all those guys who work out all the time. However, for men like my boyfriend it could be good news (he's seriously skinnier than I am and I'm tiny).
The basic premise of the study is that women swoon for guys who have very little body fat. Muscular or not. Huh. Who would have guessed?

My only comment on the matter is, could these results be biased because our current population is so turned off by obesity?

Research is Everywhere: Part 9

2012-12-05T06:25:13Z

Just as I was checking facebook (before going to bed) I saw this little poll...proving once again that no matter how hard I try or where I go, research is following me.

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Just some quick comments, I probably would have worded it "How much do you agree with this statement" instead of "How much do you agree that" but that's just my wording preference. Secondly, I probably would have had a spot to click for "don't know/don't understand" ...while yes, this is hard to code it would be better than someone randomly clicking one of the other options and skewing the data.

Research is Everywhere: Part 8

2012-12-04T14:50:56Z

It may no longer be Monday morning...but it's Tuesday morning, which is almost just as bad. So in honor of having to wake up, in the morning...near the end of the semester when everyone feels half dead already, I am going to comment on a yahoo article I found awhile ago which details when you are most likely to die. Coincidence that you are most likely to die in the morning? I think not.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/most-likely-die-11-m-221354618.html (website link)

There's not much to say on this article or the research. It's a scientific research article, detailing about genetics, natural biology, and how technology surprisingly has a lack of influence on our time-of-death. How brilliant to know I'm not killing myself while on Facebook, or uploading things to moodle.

The methodology of the study was borrowed from a 15 year old study done by Rush University in Chicago. The study tested sleep-wake patterns in people over 65. After taking the data from that 15 year old study, the current researchers studied the brains of the participants who had died and discovered that a certain genotype were more likely to die in late morning. In my opinion the findings were not that significant, as you have about a 52% chance of dying in the late morning and a 48% chance of having the genotype that is more likely to die in late afternoon.

Research is Everywhere: Part 7

2012-12-02T23:12:17Z

In Research is Everywhere: Part 6, I talked about a survey I had just taken that had to do about bottled water. I commended the surveyors ability to keep the survey short and respect the participants time. In this blog I'm going to tell you all a story of why I refuse to take in person stories now.

Last year I was walking with my family in the Mall of America. We were stopped by a gentleman doing surveys about movies and he asked me to participate as they were looking for people specifically in my demographics (white, female, late teens-early twenties).

My parents pushed me to agree to take this "short, five-minute-tops" survey. Ha. What a joke. The guy dragged me over to a computer screen, handed me a pair of sketchy looking headphones (I am not a germaphobe, I grew up on a farm, but even *I* hesitated to put them on). Grudgingly I put them on and watched a couple of minutes of film clips, took a survey on the film clips and figured (Yay!) that I was done.

Nope, apparently I was only half done...next came a few more clips, surveys on the actors in the film and how I viewed and liked them...what other movies I had seen them in, what I thought about the film clips, what I noticed about the film clips ...etc etc etc...

Nearly a half hour later the guy finally declared that I was finished with the survey and could leave now. Thats it. No compensation for my time, no thank yous. Nothing. I felt so used.

Lesson to be learned: After that experience I refused to watch that movie (even though it had some of my favorite actors in it and it looked decent), I refuse to take surveys in person, and I'm skeptical about taking surveys that "only last five minutes"

So if you're developing a survey, make sure that is sweet and to the point, if its in person make sure everything is neat and clean. Be sure that you respect the participants and their time. And for the love of all things good, please don't lie to them about anything. It makes participants very bitter and upset. And besides, no one likes feeling used.

Thus concludes my rant about surveys.

Research is Everywhere: Part 6

2012-12-02T23:03:42Z

So I just completed a survey about bottled water usage. The survey was a few open ended questions about bottle water consumption and was done by a U of M student. In general it was fairly well done, though it does raise some interesting questions.

1. What does the student hope to gain from these insights? 10 or so open ended questions about bottled water, most of which were not really in depth, and somewhat difficult to answer due to ambiguity.

2. How does the surveyor hope to code these open ended questions? Is she looking for patterns or methods? Or just a few insights? If it's just for insights, wouldn't a focus group have been better for her purposes?

3. As previously mentioned, some of her questions were a bit confusing and difficult to understand. Not to mention a bit weird. In my opinion, if you're going to ask questions that are difficult to understand or that seem a bit weird or random you should include a "why we're asking this" or "what this has to do with it" area. Now this area could be placed afterwards as an explanation, or before, to provide insight so that participants are more likely to give full, thought out answers that are relevant.

Things I think she did well:
1. She gave plenty of space for answers (it was an online survey, but still, madprops)
2. She added incentives to take the survey (chance to win a gift card? I'll bite AND extra credit in my class? double score)
3. She explained what the survey was for and the benefits etc before the survey even started
4. She kept it brief. Always the most important part. A persons time is important and worthwhile and should be honored.

Anyways, that's it on this subject...

Research is Everywhere: Part 5

2012-11-27T20:10:44Z

(http://travel.yahoo.com/ideas/america-s-most-stressful-airport.html)
the above link is an article written by Darren Booth for CNBC about America's most stressful airports.

I chose this article to write about thanks to the holiday season, thousands are traveling, and frankly, that creates a lot more stress. I mean, have you ever seen Home Alone? It's all about the holiday season, and traveling and people forgetting things and being stressed...oh and some kid fighting crooks.

The article is based around a study conducted by KRC Research for a travel and expense solutions company named Concur. They ranked the 16 most stressful U.S. Airports based on 1,500 business travelers.
One can only assume that they used a convenience sample, those whom they saw at airports and were willing to be interviewed. They also likely utilized an ordinal ranking questionnaire based on popular airports and then what factors were most critical in creating a stressful airport.

One interesting thing the study did find is that there is an increased importance of available Wi-Fi and electrical outlets to travelers. Though the most stressful components remain to be confusing airport signs, poor service, and not enough bathrooms.

So with that being said, hopefully you all will have safe travels home and be lucky enough to find one of those rare, stress free airports with clear signs, good service, enough bathrooms, and fantastic Wi-Fi.
Safe travels!

Research is Everywhere: Part 4

2012-11-18T16:47:37Z

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exchange/dirty-money-affects-spending-behavior-study-finds-222805139.html"

the above link is to a yahoo article titled: 'Dirty' Money Affects Spending Behavior, Study Finds.

According to the study, people are more likely to spend dirty or crumpled money than fresh new money. (Personally I think that is a load of crap, but whatever).

At the bottom they explained how they completed the study. In summary, they gave participants an anagram. If the participants solved it, they received either a crumpled up $10 or a fresh one. Then they were told that they could do another anagram if they bet their current $10. If they solved the anagram they would win $20 (which was shown to them and was again, either new or crumbled).

According to the results, people with a crumpled $10 who were offered the new $20 if they won gambled more often than those with a fresh $10 or who were offered a crumpled $20.

However, when I went to the actual study (http://http://www.jcr-admin.org/files/pressPDFs/100312163624_Noseworthy_Article.pdf) there was more to it than that, including a feeling of pride, where people were more likely to spend a new bill in the presence of others, but save it when alone.

A little bit about the study: Participants were undergraduates from the University of Winnipeg. There were two studies. One, the above gambling study, and the one mentioned below.
Undergraduates were offered $20 for participation in this study. Once in the study, they were offered wallets with a total of $20 in it, divided into a $10, a $5, two $2, and a $1. They were randomly assorted into groups that had crumpled bills and groups that had crisp bills. All of the bills were new.

In total, all results showed that people are more likely to save new crisp bills, and spend crumpled ones. Okay, now I will admit, it sounds a bit more likely. But still, there is definitely the problem of the fact that the study only tested on Undergrads...seriously, can you draw many conclusions about the entire population from a group of college students looking for easy money? Answer: definitely not.
Also, in the age where the majority of us use debit and credit cards, I foresee bills becoming (and this study) eventually becoming obsolete.

Research is Everywhere: Part 3

2012-11-07T20:36:26Z

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The image provided is a screen shot I took after I voted and clicked on the little "I voted" button on Facebook. Which then took me to a page to show me "real time" voting of facebook users. While the image is cool, and the demographics listed further down on the page are also a "cool" thing to know, it is also very misleading.

On Facebooks voter demographics it showed that men voted only half as often as women did (photo of this is not included). However, it did not explicitly remind viewers that that only includes 1. Facebook users and 2. Facebook users who clicked on the "I voted" button on Facebook. Now, at the very very bottom in itty bitty print it did say this, but my point is, isn't it better to be straightforward with the statistics that you're presenting rather than ever have the chance of looking misleading?

So in conclusion, I feel that Facebook should have been more obvious about the fact that what they were showing was only the statistics of Facebook users who clicked on a certain button, it would have made it a more reliable source of information, rather than showing an obvious bias as truth.

Research is Everywhere: Part 2

2012-10-20T16:13:48Z

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The other day I took a survey about cell phones and warranty programs. These are a couple of examples of the questions they asked. The whole questionnaire was filled with survey errors where they tried to lead people, or didn't give proper options when it came to choosing a response. In these two examples it doesn't allow for anything under six dollars (for example $0), or any higher than $15. Though really, if you're offering options like that, the person is probably going to pick the lowest you offer. But by not having it an open question they're almost forcing respondents to say "$6-$8" and depending on how they present that info then, they can say "the majority of our respondents would be willing to pay $6-$8 for a monthly warranty program" which is probably not the case, but because it is harder to say "other" (because it adds an extra step) most people will probably just click on the 6-8 option.

The second photo shows a question which asks you to say everything bad that has happened to your phone. However, there is NO option for "none of these happened" again, just an "other" option that again, takes longer to answer.

In my opinion, whoever created this survey should perhaps reevaluate their methods and recreate it, otherwise their results are bound to be skewed, and hopefully won't cause big problems down the road when phone companies, taking the information from this research, say that they're implementing a mandatory warranty program :P

Research is Everywhere: Part 1

2012-10-09T17:49:59Z

Several events led up to today's blog post. First, yesterday I spent three hours attempting to sign onto the University of Minnesota's internet. This is a fairly common occurrence for me, though usually it takes about half an hour rather than several hours (what is this, the days of dial-up?). Finally, after getting the internet to work I received an email from the U of M's IT department asking me to participate in a survey about my satisfaction with the U's IT and internet services. Boy oh boy was I so very happy to oblige.

In conclusion, the survey did what it promised to do, it stuck to about 7 minutes (I take a bit longer to do surveys that what they estimate because I actually read and think about the answers typically). It gave me the option to give suggestions at the end of the survey about how I would improve the services which are offered, and then asked me if I would be willing to participate in a focus group. I believe this is an effective way of getting members for a focus group, as they are already willing to help you in one way, why not another.

Also I felt that the questions they asked in the survey were valid in that they seemed to
measure what they were asking.
Their format for asking questions was: Rate the minimum service quality you would expect. Rate what you would prefer. Rate how you think we've performed so far.