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“This is so fun, but I don’t remember!”

Kaveri Sheth is a senior who is double majoring in Psychology and Linguistics. She was awarded a Fall 2018 Independent Grant which he used to conduct research on source memory recall in bilingual students under Dr. Patricia Bauer. 


I have been working in the Bauer lab for the past three years. In the lab, I have become accustomed to throwing out words, such as self-derivation (the process of combining two separate but related facts), stem facts (the separate yet related facts), and integration facts (a fact that can be self-derived). These words have become the norm for me, just like the paradigm I have been using to test integration of information for my honors thesis. I have used this paradigm in a variety of projects throughout my three years in the lab, so it seems like second nature to me. However, I realized that I became very frustrated when my participants were not fully understanding what I was asking them during the test phase. 



I knew my research would be complicated. The question of self-derivation through integration is difficult to fully comprehend, especially in my honors thesis with the added challenge of integrating information in both Spanish and English. In my familiarization phase, participants were shown two images while they heard a corresponding fact in either Spanish or English. In the test phase, occurring 24-48 hours later, they were shown the two images again, and asked what language they originally heard the fact in. I had pilot tested my project on various members of my lab to make sure the paradigm functioned properly. They gave me feedback that it was a difficult yet not an impossible task.

Come time to test my participants, I was anxious and stressed. I did not know what to expect from people who had no previous exposure to the paradigm. Nevertheless, I went at it in full speed. I scheduled over 25 participants during the fall semester. There were some participants who naturally understood the task with no additional explanation. However, many my participants were amazed at how difficult the task was. Participants would exclaim, “wow this is so fun but I honestly don’t remember what language I heard the fact in!” This was frustrating for me because since I was so used to this task, I didn’t find it to be extremely difficult. Sometimes, participants would confuse themselves and get stressed out when they did not remember several facts in a row. Surprisingly, many of my participants said that the task was quite fun and exciting even though they did not always remember the language of the original fact. I wish I had been a little more understanding about their feelings and figured out a way to help them to not feel stressed. 

Moral of the story is that research can be very stressful, for both the researcher and the participant. The best way to deal with participant stress is to be communicative and offer support within reason. If I were to redo my honors thesis based on everything I know from testing my participants, I would probably change how I gave participants additional information. I used a very generic script but I think it would have been beneficial to provide an example for participants to base their answers on. Next time I run a study, I will be sure to be more understanding towards their feelings and stress level during the task. 

Visit the Undergraduate Research Programs website to learn more about applying for Independent Research Grants.

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