Quiet is the New Loud

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Monday, March 06, 2006

EXP.1

I participated in my first Psychology experiment today. I was very tense and jittery on what it would be about, but the experiment turned out fine. I thought it would be one huge bunch of participants at one 1-hour session, but I was wrong. There were only four people, including me, in the same room.

We signed a consent form and were briefed on the experiment. The purpose was to research on the "Effects of Mood on Communication". We each had a little computer where we had to answer a survey on our mood then. We then had to write a short speech choosing from a list of topics given in 5 minutes. The countdown began and I scribbled points onto a piece of paper. Another mood-survey followed.

We had to do a mental activities, called the Flanker task. Basically, there were 5 arrows on the computer screen and we had to press the direction in which the middle arrow was pointing to. At the same time, all the flanked arrows are switching directions too. We got time to practise and I got it wrong the first few times, as the system was urging us to be quick in our response too.

Then when the actual activity started, if I passed a time limit of like 5 seconds after the arrows appear, the system will automatically skip and go on. So the pressure of trying to go fast and getting it right. The funny thing I noticed was I would start to predict which direction the middle arrow would point to. And my guesses were wrong. When I got a wrong one, my fingers would somehow press the opposite direction of the previous incorrect direction, and again it would be a string of errors. I had to shake myself up before the next set came on, and then only would I start getting them right again.

After that, we were supposed to read the speech we prepared while being video-recorded. We would be test upon our clarity and fluency. But somehow, the experimenter told us that the batteries of the video-recorder died and we would have to skip that part.

I immediately turned around and smiled, knowing what the deal was. We went on to answer this question on the computer: "Did you have any suspicion about the experiment?" I don't know why, but I clicked 'No'. The other 3 people who clicked 'Yes' went on typing away. I must have been a dumb fool in their eyes for not noticing. Well, I did. As did the experimenter as he asked if I had any doubts about the experiment.

Anyway, we were given a debriefing form which explained the real purpose. We were advised not to tell others the specific details on the activity (which I just did) as the experiment is still ongoing. Nevertheless, no one from UTSC will be reading this blog anyway. The experiment was "Losing self-control: The impact of ethnicity on verbal performance". So basically it was to see if we (all of us were Chinese) became self-conscious over having to prepare a speech, and became unfocused in the mental activity. Also, while all these activities were carried out, subliminal noise that were beyond the range of human hearing were played. Apparently, the general idea that people had was that subliminal noises affects our mood, though no such research has proved it. So the experimenters were trying to mess with us and lead us into thinking that the experiment was about mood and communication.

Personally, I don't think having to make a speech worried me that much to make me lose concentration. It's just how I have one mistake, and the errors continue on with the next few sets of arrows. Anyhow, I had quite a fun time. I also get a bonus 1.0 credit, so what more can I ask for?

I have another experiment on March 17 too. It would be a 2-hour experiment that will give me an extra 2.0 credits! Yay. But each student can only get a maximum of 2.0 credits for participating in experiments, so today's one was basically doing it for fun and for the knowledge of mankind.