Over the course of the past week or so, I have completed my methods assignment and gotten a much clearer vision for the direction of my research and methods. To remind anyone who is not familiar with my research, I am looking into the comparative influence of time pressure, near-misses, and priming on blackjack betting behavior.
My research presents a few challenges that I have to solve with my methods. First, I need to find participants for my study. The participants must be adults and there must be a lot of them, so I can split them into four groups (one for each effect and one for the control) and still have enough members of each group to yield meaningful results. I am a little nervous about that, but I am sure that if I start contacting potential subjects soon I can find people willing to participate.
Once I have the subjects, I need to make sure that their predispositions and biases do not affect my results and make them invalid, so I will have to survey them to understand their predispositions in regard to gambling history and riskiness. I have found a survey that has been researched thoroughly and shown to work, so I am thinking of sending it out to my subjects electronically and having them answer it before they come in to participate. Then, I can split them into groups that are representative of the population I am testing. Thus yielding more meaningful and valid results.
Once I get the subjects into my experiment, I need to find a way to standardize a measurement in order to judge the influences of each effect comparatively. I plan to do this by putting my subjects in the same situation; I will present them with an ambiguous hand of 15, which is shown to have no common betting practices and then measure how many times subjects hit or stay under each condition. I will also observe my subjects in order to gain a full perspective on the data. This standardized measure will allow me to compare the effects concretely. I will set up the situation by stacking the cards when the player is out of the room.
For each of the effects I need to vary the procedure slightly differently. I plan to have the dealer give the player a verbal three-second time limit for betting during the time pressure situation. To test the near-miss effect, I plan to set the cards up so the player should have one or two near misses prior to facing the ambiguous hand. I plan to prime the participant by showing them the number 6, which is needed to get 21, through pictures and quiet music and sounds throughout the experiment. I am a little nervous about the priming because I have to find the perfect balance of being discreet and being noticeable enough for the priming to work.
Overall my general experimental set up has me feeling pretty good. Like this confident baby.
But some of the logistical planning it is going to take has me feeling more like this baby.
I am a little nervous about trying to keep my subjects separate to avoid potential confounding variables of social interaction while gambling, which is a whole other study that needs to be done. I am also nervous about scheduling the experiments at times that work for me, my subjects, any volunteers I may need to help me, and the place that I will be doing the experiment in (ideally BASIS). Hopefully, I will get all the logistics figured out soon and it will all run smoothly. Then, I will be like this baby. (613)
Max -- it sounds like you have a lot of clarity in terms of what you want to do, but the problem is the logistics in how to make it all happen. There exists no clear-cut, easy way to figure out who, where, when, but we can sit down and meet and try to figure it all out. If you'll do it at the school, it's likely that you'll need to get participants that are in some way affiliated with the school (e.g., teachers, staff, parents), as they won't want random strangers coming into the building. Also, I worry about there being ethical concerns on the part of the school because of gambling, but there's no real money and we do the casino night, so I think it should be fine. We'll figure it all out, but we should meet soon so we can start reaching out.
ReplyDeleteMaxwell! I'm really happy you feel that you have more of a direction to your research and methods and I can see that you're project is going to be really cool! With experimental groups, I'm really happy that you mentioned you're going to have a control group. Just bc I'm not like crazy familiar with your project, how are you going to deal and play with the control group oh wait ok so then you're not going to prime them by showing them a number in some sneaky way, etc. ok got it (blonde moment). Also, just out of curiosity, how are you going to prime with sounds and music? Why? Wouldn't that introduce other variables? What's wrong with just sticking to one version of priming, and what is the benefit of having several types?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'm really excited to see how your project turns out! :)
Hey Max! It seems like you really know your method and where you are going to go with your research. But I feel like you do not know how you are going to make this all happen. I think the biggest problem you face is getting your subjects to the testing spot. How do you plan on pursuing test subjects? Are you going to find family friends? Are you going to have to use a convenient sample? In addition, I am confident you know how priming works, but it could be helpful to write out an explicit procedure for priming and looking at how other scientists have primed their subjects before. What is the easiest way to prime a subject? All in all, I am confident that you will be able to pull this off with ease! I look forward to seeing what you can do big boi.
ReplyDeleteDeuces,
Ved Narayan
(151 words)