Abhi Elayidom, Week 3, It Always Gets Better

 

               The third week at the Cognitive Computational Lab in Rutgers, Newark was great. When I first started going testing to various preschools with Trisha Dehrone for the Learned Empowerment Study, there were some days when we got a lot of kids to participate in the study, but then there were days that were not so great but showed me that the job of a researcher is not always a smooth ride.

 

One of the perks of studying with children is that in order to get subjects for the study, Rutgers has to first form a solid and trustworthy relationship with preschools. Recruitment of preschools is very important because the entire lab’s studies depends on this highly crucial stage. After forming relationships with preschools and day cares, the child’s parents have to sign consent forms that state that they are okay with their child participating in the studies and whether they are okay with their child being recorded and filmed. After all of this, there are not always a lot of kids that can participate in each school. Also, when looking through consent forms and browsing at the roster of kids available to test, one has to also take into account the age range of kids in their study. So, in the end, a lot of the times there are only 5 or 6 kids from one preschool or day care that fit into the criteria for one’s study. As a result, going testing and gathering enough kids to fulfill the requirements of certain studies can be quite difficult sometimes.

 

As for testing this week, the beginning was pretty rocky, but towards the second half of the week, it got a lot better. It was a breezy Wednesday when Trisha and I had gone to a preschool for testing. When we got to the lab in the morning, we got everything we had needed including the camera, tripod, toys, and paperwork that we needed. About a half hour later, we got to the preschool and started setting up. A lot of the preschools located in Newark are fairly small so we had to find a way to work with the space that we had. Then, a few minutes later, we had found that the camera’s screen was broken (it physically looked fine). We ended up not being able to test because even though we could have used our phones to record the videos, according to the rules, it is not considered professional and ethical to have data and videos of children on one’s personal belongings. So, we had no choice but to return to the lab.

 

       

 

 

 

Although the day started off shaky, Trish and I still got a lot done that day. We made envelopes filled with stickers and surveys for the parents that had already signed consent forms as a thanks for taking part in the study. Later on, I also did some coding for the Seed Project.

 

 

 

 

 

The next day that we went testing ran a lot smoother. Not only were the tests run successfully, but we also got some interesting reactions and comments from the kids after playing with the toys. We also added a few things to the procedure. To better understand how the child felt after, we added a smiley face scale to help the child express how he or she felt at certain points. After returning to the lab that day, I sat down and fixed the novel toy in the study. The novel toy is one of the crucial parts of the study because it helps to understand the self-exploration and curiosity of children. The novel toy has around 5 different functions and a lot of the times the number of functions the child figures out depends on whether the child is in the learned empowerment or the learned helplessness condition. Looking at the data that we have collected so far, it seems as if the learned empowerment condition, the condition in which sharing toys are key in encouraging the children, helps the child gain self-motivation which boosts their desire to explore. So, in the learned empowerment condition, children are more likely to explore more with the toy and discover more functions. On the other side, in the learned helplessness condition, the condition in which sharing does not take place and the child is placed in an unfair situation, the child seems somewhat discouraged from exploring on their own and instead stick to the one function that is revealed to them when they are given the novel toy.

Although this project is fairly new, when going testing, it is interesting to see how every child’s personality and thinking is different and how that either pushes them or hold them back from expressing their sense of curiosity.