Misc

Experience sampling allows for “real time,” in situ assessments of behaviour temporally close to the moment of enactment.  Early attempts involved participants carrying specific devices, which were expensive and bulky, but the rise of smartphones means that this method can be deployed across a variety of research designs. For example, text messages can easily be sent using a specific account or a third-party automated system (e.g. here ).    More complex designs can also combine real-world data from smartphone sensors. This might include location via GPS, or health related data in the form of movement or heart rate .  Experience sampling can also can help reduce the temptation to provide social desirable responses. Most smartphones come equipped with a camera, and mobile phone apps allow participants to upload photos as supplemental data. The changing face of experience sampling - from software running on expensive Personal Digital Assistants to smartpho...

This post previously appeared on CREST's Blog in December 2016. Your mobile phone provides all kinds of useful data about what you do, and where. But does even the choice of handset say something about you? Heather Shaw and CREST Associate David Ellis tell us more. Digital traces can provide scientists and law-enforcement agencies with a range of information about groups and individuals. In particular, smartphones can log communications (e.g., calls and messages) and behaviour from multiple internal sensors (e.g., movement and location). For example, patterns of smartphone usage can be indicative of a person’s sleep-wake activity. Location information, on the other hand, is already used to provide alibis, and can accurately predict where a person works and lives. In a very short space of time, the smartphone has become a mini version of ourselves. This is probably why people become increasingly anxious if someone else attempts to use their smartphone! We found that A...

It's that time of year again. In early January, several reports will appear in the press (e.g. The Sun ) suggesting that the third Monday of January has been identified as the most depressing day of the year. This is false. Previous Weekday Research It is true that some days of the week evoke strong emotional responses . In fact, a small body of research has identified regularities between weekday and behaviour, and also between weekday and mood. Across studies on these topics, two main patterns are emphasised. One is the so-called Blue Monday effect. In a wide range of situations and measures, outcomes are especially negative on Mondays. Many of these situations are non-trivial, as they pertain to health and economic matters. For example, heart attack risk is higher, suicide rate is higher, reported mood is lower, and stock returns are lower. Even emails sent on a  Monday also contain more grammatical mistakes  and are less positive. Especially positive outcomes on Fr...

I've worn a Garmin wearable fitness tracker religiously for the last 9 months. The device has now become unreliable, but with so much data collected, I was curious to quantify patterns based on physical activity and sleep (this model measures both). However, while I can view a daily step count using the online service Garmin Connect , I also wanted to download my total step count for each day and run my own separate analysis. But this isn't possible (see below). I own the device, but not the data. Garmin can provide access to an API , but this remains expensive according to this reddit feed. It would actually be cheaper to build my own device and use that instead. Personally, I don't see how preventing customers from accessing their own raw data can continue. I understand why a manufacture would restrict access to the exact algorithm that takes accelerometer data and converts this data into steps, but my request outlined above is entirely reasonable. Man...

The Rosenberg self-esteem scale is a psychological inventory based on a 4-point likert scale and consists of 10 questions. It is used extensively to measure self-esteem across the social sciences. Below is a short script for SPSS which will help speed up the coding process.  All items should be labelled as separate numeric variables as R1, R2...etc The script computes and prints the results for all reverse-scored items and then calculates the total score.  *Part 1 - reverse scoring of specific items COMPUTE R3 = 5 - Q3. EXECUTE. COMPUTE R5 = 5 - Q5. EXECUTE. COMPUTE R8 = 5 - Q8. EXECUTE. COMPUTE R9 = 5 - Q9. EXECUTE. COMPUTE R10 = 5 - Q10. EXECUTE. *Part 2 - total score COMPUTE Rosenberg = Q1+Q2+R3+Q4+R5+Q6+Q7+R8+R9+R10. EXECUTE. *Reliability  RELIABILITY   /VARIABLES=Q1 Q2 R3 Q4 R5 Q6 Q7 R8 R9 R10   /SCALE('ALL VARIABLES') ALL   /MODEL=ALPHA.

Science has its problems , but many early career researchers (myself included) can often struggle when it comes to knowing how we can improve systems that we still very much have to operate within on a daily basis. That said, I am a firm believer that making research readily available to others is something that we should all work towards where possible. This applies to publications, data, computer code/software and the peer review process. The references below are taken from my own reading, but this list certainly isn't exhaustive. All of these papers pull in the same direction. Specifically, they provide convincing evidence that open access research practices help science as well as the individual researcher.  Early career researchers, who are typically gifted very little time to get ideas off the ground and demonstrate that they have societal importance, will help their own cause by ensuring that work is readily available across multiple disciplines and beyond. Moving ...

POSITION FILLED This is now advertised on jobs.ac.uk , but if you wish to discuss the studentship informally or if you have any questions about the position, please contact me (d.a.ellis@lancaster.ac.uk).