Every year, I have my students replicate a classic study in the field
in small groups of 2-3 students. Every year, I'm ecstatic with the
amount of information they learn (as well as the experience of
presenting their research to the campus community) but I also wish I
could have them do research that would be more intrinsically
appealing to most. We don't offer a psych major at my institution, so
few of these students will pursue either cognitive or experimental psych.
I've often wondered if anyone has had students try to research topics
like (1) the negative effects of texting while performing other
activities or (2) the influence of the presence/absence of a gun on
memory for a simulated crime, without requiring working with
experimental software like E-prime or PsyScope. In other words, has
anyone thought of a fairly easy way that students could research a
topic like this, and collect data that would be both meaningful and
(to their way of thinking) more interesting? If I could provide
guidance with something like this, so the students don't waste the
entire semester simply coming up with a workable protocol, that would
be fabulous.
Any comments are welcome, including ideas for other topical issues. Thanks!
Mark
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Mark A. Casteel, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychology
Penn State York
1031 Edgecomb Ave.
York, PA 17403
(717) 771-4028
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