FWS Student Highlights: Carlton Hassell Jr.

Currently, I am conducting research concerning harvesting mechanical energy from an acoustic snare drum and converting that energy into electrical potential via the piezoelectric effect. This research is being conducted under the advisement of Dr. Colin Reagle from George Mason University’s Mechanical Engineering Department.

Weekly progress is typically split into three main categories: experimentation, data analysis, and data interpretation. I work anywhere from 10 to 20 hours a week split across four days. One day of the week for about 4 hours, I set up the experiment I need for data acquisition or repeat a procedure from the previous week if my methods needed to be change or if I needed more data for analysis. I typically spend Friday afternoons analyzing the data that was taking and doing any necessary calculations. Saturday and Sunday evenings, I take time to check all of my work to see if there are any discrepancies or if I can move forward.

One of the main things I learned this week is to have patience and to be flexible. It seemed that many times throughout my research process, I would have a good understanding of what is going on but my data would raise more questions than answers. There have been so many times where I would expect certain results and the total opposite would come about. The good thing is I can always simply state what happens and accept the fact that there are certain answers I won’t be able to obtain until after I finish the long term project.

FWS Student Highlights: Cameron Hatcher

           

 In the past 20 years, technological advances have made music increasingly more available in America (Schwartz & Fouts, 2003). In 2001, it was reported that Americans spent more money on music than they did on prescription drugs (Huron, 2001). Recently, research has shown that music listening (both intentional or otherwise) on average, adds up to more than 5 hours a day for the American citizen (Levitin, 2006; McCormick, 2009).

 Given that music is more ubiquitous today than at any other point in history, it is not surprising that psychologists have examined a number of important questions concerning music in everyday life (e.g., identity formation, social behavior, developmental functions). In contrast, fewer studies have examined how listening to music affects creativity and no studies have examined how self-defined music preference (e.g., “I love this song”) affects creativity. Additionally, no studies have utilized modern day technology (e.g., mobile applications like Spotify, noise-cancelling headphones) to simulate realistic music-listening experiences for participants. Therefore, the goal for this research is to determine whether listening to music individuals self-define as music they “love” or “hate” affects creativity. To assess creativity, participants will complete the Alternate Uses Task (AUT), a commonly used creative task, while listening to music they love, hate, or in silence (control). The AUT measures ideational fluency—the number of non-redundant ideas one can generate about a given topic.  Findings may suggest that listening to self-defined preferred music is beneficial in situations that demand idea formation, that listening to self-defined non-preferred music is disruptive, or that listening to music—regardless of preference—is disruptive to creative cognition. Depending on the results of this study, future studies may then begin to assess the effects of music listening in applied domains (e.g., across different creative tasks, worker or student productivity, assessing the quality of written work in work/school-related settings).

I have been working as a research assistant in the Applied Performance Research Lab for nearly three years. Conceptualization for this project began about a year ago when I stumbled upon music psychology as a sub-discipline within applied cognitive research. I fervently combed the literature for about a month before deciding to design and conduct my own study from the point of data collection through analysis and dissemination of the results (e.g., honors thesis, conference posters, potential journal publication). Last Spring I focused solely on conducting a thorough review of the literature, designing my study, obtaining IRB approval, applying for OSCAR’s URSP summer grant, and preparing for data collection. Although the study is fairly straightforward (conceptually), I was surprised at the amount of time I spent designing and piloting the study over the summer. For instance, I created online questionnaires in Qualtrics, a data-tracking protocol in Excel, a data-scoring program in Excel, purchased the measure of creativity (the Alternate Uses Task), constructed a third form of that measure (and piloted it to assess reliability and validity of this form), created a fake account in Spotify, planned recruitment of participants, created a counterbalanced design for a within-subjects design, created databases in SPSS using syntax, and developed a data analysis plan—all while writing drafts of my honors thesis (and this was all before the data collection process). After data collection, entry, and auditing (Summer/Fall), I then trained two research assistants to independently score the tests of creativity for originality/creativeness to remove experimenter/expectancy bias (a measure typically taken when scoring or ranking qualitative data). In order to effectively train the research assistants, I wrote a coding/scoring manual. This week, I have received the scored results and I am finally in the process of cleaning and analyzing my data. I hope to have analyzed the results by the end of this week. Stay tuned!

One thing I have discovered this week (I’m about to get a little reflective) is how quickly time moves and how important it is to plan ahead in the world of research. I once heard from someone that the “re” in “research” means “re-do.” Yes. Research rarely moves at the pace one needs it to (for jobs, grant or conference deadlines, defense deadlines, graduation, etc.), so it is important to balance planning with patience. On the subject of planning, I will be applying to Experimental and Quantitative Psychology doctoral programs this fall (2016). Because these programs place an emphasis on experimental design and statistics, the advanced training will provide me with the flexibility to stay in academia and consult with different researchers on a variety of projects. Independently designing my own study and writing an honors thesis has certainly prepared me for a future in academia.

FWS Student Highlights: Meagan Arnold

My name is Meagan Arnold and I am a double major in Film and Video Studies and History at Mason. Since August I have worked with Helen Frederick and Nikki Brugnoli-Whipkey, within the School of Art, on the Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here (AMSSH) project. AMSSH is a book arts and cultural festival taking place throughout the DC area that commemorates the 2007 bombing of the historic bookselling street in Baghdad. Exhibits and events held through January to March shed light on the effects of the bombing.

My primary job is to record the events and edit them into videos for the web, though the team of interns and I are encouraged to actively participate in the project as well. Since being on this project, I have done everything from being a docent for an exhibition to studio print-making. These were all new experiences for me! Most times when I do event videography I am not emotionally invested; I film, edit, export, then I’m done. With AMSSH, I am asked to bring my own energy into the project beyond what my camera can record. This learning curve has helped me develop in my professionalism immensely. Aside from film, last month I wrote and helped edit a magazine that will be published mid-March about the project. Design and film are closely correlated, so I feel the experience expanded my understanding of both digital and print publishing.

I aspire to be a documentary filmmaker so this project has directly correlated with my career goals. It has helped me find a balance between filming and being actively engaged at an event, which is important in the field I want to go into. In the future I would love to be on another project like AMSSH.

You can view some of the artists’ books on campus! For more information on the project, visit: www.amsshdc2016.org.

FWS Student Highlights: Cycielya

For the last two years as an Undergraduate Research Assistant, I have worked under the guidance of professor Chris Kauffman, developing an educational game that models interactions between the HIV virons and human cellular structures. The finished product will become a teaching resource in college classrooms, as well as tool for research on optimal teaching strategies and methods.

When I originally began work on this project, my involvement was mostly through accomplishing small-scale development goals and familiarizing myself with the source code of the program. As I have gained a deeper understanding of the structure of the program, I have moved to a more active role on the project, participating in the high-level architectural design decisions, as well as specific implementation details for multiple levels of gameplay.

My weekly work generally includes several hours of reading and modifying the program’s source code, and sometimes meeting with professor Kauffman to discuss short- and long-term development goals. While I may not be directly interacting with any active research, the program I am helping to build will, upon completion, become a research tool as well as a functional resource for education about HIV, AIDS, and medical processes that may help fight them.

Becoming an Undergraduate Research Assistant through OSCAR has enabled me to impactfully contribute to research efforts while applying the computer skills I intend to use as a major part of my future career. The freedom to independently make decisions regarding my research project, and to learn from my mistakes with the guidance of a faculty mentor, has strengthened my ability to think creatively and proactively about problems I face.

FWS Student Highlights: Frah Ejaz

The project I am currently working on analyzes land patterns up to the Earth’s core. It consists of a surplus amount of photography analysis that was introduced years before but due to lack of research assistants the project remained untouched for more than fifteen years. The project is now restarted with Mrs. Linda Hinnov who is in the department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences. The photographs were first printed out and placed in a binder fifteen years back. When the project restarted all the photographs were scanned onto a computer and put in separate files based on location in the land. What I actually do on a weekly basis is work on Microsoft Excel and enter data I interpreted of the digital photographs saved onto the computer, in an organized fashion. If I am not entering data on Excel then I convert files that were scanned of land patterns to suit certain programs or do little tasks that are pending.

One thing I discovered this week was how much history can be stored in land patterns that may provide answers to certain catastrophes or land problems and why they occur. This will not only answer many mysteries but also may propose new ways to keep the environment and land healthy. We can gain knowledge about what harms the environment and what might save it from catastrophes. Also, if the weather is the cause of some harm to land then we may study when it occurred and if action can be taken for it. This is related to my long-term goals because since I am a Biology major I will have to take many different classes, some being on the environment. This inspired me to learn more about that and pinpoint my interests to direct me to take certain types of classes that I will most likely enjoy. It also directed me into what topics I would most likely be interested in becoming a research assistant for.