Current Research Projects
Were you a participant in one of the experiments conducted by students in Cognitive Psychology Laboratory during the Spring of 2007? If so, then you will find summaries of our experiments here....
Effectiveness of Online Quizzing in Increasing Class Preparation and Participation This research, which was presented as a poster at APA in August of 2005, describes a study conducted in my Psychology 103 (Introduction to Psychological Science) classes over three semesters (Spring, 2004; Fall, 2004; and Spring, 2005). Online quizzes were presented over WebCT to students on half of their assigned readings. The purpose of the study, which was not known to the students, was to determine whether scheduled quizzes resulted in an increase in the number of days students came to class prepared and the number of questions and comments they made at the beginning of class. The above link takes you to a brief summary of this project.
Note: To participate in the following research projects, you must have Macromedia's Authorware Web Player browser plug-in installed. If you need to determine whether your browser has the plug-in, or if you'd like to link to Macromedia's site to get it (it's free), click here.
**********
Rating Pictures for Change Blindness Change blindness is a phenomenon in which observers have difficulty noticing large changes to a visual scene that occur during a visual disruption. This pilot study is concerned with quantifying in a diverse collection of visual stimuli what is meant in this field by "objects of central interest" (features that are relevant to the meaning of a scene) and "objects of marginal interest" (features that are not relevant to the meaning of a scene). This is an ongoing study at the College of Charleston. Data are being gathered on campus and not online, although you may run the study online if you like.
The Effects of Study Time and Featural Relevance on Change Blindness This pilot study uses the ratings from the above study to determine whether changes to items of central interest (high relevance) are less susceptible to change blindness than changes to items of marginal interest (low relevance). This study also varies the amount of time available to study the initial (unchanged) picture. It is predicted that changes to items of central interest will be detected faster and more accurately than changes to items of marginal interest, and that a larger amount of study time will result in a lower amount of change blindness. This is an ongoing study in the pilot stage at the College of Charleston. Data are being gathered on campus and not online, although you may run the study online if you like.
Online Study on Identifying, Remembering, and Rating Sound Events Sound events are complex sequences of sounds that "tell a story" (e.g., the sounds of a boat leaving harbor and going out to sea). This link takes you to a collection of three studies designed to gather normative data on how people identify, remember, and rate a set of 22 complex sound events. You should allow yourself about 30 minutes to complete a study. The sound files are large, so a study may need several minutes before it is completely downloaded and ready to begin. This link also takes you to an archive containing the sound event wav files used in these studies and an abstract of a report on this research presented at APA in August, 2005.
Confrontation Naming of Environmental Sounds This abstract describes the development of a set of everyday, nonverbal, digitized sounds for use in auditory confrontation naming applications, plus links to the sounds themselves. The full reference to this published research is: Marcell, M.M., Borella, D., Greene, M., Kerr, E., & Rogers, S. (2000). Confrontation naming of environmental sounds. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 22(6), 830-864.
Online Survey and Experiment for Families This page contains links to the following: 1) A survey on temperament and family background of children, adolescents, and adults with Down syndrome or Williams syndrome; 2) An experiment on auditory memory and visual memory of children, adolescents, and adults with Down syndrome or Williams syndrome; and 3) A brief summary of the outcomes of these studies. Although data collection for these studies has been completed, you are nevertheless welcome to run the programs. The full reference to this published research is: Marcell, M. M., & Falls, A.L. (2001). Online data collection with special populations over the World Wide Web. Down Syndrome Research and Practice, 7(3), 106-123.
Online Experiments at the PsycExperiments Web Site This page contains links to two experiments: 1) Memory for lateral orientation; and 2) Picture ratings. The former requires orientation judgments and the latter requires familiarity and pleasantness ratings for various paintings, photographs, movie stills, and so on. The experiments were recently archived, so you may want to try some of the other active experiments at the PsychExperiments website.
Online Cognitive Laboratory Experiment on Auditory Memory A student-oriented lab experiment on the effects of rate of stimulus presentation on short-term memory for auditory digits.
Online Cognitive Laboratory Experiment on the Verbal Transformation Effect A student-oriented lab experiment on the effects of word imagery and number of rhyming words on the number of reported transformations. Responses are typed and data are saved to the c:\ drive.
Online Pilot Study of Individual Differences in Auditory Imagery Ability An initial effort to develop ways of assessing auditory imagery ability. The study (which may entail a long download on your computer) contains 5 self-report tasks (auditory and visual imagery scales and a hearing inventory) and 4 experimental auditory imagery tasks (pitch, timbre, timing, and mental manipulation). This study is still under development; comments appreciated....
last updated January 25, 2008 x