Research Methods in Digital Media

1. Research Methods inDigital Media Rudy McDaniel, Ph.D. Lecture 2: Literature Review, Famous Studies, and Ethics

2. Outline • Discussion of your research project plans • Lecture • Part I: Literature Review • Part II: Using Endnote • Part III: Two Famous Studies • Part IV: Ethics • Part V: Assignments

3. Research Projects/Papers • This will be a preliminary plan of attack for a larger study • Your final paper or project will include a proposal component, a literature map, a copy of your annotated bibliography, a purpose statement, and a proposed methodology • You will also develop a prototype of your experimental treatment, creative project, or survey instruments

4. Questions to Answer • What do you want to study? • Is there a creative component to your project? • What methods and knowledge claims will you be using to conduct your research? • What literature will you use as a basis? • Who is your audience? • What is your timeline? • Is a budget required? • How will you assess your data?

5. Part I Literature Review

6. Literature Review • There are many questions that emerge when we are thinking about how to perform a literature review: • How do I know when I’m done? • How do I deal with unique topics? • How do I design a literature map? • How do I write a literature review? • How do I properly document sources? • This lecture will provide you with some techniques for dealing with these types of questions.

7. How Do I Know When I’m Done? • When you start to see the same sources being repeated over and over again. • When you feel you have collected enough sources to show convincing support for an idea or argument. • When you give your paper to a (knowledgeable) colleague or classmate to read and they don’t have any further suggestions. • When it is “good enough” to satisfy the parameters laid forth by your audience.

8. Creswell’s Tips • Many literature reviews serve to illustrate gaps in knowledge or a general deficiency of existing research • Specialized topics may benefit from the inverted triangle metaphor

9. Literature Map • A literature map provides a visual illustration of important studies and significant research related to your topic Do Stories Help Young Students Learn in Video Games? Stories & Learning (Independent Variable) Learning Outcomes when using Technology (Dependent Variable) Games & Learning (Similar Experiments) Herman (2000), “Narrative as a Cognitive Science” Image & Narrative (1)

10. Writing a Literature Review • Introduce the section • Review topic 1 (independent variable) • Review topic 2 (dependent variable) • Review topic 3 (relationship between variables) • Provide overall summary • Drink Heineken.

11. What If I Miss Something? • Don’t worry – there are plenty of people to help you after the project has been presented or the paper has been submitted: • Colleagues • Audience Members • Editorial Reviewers • Graduate Committee Members • Informed Readers

12. Part II Using Endnote

13. Weekly Time Management Tip

14. Weekly Time Management Tip (Bonus)

15. Endnote • Endnote is a software program that allows you to collect, manage, and appropriately cite references in your papers. • UCF provides a free license for the Endnote software program. You can download Endnote from this URL: • http://library.ucf.edu/Databases/CitationManagement/EndNote.asp • Both PC and Mac versions are available.

16. Program Startup • When you first open the program, you will see options for creating a new library, viewing a “what’s new” section, or opening an existing library.

17. New Library • Upon creating a new library, you will see the following blank window:

18. Adding New References (1)

19. Adding New References (2) • You only need to add the information required by most popular citation styles. This will vary depending on the reference type.

20. Journal Article

21. Book

22. Book Chapter or Section • Note that book chapters also include the chapter title (in addition to the book title) and editor’s name. Book chapters also need to indicate the page numbers of the chapter in the book.

23. Conference Proceedings Paper

24. Default View (Existing Database) • Endnote will display a database of all of your sources and their years published, titles, etc.

25. Formatting Citations • The Style Selection Dropdown corresponds to the formatted entry shown in the Preview Pane.

26. Style Manager (1) • Use the Style Manager to select your default style list.

27. Style Manager (2) • Check the box of each style you would like to appear in the dropdown menu for the main database.

28. Formatting Citations • The Style Selection Dropdown will be updated with any new styles added using the Style Manager.

29. Exporting Formatted Citations (1) • Hold down the Control key to select multiple entries from your primary database listing.

30. Exporting Formatted Citations (2)

31. Exporting Formatted Citations (3) • From your word processor, choose “Paste Special” and paste as Formatted Text (RTF) directly into your bibliography or works cited document section.

32. Exporting Formatted Citations (4)

33. Other Tips • Enter author names in first name last name order, then hit enter for each additional name. So, to enter Rudy McDaniel, Jeff Wirth, and Mike Moshell, you would type the following in the Author field: • Rudy McDaniel [Enter] • Jeff Wirth [Enter] • Mike Moshell • Endnote will automatically format the names correctly.

34. Other Tips (2) • For some names, you may want to list the entire name without a comma as the author: • Ex: United States Senate Subcommittee • In order for Endnote to correctly list this in the database, you should enter a comma after the last word: • Ex: United States Senate Subcommittee, [Enter] • Remember, you may need to use the Style Manager to add missing citation styles.

35. Part III Two Famous Studies

36. Miligram Obedience Experiments • Stanley Miligram, a psychologist at Yale, conducted an experiment in 1961 to measure the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure. • Participants were told they were randomly divided into groups of teachers and learners. • “Teachers” administered shocks when “learners” did not perform adequately. Image Credit: Wikipedia

37. Outcomes • Miligram formed two theories explaining the results of his experiment: • The theory of conformism – a subject without the ability or expertise to make decisions will leave the decision making process to the group • Agentic state theory – the participant views himself or herself as an instrument and does not see himself or herself as being responsible for his or her actions

38. The Stanford Prison Experiment • In 1971, psychologist Philip Zimbardo and a team of researchers from Stanford University selected 24 undergraduate students to play the roles of prisoners or prison guards. • You will read about the setup for this experiment for homework!

39. Sound Familiar?

40. Part IV Ethics

41. M.C. Escher Time Code II

42. Three Psychological Truths • The world is filled with both good and evil • The barrier between good and evil is both permeable and nebulous • It is possible for angels to become devils and, perhaps more difficult to perceive, for devils to become angels Zimbardo, P. (2008). The Psychology of Evil: Situated Character Transformations. In The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil (pp. 3-22). New York: Random House

43. Ethical Considerations • Will collecting your data cause harm or discomfort to others? • How much? • Do the ends justify the means? • Have you examined your egocentric bias? • Will your study give an accurate portrayal of reality? Will it marginalize or cause damage to any specific populations? • If you are running an experiment, will the control group miss out on any potential benefits of the treatment? If so, how can this be addressed?

44. The Institutional Review Board • A committee tasked with reviewing and approving experiments and monitoring for possible ethical violations or concerns • UCF uses a Web-based review system located at: https://iris.research.ucf.edu/ • For next week, you will complete IRB training.

45. Activity • In groups of 2-3 students, use the computers to find some other examples of experiments with “ethically interesting” methodologies. • Jot down the major details and we’ll discuss as a group.

46. Part V Assignments

47. Assignments (due by 6/4) • Read Zimbardo chapter (handout in class). • Read Creswell, Ch. 6 (p. 105-118). • Complete IRB training: • Go here: http://www6.miami.edu/citireg/ • Complete modules on social and behavioral research only (not biomedical research). • Print out a copy of your certificate and bring to class next week. • Remember that your annotated bibliographies are due on 6/11. Keep working on these.

48. Next Class Meeting • We will talk more about research methods and hypotheses. • We will discuss some software tools useful for research in DM and we’ll complete an activity to co-create a resource center for useful DM research Web applications.