Internet Research Methods in Psychology

Internet Research Methods in Psychology

Internet Research Methods in Psychology
Seminar - PSYC 593 CF
CRN: 48584
Thur 1:00 - 2:50

Instructor

R. Chris Fraley, PhD
Department of Psychology, Room 409
E-mail, phone, and other information: http://www.psych.uiuc.edu/~rcfraley

Class web page

http://www.web-research-design.net/P593/

Updates

Jan 17, 2010

Updates will be posted here throughout the semester.

Readings

There is one book for this class:

Fraley, R. C. (2004). How to conduct behavioral research over the Internet: A beginner's guide to HTML and CGI/Perl. New York: Guilford.

It is not available at the Univ. bookstore, so you'll need to order a copy on-line. You can obtain copies at Amazon.com or the Guilford Press.

You will also need a web hosting account for this class. I use Netfirms hosting for everything I do and I encourage you to do the same so you can follow along with some of my "step by step" explanations of things. You can see Netfirm's hosting packages via this link. The most basic, paid package (i.e., "Netfirms Plus") costs $59.40 at the time of this writing, plus about $8 for a domain name of your chosing.

Technically, you can get "free" hosting via Netfirms. However, as of 2010, you still need to pay approximately $8 for a domain name itself. I strongly discourage you from following the "cheap" route unless you're strapped for funds. The advantages of having a legit account are numerous and, if your time is worth money, you'll save a lot of it by investing in a paid account. Half of the problems students have had in this class in the past have stemmed from using a "free" account that gets low-priority by the hosting service in terms of CPU time, bandwidth, etc.

Overview of the Course

During the past decade, an increasing number of psychologists have begun to use the Internet as a tool for conducting psychological research. It is easy to understand the appeal of using the Web for research purposes. Just about any study that can be conducted via traditional pencil-and-paper methods can be implemented on-line, but without the hassles of data entry by hand, the scheduling of participants, and paper costs. Moreover, researchers who use computers in their experiments for manipulating visual or narrative stimuli, randomizing trials, or creating customized assessments can easily implement their protocols on-line. Most importantly, although researchers can use the Web simply as an efficient way to collect data from undergraduates in their departmental subject pools, the Web allows us to open our laboratory doors to people from across the world.

My objective in this class is to teach you how to create web programs so that you can use the Internet as a medium for conducting psychological research. We will focus on CGI programming in Perl. CGI programs are designed to run on a web server, and, unlike standard HTML web pages, these programs can be used to create a dynamic, interactive web experience for the user. By using CGI programs, researchers can (a) randomize the presentation order of stimuli, (b) randomly assign subjects to conditions, (c) automatically save response data to a file for data analysis, (d) provide subjects with customized feedback based on their responses, (e) exploit both text and image-based stimuli, (f) measure reaction times, and (e) employ complex branching operations within a project.

Throughout the semester we will work our way through these and other topics, beginning with the basics (e.g., how to create a simple web page using HTML) and progressing through the more complex topics (e.g., how to write CGI/Perl scripts that create customized feedback to subjects). We will also discuss some conceptual and practical issues, such as those concerning ethics, sampling, data security, the quality of Internet data, and how to submit IRB's for web-based research. If time permits, we will devote time to some "hot topics," such as creating Facebook mods.

This class is intended for anyone who currently conducts research in the behavioral sciences. The seminar is designed to be a practical one and, as such, will be of most use to students who actually want to use the Internet to collect data.

The Class Webpage

I will post lecture notes and other materials relevant to the class on the class web page. You should treat the class web page as your primary syllabus. I will be updating it on a regular basis and it will be your responsibility to keep up-to-date on any changes that are made. (I will, however, announce significant changes in the lecture sessions.)

Workload, Grading, and Expectations

We will work through approximately one chapter of the book a week. I will introduce the basic concepts to you in class and walk you through some examples. After that introduction, however, I expect you to read the chapter and work through the examples discussed therein. You probably need to set aside 6 hours a week outside of class for reading and practicing your programming skills.

You will be given mini-projects throughout the semester as a way of keeping you on track and helping you evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. From a grading perspective, one of the nice things about web design is that a program either works or it does not and, more importantly, it is quite clear when the program is working well. As such, these projects will be graded on a pass/fail basis.

Beyond these assignments, you will have one mega-project for the class. Specifically, I will ask you to create a sophisticated web study from the ground up. This study will be one of your choosing and, as such, it should be one that fits naturally into your research program. For this project you will write and submit an IRB, do the programming, and begin collecting the data. I realize that some people have more lofty ambitions than others, so I will work with you early in the semester to ensure that your project is manageable (if it originally seems too complex) or more complex (if it originally seemed too rudimentary).

If you do not have some sense of what you would like to do for your final project by the end of the first week, this is not the class for you. I say this because there is limited space in the class and I want to make sure that those taking it are the ones most likely to benefit from it.

Policy on Missed Tests and Assignments

Homework assignments should be organized on your personal website. You should create a directory called "p5930" and in that folder create a web page called "homework.htm". A link to each homework assignment should be listed there, along with the date in question and links to any perl code that was used. I will start reviewing homework assignments on Thursdays at 9:00 a.m. If you have not completed your assignment by that time, it will be considered late and, depending on what kind of time I have available to me, potentially overlooked. Example: http://www.jenklafehn.netfirms.com/index.html

Student Homework Links

I will list the links to the student homework pages here for easy reference.

Marie http://www.relationshipsresearch.com/homework/mariehomework.htm
Thomas http://www.expsych.com/P593/HOMEWORK.html
Justin http://heplerlabs.com/
Jonathan http://memorycognitionlab.com/

Schedule for the Class

I will be constructing my lectures over the course of the semester. As the lectures and plans become more crystallized, I'll post the necessary materials on the class web page. The outline below is a preliminary outline (i.e., one that is subject to change) of what will be covered during the lab sections of the class.

Date	Topic	Files or links
Jan 21	Introduction: What can be done over the Internet. Creating a web server account.	Lecture notes 1 - Internet Possibilites [PowerPoint] Lecture notes 2 - Setting up a web server via Netfirms [PowerPoint] Some useful links for EditPlus and Netfirms EditPlus Great text editor for windows Netfirms web hosting
Feb 4	How to make a basic HTML web page	Useful links to HTML sources HTML colors and references CSS tutorials and references HTML table tutorial HTML Tags and attributes Lecture notes 3 - Creating HTML web pages [PowerPoint] Details on homework assignment [create a web page]
Feb 11	HTML forms: Collecting research data from participants	From this point forward, PowerPoint lecture files won't be of much good to us. Today we will discuss the use of HTML forms. We will focus on the code for the following form, http://www.web-research-design.net/P593/form1.htm. To view the HTML code, right-click on it and choose the view source option. We will also begin a rudimentary discussion of CGI. The code for the form1.pl script we will use can be copied and pasted from here, http://www.web-research-design.net/P593/form1pl.txt. Details on homework assignment [create a web page questionnaire with Perl script]
Feb 18	An introduction to CGI scripting: Using Perl to save automatically response data to a file AND Providing customized feedback to research participants	Some new concepts we'll introduce: processing data, foreach loops, writing data to a text tile, reading (and using) data stored in a text file, if/else conditions Here are some files we'll be using today: form3.htm form3.pl [text file version] notes form4.htm form4.pl [text file version] Details on homework assignment [create a Perl script that processes data]
Feb 25	Using Perl to deliver HTML, connecting multiple web pages, hidden tags, for-next loops and more about arrays	Administer questionnaire items via perl form5.pl form5.pl [text file version] Script that processes form5.pl's data form6.pl [text file version] Do it all (administer items and process data) with 1 script form7.pl form7.pl [text file version] Present items on separate pages - hidden tags form8.pl form8.pl [text file version] The basics of a for loop form9.pl form9.pl [text file version] Using the for loop to access elements of an array form10.pl form10.pl [text file version] Using the for loop with arrays to present questionnaire items form11.pl form11.pl [text file version]
March 4	More on multiple pages and Subroutines	Hidden tags and multi-page layouts mult1.pl mult1.pl [text file version] Basic subtroutine sub1.pl sub1.pl [text file version] Basic subtroutine with parameters sub2.pl sub2.pl [text file version] Subtroutine: parameters, indexing, returning values sub3.pl sub3.pl [text file version] Subtroutine: Additional examples sub4.pl sub4.pl [text file version] Homework Create a set of subroutines that will automate some processes that are commonly used in Internet based research applications. Also, illustrate the use of these subrounines in a perl script application. 1. A routine that automatically creates the radio buttons for items that require 1 to 5 rating scales. 2. A routine that automatically opens the data file, finds the average and SD for a variable in the dataset. Extra Credit: The rountine also computes the subject's standard score (z-score).
Mar 11	Random assignment to conditions and randomizing the order of stimuli	Randomize a list rand1.pl rand1.pl [text file version] Randomly select 1 item from a list rand2.pl rand2.pl [text file version] Toss a coin: Heads or tails? rand3.pl rand3.pl [text file version] Random assignment to conditions rand4.pl rand4.pl [text file version] Random assignment to conditions - 2 x 2 design rand5.pl rand5.pl [text file version] Randomize order in which questions or stimuli appear rand6.pl rand6.pl [text file version] Randomize question order while presenting questions across multiple pages rand7.pl rand7.pl [text file version] Randomize both the order of questionnaires/blocks and items/stimuli within a questionnaire/block rand8.pl rand8.pl [text file version] Homework Create a script that uses randomization in a way that isn't redunant with some of the examples we discussed today. Feel free to be silly if you wish, or to be ultra-utilitarian if you prefer. Whatever you do, be sure to make it clear that you have mastered how to randomize things effectively in Perl. Your homework needs to include a link to the live webpage as well as the text for the Perl script(s).