Like
most of our fellow research assistants on the "Eye-Tracking for Alcohol
Packaging Appeal" research team, we weren't quite sure what to expect in
regards to our daily tasks and weekly objectives. Over the duration of the
project, our team would meet on a weekly basis to discuss current challenges we
were facing and delegate duties among ourselves, which could change road on to
the previous weeks' tasks depending on the project's current needs. Under the direction
of our primary investigator, Dr. Matthew Rossheim, and Dr. Matthew Peterson we
proceeded in two phases, the first phase was to prepare material for our
experiment and recruit participants to undergo our study, and the second phase
was collecting data via running test participants through eye-tracking
technology.
Throughout
the month of July, most of our time was devoted to running test participants. Each
participant required two research participants to oversee the experiment and
handle any troubleshooting with the eye-tracking software. Upon arrival to our
eye-tracking lab participants were greeted and went over their informed consent
forms with the research assistants, before being tested by us for normal vision
and color blindness. We were responsible for overseeing the experiment as
participants ran through a programmed slideshow of images the team had developed,
while an infrared eye tracking sensor monitored the movement of the
participants' pupils, recording the location and time spent looking at objects
in each image. All participant data was de-identified by us so that the
participants remained anonymous - a three-digit code in addition to their age
and gender were the only identifiers recorded.
One
thing we learned this summer was the crucial importance of voluntary
participation in research efforts involving human subjects, and the resilience
required to continue working diligently when research plans don’t always go as
planned. Our team faced considerable challenges recruiting youth participants
this summer and had to constantly revise our methods and procedures in order to
collect a large enough data sample. Meeting our desired number of participants
was extremely important to us as the results of our research would be used by our
primary investigator to improve youth public health and safety through
regulatory implications
