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Internet Research Methods in Psychology

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3. How to create a basic HTML web page that can be used to collect data. 4. How to create Perl/CGI scripts to process and save those data. ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Internet Research Methods in Psychology


1
Internet Research Methods in Psychology
  • R. Chris Fraley
  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Seminar - PSYC 593 CF

2
Introduction
  • During the last decade an increasing number of
    psychologists have begun to use the Internet to
    collect empirical data.
  • The Internet has the potential to be useful for
    two reasons
  • Integrated data management
  • Whether you collect data from undergraduate
    subject pools, community samples, or elsewhere,
    you can use the same platform for research
    design, collecting data, providing feedback, and
    managing data.
  • Open laboratory
  • Participants can take part in your research any
    time of the day.
  • If desired, you can open your lab doors to people
    from across the world.

3
Our plan
  • My objective in this course is to show you how to
    design research studies that can be implemented
    on the Internet.
  • Outline
  • 1. What kinds of research can be done using the
    Internet?
  • 2. How to obtain access to a web server.
  • 3. How to create a basic HTML web page that can
    be used to collect data.
  • 4. How to create Perl/CGI scripts to process and
    save those data.
  • 5. How to do advanced things, such as randomize
    stimuli/questions, randomly assign people to
    conditions, and present items/stimuli on separate
    pages.
  • 6. A discussion on ethics, sampling concerns, and
    informed consent.

4
Part 1Basic concepts and what can be done
5
How the Net Works
  • Most web pages are written in a language called
    HTML (hypertext markup language).
  • HTML files exist on a web server. When a person
    types in the URL for a specific file in his or
    her web browser, the person is essentially
    retrieving that pre-existing file from the web
    server.

6
How the Net Works
web user types a URL into the browser
web server locates requested HTML file and sends
it to users computer
web user the browser renders the HTML file as a
web page
7
Static vs. Dynamic Web Pages
  • The obvious limitation of using HTML pages in
    this manner is that the users web experience is
    statiche or she will see the same page each time
    he or she goes to that address.
  • It is possible, however, to program the server to
    deliver dynamic contentcontent that varies from
    one situation to the next or from one person to
    the next.
  • This kind of interactivity is necessary in order
    to produce the kinds of web pages that allow for
    creative, complex research designs.

8
Dynamic Web Programming and CGI
  • This kind of interactivity can be accomplished by
    writing programs, called CGI scripts, that run on
    the web server.
  • CGI scripts are often written in Perl, PHP, or
    other languages. (Ill expand on some technical
    details later.) What is important to note right
    now is that those languages are available for
    free and, with a bit of practice, are relatively
    easy to use.

9
Dynamic Web Programming and CGI
web user types a URL into the browser
  • web server
  • locates requested CGI script.
  • Performs the commands and creates a new HTML
    file.
  • Sends HTML file to users computer

web user the browser renders the HTML file as a
web page
10
What Can Be Done with CGI Scripts?
  • By using CGI scripts, it is possible to
    accomplish a number of feats that are impossible
    using standard web pages.
  • save data
  • randomize the order of questions
  • random assignment to conditions
  • track participants over time
  • implement complex branching patterns
  • customize text and images
  • create customized feedback for users
  • Lets discuss some of these points in more
    detail.

11
Automatically Save Responses to a Data File
  • One of most time-consuming aspects of conducting
    paper-and-pencil research is data entry.
  • It is easy to write CGI scripts that save the
    data automatically.
  • save as a comma-delimited text file (that can be
    easily imported into SPSS or MS Excel)
  • save directly into a database (such as MySQL)

12
snapshot of a comma-delimited text file
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14
Provide Participants with Customized Feedback
  • One of the most valuable features of conducting
    research over the Internet is that it allows you
    to provide instant feedback to the research
    subject.
  • plot the persons scores
  • create bar charts or tables that summarize the
    data (e.g., means, SDs, correlations) from the
    broader sample automatically

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Substitution
  • One of the perks of using dynamic programming is
    that it allows for substitution.
  • In other words, you can take information that has
    been provided by the user (or computed by some
    other part of the script) and substitute that
    into the web page that is sent to the user.

18
My wifes name has been substituted into the web
page, making the questions tailored to me.
19
Randomization of Stimuli Order
  • In most questionnaire-based research, it is not
    unusual for researchers to present questions in
    the same order for each research participant.
  • In fact, many researchers who have placed their
    questionnaires on-line have followed this
    practice.

20
Randomization of Stimuli Order
  • There are obvious limitations of using the same
    presentation order for stimuli.
  • Most importantly, there may be systematic order
    effects that impact responding.
  • By randomizing the order in which items/stimuli
    are presented, it is possible to minimize these
    kinds of problems.
  • It is possible to randomize the order of stimuli
    quite easily using a CGI script.

21
First time the page is loaded
22
Next time the page is loaded the questions are in
a different order.
23
Random Assignment to Conditions
  • It is also possible to use these same
    randomization techniques to randomly assign
    participants to experimental conditions.
  • Importantly, it is easy to implement this in a
    way that precludes research subjects from knowing
    that they are in but one of many possible cells
    of a research design.
  • Example
  • http//www.web-research-design.net/cgi-bin/APS2005
    /experiment1.pl

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26
Measure Response Times
  • It is also possible to write CGI scripts that
    assess the amount of time that a user spends on a
    web page.

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29
Measure Response Times
  • It is not advisable to assess response times for
    decisions that can be made within a few seconds
    (e.g., lexical decision tasks) because it can
    take up to three seconds for a simple HTML page
    to fully load.
  • However, by using multimedia applications, such
    as Macromedias Flash, it is possible to assess
    response times at a more microscopic level.

30
Measure Response Times
  • Example lexical decision application
  • http//www.web-research-design.net/APS2005/lexical
    decision.swf

31
Use Complex Branching Patterns
  • One limitation of paper-and-pencil questionnaires
    is that it is difficult for participants to
    follow complex branching operations.
  • There may be certain questions that should be
    skipped if the participant is not married, for
    example.
  • If you want to tailor the stimuli to a specific
    user (e.g., a persons ideographically unwanted
    traits), it is difficult to do so with a
    paper-based test.
  • Again, CGI scripts can be used to implement these
    conditional patterns.

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33
Track Participants Over Time
  • It is often desirable to follow a group of people
    across time to study continuity and change in
    attitudes, moods, behavior, and traits.
  • The Internet provides a useful way to track data
    across time because people can
  • (a) log-on at their convenience
  • (b) all submissions can be time-stamped
    automatically by the web server
  • (c) the persons progress can be easily tracked
    across multiple sessions

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36
Learning How to Conduct Research over the Internet
  • How do you do this stuff?!

37
Learning How to Conduct Research over the Internet
  • The first thing to note is that these techniques
    are relatively easy to learneven if you have
    very little experience in programming.

38
Learning How to Conduct Research over the Internet
  • What you need
  • a computer with an Internet connection (dial-up
    modem or high-speed)
  • a web server
  • Professional hosting sites (e.g. , Netfirms)
  • Create your own (e.g., spare PC, Apache software)
  • software that is freely available over the
    Internet
  • text editor (e.g., EditPlus (windows))

39
Learning How to Conduct Research over the Internet
  • What you need
  • Patience
  • Programming can be rewarding, but it can also be
    frustrating.
  • Take breaks when you hit a problem
  • Ask a blind eye to give it a look
  • Check the details (semi-colons, commas, quotes)
  • Use error checking short cuts

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