Blog Roots III

Periodically, I like to return to my blog roots and give a general update, so here goes: (Previous Blog Roots I, II)

T$ Update:

School and research are proceeding quite nicely. The first semesters of my time in Kansas were mostly slow, my research and other involvement did not keep me extremely busy. But then data collection for my thesis, supervising the rat lab, coordinating a student’s convention and other things kept me very busy. The same pattern is beginning to emerge here in Texas.

I’m working on several projects in the Aging and Cognition Lab related to metacognition, social aspects of age differences in memory, and student’s use of study strategies. I’m also very excited about a new project in the Environmental Psychophysiology Laboratory. I’ve written about the ERN here before; the new study is also related to the ERN. The study has the potential to make real progress disentangling several issues that have plagued interpretation of the waveform. The principle investigator (PI) has high hopes for its publication in a high-impact journal.

As is necessary to receive my stipend, I also teach a lab section of PSYC203: Statistics for Psychology, today we talked about independent samples t-tests. So far, it has been a fine experience, but mostly a back-burner activity, if I were the teacher of record I would feel more responsibility for the course.

Other News:

Was in Houston and Rice University over the weekend for the ARMADILLO cognition conference. Friday and Saturday there were talks all day and a poster session Friday afternoon (I presented some of my work on stereotypes and aging). Unlike other conferences I’ve been to, there was only one event at a time, whether it was a talk or a poster session. Meagan and I also enjoyed the Rice Village district, we had tapas Friday evening and visited the Chocolate Bar Saturday afternoon.

One interesting thing about Rice University, a private university with what must be an enormous endowment, is that its often referred to as the Harvard of the south. To students and faculty at Rice though, Harvard is the Rice of the north. UPDATE: I checked, Rice’s endowment is 4.7 billion dollars as of 2007. (wiki)

Meagan and I are hosting a Halloween party this Saturday. We’re hoping we can have as good a party as we did our last year in Kansas, which will not be an easy task. I think our costumes are a secret but I’ll definitely post pictures after the party.

TX Update:

Who knew it would rain so damn much in Texas. In September we had 7.4 inches of rain, over three inches above average, and this month we’re already at 8 inches, 4 inches above average!

Language’s Equal Status

I’ve grown up hearing people say and thinking that the English language was a “complex” language, even more complex than other languages. Now, after minimal reading in linguistics, I know this is a misconception. English may be irregular but it’s no more complex than any other language. The linguist Dan Slobin summarized this point nicely in a Qualia interview.

There’s no way in which you can define one language as being more complex than another. If you look at all of the devices available in a language, my guess is they’ll balance each other off. So, if you lose case-inflection then you’ll have more complicated word order laws and richer uses of prepositions. (Slobin, 2005)

Case inflection is a linguistic device that varies between languages. In English, there are very few case inflections. For example, if English speakers saw the word “cleaned” they would not know who or what cleaned, whereas in Italian the word “cleaned” would change form to indicate who was cleaning and when the cleaning occurred. On first reading, one might think this English is more difficult for this reason, but this is wrong because there is a trade-off. Perhaps the trade-off is that in English sentence requires a strict word order (e.g. noun-verb-noun), whereas in Italian it is allowable to switch word order.

Another interpretation of case inflection in English and Italian would be that Italian’s abundance of case inflection would make it a more difficult language, but the “rich inflection morphology” makes words easily distinguishable (Bates, Devescovi & Wulfeck, 2001, p. 373). On the other hand, English’s paucity of case inflection causes ambiguity for users, but context and word order resolves ambiguity. Also, consider Chinese, where 80% of words are compound words, which might be difficult for listeners to interpret if it weren’t for lexical tone, or the way the words are said (Bates et al.). Bates and colleagues write “all languages must have achieved a roughly comparable degree of learnability and processibility across the course of history, or they would not still be around” (2001, p. 374).

I wondered if my belief that English was the most complex language was unusual. Am I the only one who has ever thought English was the most difficult to use? I developed a short survey to help me answer this question. In the survey, I asked individuals what their first, or native, language was, if they knew more than one language, I asked about their awareness of several other languages from Indo-European, Asian, and other lines, and finally I asked them what they thought the most complex language was.

I predicted individuals who were monolingual would have a higher likelihood of saying their own language was the most complex, and those who are bi- or multi-lingual would be more likely to report a language other than their native language as most complex. I’ve collected data from 6 individuals that vary in their native language, age, gender, and linguistic abilities. Respondents include 3 men and 3 women, of which, 3 are native English speakers and 3 are non-native English speakers (Malayalam, Spanish, and Chinese). Three are monolingual while the other three are at least bilingual.

Of those six people, two thought English was the most complex language – both were native English respondents. Clearly, data from 6 respondents is hardly enough to come to a general conclusion about a population’s beliefs regarding language. However, I don’t think I’m alone in ever thinking English was the most complex language, certainly not among monolingual English speakers. It will be interesting to continue collecting data to explore this question. There are problems with my survey too. For example, I didn’t ask people to consider a particular form (i.e. written, spoken) when they reported what they thought was the most complex language. Chinese was the most oft reported complex language; my guess is respondents were imagining Chinese script. Interestingly, the only Chinese native speaker thought Spanish was the most complex language because “Spanish speakers speak so fast.”

Probably the most important finding though, is the fact that everyone reported a “most complex” language, and that they all readily did so. To me that indicates language’s “equal” status among linguists is not well known in the public.

Picture Me Crying – My Manuscript was Rejected

I’m trying not to be too dramatic about my rejection notice, but I did feel quite deflated when I found out my manuscript was rejected. It’s been nearly a week since I heard, now I’m mostly optimistic about the future of the paper.

The paper was reviewed by two experts, I was dissapointed it wasn’t three. Of course, the editor also reviewed my paper, but probably cursorily. Reviewer 2 encouraged a revision and resubmission and Reviewer 1 didn’t make a final judgment, but from a reading of the comments it was probably a reject.

To give you some background about the study, we asked students to predict their exam scores and gave them extra credit for being correct, we were measuring their metacognitive abilities. We hoped that with time and practice making predictions, their metacognition would improve. Good metacognitive abilities are associated with improved grades. In short, we were trying to help students know themselves.

We submitted the paper to Applied Cognitive Psychology because it was applied. We collected data from students in a traditional classroom — we thought this was a real strength of the paper. Reviewer 2 commented that we need to address this quasi-experimental aspect, and provide a justification.

A major comment from both Reviewer 1 and the Editor was our lack of a control group, or a group that made predictions about their exam scores and DID NOT receive extra credit for accuracy. This is a valid criticism and one that we are addressing this semester by collecting another semester’s worth of data, no small endeavor.

So, the paper was rejected, but I’m not sweating it. When it’s all said and done the paper will be even better and we’ll resubmit, probably to the same journal.

New Manuscript Status

I’ve written previously about the manuscript I submitted for publication (link). The title of the paper is Training Metacognition in the Classroom: How Incentives and Feedback Influence Exam Predictions. According to the publisher’s (Wiley) online author center, there is a new status for my submission.

I submitted the paper July 17, 2009, as of today the status is “evaluating recommendation.” This means the manuscript has been reviewed by at least 3 of my “peers” and they have made recommendations to the editor.

The best case scenario would be an accept notice, which means the paper would appear in the Applied Cognitive Psychology sometime soon. An equally good scenario would be to hear back that the paper is accepted contingent on minor revisions. In this case we would make changes to the paper and send it back.

I could also get a revise and resubmit notice, a good outcome and one that is infinitely more likely than either outright acceptance or acceptance with revisions.

Worst-case scenario is an outright rejection notice. Researchers get rejection notices for a variety of reasons. One could be the the paper is poor quality. Another could be the journal is not the right venue for the paper.  If I get a rejection notice for the former reason I will cry first, then revise and resubmit the paper elsewhere. If I’m rejected for the latter reason, I’ll just resubmit elsewhere.

Training Metacognition

I submitted my first manuscript today to Applied Cognitive Psychology, a peer-reviewed journal. The title of the submission is Training Metacognition: How Incentives and Feedback Influence Exam Predictions

There is certainly no guarantee it will be accepted but I have a good feeling about it. After a dozen iterations it is pretty well polished and I think our conclusions are sound. I’ll update with news as I get it.

So far the status online is “under review” with Dr. Robert Belli at University of Nebraska – Lincoln.

The Tour de France and Cognitive Psychology

Talking about the Tour de France with people who watch the TDF is great. Talking about the TDF with people who are unfamiliar is also fun, they ask all kinds of questions, exactly the kind of questions I wondered about when I started watching.

This past monday I started teaching Cognitive Psychology at Texas A&M University. It is a daily course, so for fun and to break it up, I’ve been giving my class updates. When I asked who was watching the tour, not one person (out of 35) said they were watching or had ever watched the Tour. Naturally, I had to get them up to speed on some of the vocabulary of cycling as well as the nuts and bolts of the TDF. And so, I’ve given two short primer lectures, in addition to the stage winner and GC top 5 daily updates.

They seem to be enjoying it, we’re in Texas so their rooting for the home team, Lance Armstrong. By the end of the class, I think they will have enjoyed learning about the Tour, maybe some of them will even be fans. As an added bonus when they see or hear about the Tour in years to come, they will probably think about Cognitive Psychology.

Blog Roots II

T$ Update:

Lots of people are counting down the days until the semester is over, I think I have about two, maybe three weeks until the Spring semester is complete. Summer session begins in June. Our wedding is also in June. Planning is nearly complete, we still have to figure out where we will print the programs and confirm all the vendors. Honeymoon planning has barely begun beyond booking (4 B’s in a row) flights and hotel rooms. Minimal planning for the honeymoon is probably best after the planning glut the ceremony and reception required (2 R’s in a row, not as impressive).

Mike, over at thisafterthat, has been at his job for three years. He is a graphic/web designer for the greater Sioux Falls area. He is also my best man and is planning a killer bachelor party at Palisades Park. Recently, I set up a wordpress account for a Sioux Falls business, but I’m not going to quit my day job. I actually did some elementary CSS editing and created a graphic with that Stone Age software called MSPaint, maybe you’ve heard of it.

Other News:

Through a class project, I’ve been collecting electroencephalogram (EEG) data. It is a really simple experimental design related to cognitive neuroscience, but I’m excited about my first foray into human neuroscientific research. If the data supports my hypothesis it could make waves among a small group with esoteric interests (ahh…science). If I can get my phone to communicate with my computer I’ll post a picture. (Done)

Meagan interviewed at Texas A&M to start a school counseling masters program in the Fall. She is still waiting to hear back about their decision.

TX update:

Just a warning, if anyone wants to visit Meagan or I in the future, you should look into getting or renewing your passsport.

Blog Roots

As I originally conceived it (link) this blog was supposeed to be a little like Twitter. It was supposed to contain updates, other news, and a state update, which usually amounted to be talking about the weather, exciting I know. While I haven’t strayed too far, I have sometimes neglected the objective. Let me return to my roots. 

T$ update:

I’ve been done with classes for over a week now. My first semester went off without a hitch, honestly I can’t believe its already over. The cognitive psychology course I took was always interesting and helped me think more on the topic. I’m happy I didn’t test out of statistics for two reasons. First, I recognize statistics is the language of science, as such one must be fluent. Any review of statistics or opportunity to learn new techniques should be snapped up. Second, multiple regression was mostly unfamiliar to me, now it is not. Furthermore, advanced topics such as logistic regression and path anlysis were wholly unfamiliar to me, now they are not.

Research my first semester was intense and continues throughout winter break. Without classes I’ve been able to focus on a side project regarding the history of psychology. I am tracing the intersections of psychology and the White House Conference on Children and Youth from 1909-1971. Probably the most notable intersection was a paper by Kenneth Clark on racial identification in African American children (aka the “Doll Studies“). Later this paper became a central point of the NAACP’s case in Brown vs. Board of Education (wiki). My other projects on metacognition, stereotype threat, perceived social support, and cognitive writing continue and are nearing the end of data collection.

Other News:

Christmas shopping and wrapping is done! Meagan and I are leaving for Nebraska and South Dakota tomorrow to spend the holidays with family. I’ve been helping Meagan with the baking a little bit (i.e. retrieving flour from the grocery store or mixing ingredients when her arm is fatigued). Webster continues to jump on the kitchen counter, I scold him when he does but I don’t think he cares, cats…

TX update:

Per a previous blog, readers know it has snowed here. The snow didn’t last long. Now we’ve been socked in the last three days, the fog makes it dreary but keeps the temperature up (currently it is 74 degrees).