Assignment 3a: Experimental Approaches (5%)
You have been tasked with conducting an experimental study that explores if a game-based neurofeedback application can effectively support people to improve their ability to self-regulate their attention used as an intervention in a single session. This study uses a mixed within-between experiment. The independent variables are intervention/control group (between groups) and assessment time point (within groups). One group of participants used the real neurofeedback application and the second group (control) used a sham version of the neurofeedback application. The dependent variables include a two part attentional test, the average “attentive” brainwave values during game play, and a self-report survey. Measures were administered at different time points in the study.
You will review the background of the study, including the context and the research problems, the specific data collection methods used, and the analysis procedures to follow. Then you'll run the analysis, interpret your results in light of four hypotheses and write a discussion.
Materials:
Scope:
You only need to report results and conduct descriptive and inferential statistics for H1 and H2. You can exclude H3 and H4. You also do not need to conduct any tests to see that it is okay to use ANOVAs (e.g., testing the various assumptions that ANOVAs rely on). Those who have a background in quantitative methods and statistical analysis are encouraged to work through the analysis for H3 and H4 as a learning opportunity, though no additional credit will be given for completing them.
Tasks:
1. Read the paper, familiarize yourself with main research question, four hypotheses, and independent and dependent variables.
2. Review the data files and the data analysis plan. Make sure you are clear on which data should be used to address which hypothesis.
3. Import the data into the statistics package(s) you are using. Based on the guidance provided, run exploratory plots, and descriptive and inferential statistics, saving a separate output file for each hypotheses.
4. Review the output files looking for evidence to address each hypothesis.
5. Write a short results section for your findings (max two pages) structured by hypotheses. Each hypothesis should be addressed in its own subsection and include descriptive and inferential results that provide evidence to support or refute the hypothesis. Include graphs with error bars to show significant results.
6. Write a short discussion section for your findings where you synthesize the results to address the overarching research question, providing an assessment of the effectiveness of the neurofeedback application as it was used in this intervention. Include a brief discussion of limitations. Your discussion section should be no more than 1 page.
7. Write a short conclusion providing the main contribution of the work, and suggestions for future work.
Grading:
Submission:
Create a paper that contains the write-ups from above. You should use the same format as the start of the paper, which is given above. Submit a paper copy in class.
Assignments over the word/page limit will receive a penalty of 10% or only be graded up to the word/page limit, at the discretion of the instructor.