Political Psychology, Eye Tracking, and Human Decision Making
Project Description
This project uses methods of cognitive psychology, social psychology, and psychophysiological measurement to examine political phenomena. There are various streams of research, but most involve questions about the ways that people process information to make political decisions. In general, we will use a laboratory or survey setting to randomly present people with different versions of political information and determine whether the differences in how information is presented affect people’s decisions. Some of the laboratory experimental designs will additionally use eye tracking methods to measure how people process the information. Given that there are several streams of ongoing research, the specific topic can be matched to the interests of the applicant.
Supervisor
HENDRY, David James
Quota
4
Course type
UROP1100
UROP2100
UROP3100
UROP4100
Applicant's Roles
The applicant’s role may include conducting literature reviews, designing experiments, data analysis, preparing and running the eye tracking equipment, and overseeing experimental sessions. The applicants will be required to complete an online ethics course for human subjects research that takes about 3 hours. No specialized prior knowledge is required, and the specific tasks can be matched with the applicant’s skill level and interests. Students with no prior knowledge of programming or software for statistical analysis are encouraged to learn the basics of at least one software platform for some aspect of the project (e.g., stimulus presentation software for conducting laboratory experiments, statistical software for data analysis). The most important criteria for the applicant are that they are interested in the topic, conscientious, and willing to learn.
Applicant's Learning Objectives
Students will learn to formulate research questions, conduct literature reviews, design laboratory and survey experiments, oversee laboratory experiments, and analyze data. The project will give students hands-on experience with various aspects of experimental design and data collection.
Complexity of the project
Moderate