Getting Ready for the Results Section

Hello All:

This week has been another eventful one for me and my AP Research project. Personally, I got a job at Raising Cane's, so come on down and have some chicken fingers. With my new job, I have had a little less time to fool around during the day. But the time dedicated to my research project has not really changed. This week, we gathered the results and analyzed them and now we are moving on to writing the results section. So in order to get a better understanding of how our results section should look, we have looked at other results sections from other studies that used similar methods. I am going to go through three different studies and note what I saw in their results sections and then I will hopefully be able to find the commonalities that I can use for my own results section.

1. The Near-Miss Effect in Blackjack: Group Play and Lone Play by Gunnarsson, Whiting, and Dixon

This study had participants play blackjack hands and rate each hand they got on a scale of 1 to 10. In order to show the average rating of each participant for each possible hand, they used a few bar graphs the mapped the hand rating vs the distance from 21. The study then did statistical analysis on the numbers to see if they were significant and they showed those in a table as well. It then explained the statistical calculations and how they showed that people changed their average hand rating after the near-miss effect was induced.

2. The Effect of Time Pressure on Consumer Choice Deferral by Dhar and Nowlis

The study had participants choose between risky and safe choice or defer choice to a later time while under time pressure or no time pressure conditions. The results section consisted of a table recording what people chose under time pressure vs no time pressure and the percentage of people who chose anything at all under both conditions. The paper then detailed the observations of the experimenters and discussed the statistical significance of the numbers they found. It explained that it was not by chance that more people deferred choice during the time pressure condition.

3. Priming Motivation Through Unattended Speech by Radel, Sarrazin, Jehu, and Pelletier

The study was investigating auditory priming's effect on people's motivation and actions. The results section consisted of a bar graph showing the change in motivation to do activities between primed and unprimed groups. It then explained what the results meant. Next it showed a table with the change in word choice between primed and unprimed groups. It then explained the statistical significance and showed why the auditory priming was actually affecting the behavior of the subjects.

Though looking at many different sections and coming up with an idea is daunting at first, breaking it down helped me come up with an idea for my results section. Since all the studies used graphs, and mostly bar graphs, I should use bar graphs along with tables to show my change in betting caused by each of the effects. I need to explain what the bar graphs mean and how we can draw conclusions from them. But in order to draw any meaningful conclusions, I will have to fully explain all the statistics I did to show significance and calculate all of the numbers in my experiment. I think I have a pretty good idea of what I am going to do, but I will make any necessary changes as next week goes on. I'm excited to see my experiment and research paper begin to take its final shape. (608)

The Mystery of My Data

Hello All:

This past week has been extremely important for us in AP Research. We have finished up the data collection and now our projects are really coming into shape. Specifically with my project I had 40 total participants, which is exactly the number I was looking to get, over the course of four days. As the experiment progressed, it was really exciting to see the data come together and begin to come to some preliminary conclusions based on my observations. Right now, I have data that records whether each participant hit or stay on a 15 after exposure the the effect for their group as well as observations of their behavior and data on any other ambiguous hands the participant saw. In order to qualify my data and better understand it, I had each participant fill out a survey about their inherent riskiness levels. Now that the data collection has been finished, I have all the clues to the mystery of which effect has the largest influence on blackjack behavior. Just like Sherlock, I need to find the best way to put the information together.

In order to understand which one is the most influential effect, I need to understand which effect increases people's risky behavior the most. In order to measure risky behavior, I recorded whether each participant hit or stay on a 15, which is shown to be indicative of risk taking in blackjack. The risk assessment surveys that the participants took were also scored to better understand the inherent risk levels of each group. The risk assessment survey consisted of questions in which participants rated their likelihood of performing many risky activities on a 1 to 10 scale. I used a weighted average, with some activities being more influential than others, to give each person a riskiness score. I have calculated each person's riskiness score and taken the averages of each group. In order to understand how the effects change riskiness, I will compare the average score of each group to the percentage of times that people hit for that effect. Then I will try and calculate a change in riskiness to show how each effect is actually changing risky behavior. I have talked to Mr. Peacher and am planning on talking to him early next week about the data analysis to make sure it is sound. Right now, I have found that the control group hit 6 out of 10 times and the other groups have increased the amounts of hitting, with the near-miss group having all 10 people hit. Once I understand the inherent riskiness of each group, I can make conclusions from that data, but right now it looks very promising. This week while I'm trying to figure out my data analysis I may be like this.

But once the data has been analyzed, I will be in a great position and will be feeling more like this.

This week is crucial for the strength of my project, but I'm confident that it will turn out great and yield very interesting results. The fourth series of Sherlock came out recently and I'm so excited to watch it as well as solve the mysteries of my project. (533)

Hustle

Hello All:

This week has been a very eventful one for my research. I began to conduct my experiment and had my first 27 participants come in on Wednesday and Friday. The experiment has been going extremely well and everyone has had fun and yielded good results. But it was not as simple as it sounds. On Tuesday at 2 pm I only had 6 participants signed up for my first day of research and maybe 5 more over the next few days of my study. The email to the BASIS Scottsdale parents hadn't gone out yet. I was well under my target of 10 people per group and I was freaking out. After the email was finally sent out on Tuesday, I found an error in the dates I put on the email; I said that the research was being conducted on the 14th instead of the 16th.

As the woes kept piling up and Mrs. Haag was about to kill me, I still needed to find a way to collect participants. Throughout the day I had been texting my friends to see if their parents could volunteer and I had gotten a few responses, but on Tuesday night I began to hustle and turned it into overdrive. I had my mom text all of her friends and I texted and emailed many of my friends and teachers to see who I could get to participate in my research. Though there were a lot of failed attempts, we managed to get 14 people to sign up to participate in my research on Wednesday. For one days notice, I think we did pretty well. We hustled like Giannis here and managed to get a great turnout for my first day of experimentation.

I managed to get 13 people to volunteer for Friday and it was another successful day of experimentation. I currently have 36 participants total and I ideally need 40, but the more the better. So I need to continue to gather participants in order to ensure a great research project. If anyone would like to volunteer or knows somebody who would feel free to sign up using the link at the bottom of the post.

I still have plenty to do this upcoming week. I need to figure out how to analyze all the data I am collecting as well as review the pitfalls of my literature review and methods. I think this week was a crucial week for my project; I conquered the challenges of the week and hopefully through experience I have learned the skills needed to conquer the challenges that lie ahead. Thanks for reading to the end of the post. Here is another vicious dunk. (451)

Link to the sign up sheet for my experiment:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11l9Dp5SuR4oogyIKPof70aKVSmWapyMTDBZsSIIU8WY/edit#gid=0

We Made It

Hello All:


We finally made it! No more formal school ever and no more classes until college. Though it is an exciting time, it is also a little scary. All the responsibility of being productive now falls onto my shoulders. Mrs. Haag is still here to guide us but much of the burden of meeting deadlines and showing up on time to meetings is on us.

As we go off on our own, there are numerous pitfalls we can fall into that must be avoided during the third trimester as well as life after high school. I feel like the number one thing that will happen is that I will feel like I have so much time to do stuff that I keep putting it off and never get anything done. It's an easy trap to fall into and it will be detrimental to the progress and quality of my research project. Sometimes too much time is the enemy of productivity. Not that there isn't time for chilling and relaxing, but after research is done is the best time for that.

In order to ensure that I do not fall into a rut of laziness, I am going to try and fill my days with productive work by making a schedule. With a set weekly schedule, which will include breaks and time to relax, I feel like I can continue to be productive throughout the third trimester. The schedule will be flexible and change week to week depending on what's going on, but I feel like a schedule for myself will be a good way to combat incessant laziness and "Netflixing." I've also been setting reminders in my phones for important deadlines and meeting, so I do not forget to show up or hand something in.

This week I finally confirmed my research times and reserved a room at BASIS for my research. My research will be implemented on February 8th, 10th, 15th, and 16th at BASIS Scottsdale. Now we need to finalize and send out the email to the parents in the coming days. Once I collect my raw data, I will need to implement a more strict schedule for myself to analyze the data and write the paper. Until then, I can't really do anything without the data and I already have the times set up to perform the experiment. I feel like I'm making good progress towards finishing my data collection, even though I haven;t actually begun the data collection. My experiment involves a lot of logistical planning, so getting that done was a step in the right direction. (433)