You are invited to participate in a web-based research study to investigate the validity of computer-based attitude inventories when given to frequent gamers (like you). We are recruiting current StarCraft II players from the North American server over the age of 18 that are also current U.S. residents or citizens. Of interest to us is how gamers will perform on measures designed to assess “implicit racial attitudes.” (These are attitudes people hold but cannot easily report on using standard self-report inventories.) Implicit racial attitudes are typically measured with computer programs that generate scores based on respondents’ ability to quickly and accurately categorize different concepts. Given that gamers have a lot of skill and experience at exactly this type of activity, we think that gamers may pose a real challenge to this measurement approach. You can help us by taking the test and doing the best you can – much like you do when you are playing games online. We admit this test will not be as much fun for you as StartCraft II, but your responses can help advance the science of implicit attitude measurement. If you agree to participate in this research study, you will be asked to answer questions regarding race relations in the U.S., your competitiveness and your social life. You then will be asked to complete a task designed to measure implicit racial attitudes. In all, we estimate that this study will take approximately 30 minutes to complete. As this study is web based, all study tasks can be performed via our website from your web browser. Our interest in this study is to test whether this measure "measures up" when completed by people like you -- people who react faster on computer tasks than the average person and who have better multi-tasking skills. Because we are testing validity of this measurement technique, we are not concerned with your individual attitudes nor can we give you any feedback on the meaning of your test score.
There's a lot about this that makes no sense to me at all. Why in this test would being able to react faster change the outcome of the test results? Why would our computer skills make you question the viability of your test results for something like racial attitudes in the us. I know that they are looking into their own measuring techniques but do they mean for a test like this or just for their testing in general? Idk man there's just something about this whole deal that I don't like lol I think i'm just weird. Hope you all find some good information from this! GL everyone.
On June 16 2013 07:43 PhoenixM1 wrote: There's a lot about this that makes no sense to me at all. Why in this test would being able to react faster change the outcome of the test results? Why would our computer skills make you question the viability of your test results for something like racial attitudes in the us. I know that they are looking into their own measuring techniques but do they mean for a test like this or just for their testing in general? Idk man there's just something about this whole deal that I don't like lol I think i'm just weird. Hope you all find some good information from this! GL everyone.
It was explained in the post:
Implicit racial attitudes are typically measured with computer programs that generate scores based on respondents’ ability to quickly and accurately categorize different concepts.
I haven't taken the test yet, but basically your implicit attitudes are your 'gut' reactions -- before you have time to think about things like your immediate environment, political correctness, etc. Gamers, with quick reaction times, may be quicker to pull in outside info that influences their behavior, which would make it harder to measure just the implicit attitudinal response.
IATs (Implicit association test) are kinda overdone thanks to Project Implicit . Harvard has several dozen or possibly way more by now different ones they've been doing since like 1998. University of Connecticut is basically bandwagoning.
So...take this test to see if your "Is he racist?" tests still work against people who think/calculate faster than your average joe schmoe? Sure. Why not.
On June 16 2013 06:18 UConnPsych wrote: Implicit racial attitudes are typically measured with computer programs that generate scores based on respondents’ ability to quickly and accurately categorize different concepts. Given that gamers have a lot of skill and experience at exactly this type of activity, we think that gamers may pose a real challenge to this measurement approach.
Whilst I'm not in the US I actually once discussed that with family members after I took part in an online test which worked on that principle. At the begining I got to grips with the idea and as the test went on I very quickly got a lot quicker, until at the end I was quite proud at the speed at which I was able to click the correct picture. As a result of the order of the test and the speed at which I was able to improve, the results at the end suggested I was on the upper end of implicit racism for respondents to date, which I can safely say would be a surprising result were it accurate.
As we would expect of StarCraft II players, great questions and comments. When we analyze the results of the entire study, we will post the results and open it up for commentary. We would also like to emphasize that we've been clear about the nature of the experiment in the information page on our website and in the letter in this thread. If you have any questions about the experiment, feel free to use any of the contact email addresses from the information page. However, it is difficult to talk about our experimental hypotheses in detail in a public forum because we do not want to prejudice our results. Just to make one thing clear, this is a measurement study, not a study of people's attitudes. We are interested in seeing how reaction time measures work with people with fast reaction times. The tests we have on our website are relevant to the way reaction time measures have been used in the field of Psychology, but are otherwise irrelevant to this experiment. Thanks again to all who participated.
On June 17 2013 06:21 StatixEx wrote: the way this is worded sounds like its racist, implying how Good you feel about black or white people isnt a great way to go
Why not? Some people are racist and know they are, so if they take the test and say "I don't feel good about black people" and "I feel great about white people" that will help tell if the test accurately judges them as racist.
On June 17 2013 06:21 StatixEx wrote: the way this is worded sounds like its racist, implying how Good you feel about black or white people isnt a great way to go
Why not? Some people are racist and know they are, so if they take the test and say "I don't feel good about black people" and "I feel great about white people" that will help tell if the test accurately judges them as racist.
The question is so vague. White and black people, or other races for that matter, are way more dimensional and cant really be put into 'good' or 'bad'. If the question has asking more specific things it would be better.
I like nice black people and dislike mean black people. What choice do I pick?
I like the studies that rewards their "guinea pigs/test subjects" with a little something. For instance back in my high school there was a blood drive that handed out free cookies/Blood type cards/gift vouchers to whomever took place in the drive. Also another cool thing was you were able to get out of a class for awhile as well. Unfortunately this just seems to be a waste of time because there is no money/reward involved.
On June 17 2013 11:22 bK- wrote: I like the studies that rewards their "guinea pigs/test subjects" with a little something. For instance back in my high school there was a blood drive that handed out free cookies/Blood type cards/gift vouchers to whomever took place in the drive. Also another cool thing was you were able to get out of a class for awhile as well. Unfortunately this just seems to be a waste of time because there is no money/reward involved.
Good luck in the study
Let's only do things because we are rewarded for doing them!
CT resident here and I will attest I am always hearing amazing things about Uconn medicine labs and research studies. I found the test to be quite amusing and I expect they will get some incredibly awesome data. Best of luck!!
You are invited to participate in a web-based research study to investigate the validity of computer-based attitude inventories when given to frequent gamers (like you). We are recruiting current StarCraft II players from the North American server over the age of 18 that are also current U.S. residents or citizens. Of interest to us is how gamers will perform on measures designed to assess “implicit racial attitudes.” (These are attitudes people hold but cannot easily report on using standard self-report inventories.) Implicit racial attitudes are typically measured with computer programs that generate scores based on respondents’ ability to quickly and accurately categorize different concepts. Given that gamers have a lot of skill and experience at exactly this type of activity, we think that gamers may pose a real challenge to this measurement approach. You can help us by taking the test and doing the best you can – much like you do when you are playing games online. We admit this test will not be as much fun for you as StartCraft II, but your responses can help advance the science of implicit attitude measurement. If you agree to participate in this research study, you will be asked to answer questions regarding race relations in the U.S., your competitiveness and your social life. You then will be asked to complete a task designed to measure implicit racial attitudes. In all, we estimate that this study will take approximately 30 minutes to complete. As this study is web based, all study tasks can be performed via our website from your web browser. Our interest in this study is to test whether this measure "measures up" when completed by people like you -- people who react faster on computer tasks than the average person and who have better multi-tasking skills. Because we are testing validity of this measurement technique, we are not concerned with your individual attitudes nor can we give you any feedback on the meaning of your test score.
I have no idea if the University of Connecticut is a serious research school (I assume it is), but I went to a serious research university and we always gave people a stipend of anywhere between $5-$50 for participating in research. My wife's school did the same. Is this research not funded? Why is there no stipend? The lack of a stipend makes me question this research, maybe it is just some exercise for his class.
Buttons aren't showing up for me for any of the questions. No way to answer them. It shows me a scale for question number one but there's no way for me to choose.
You are invited to participate in a web-based research study to investigate the validity of computer-based attitude inventories when given to frequent gamers (like you). We are recruiting current StarCraft II players from the North American server over the age of 18 that are also current U.S. residents or citizens. Of interest to us is how gamers will perform on measures designed to assess “implicit racial attitudes.” (These are attitudes people hold but cannot easily report on using standard self-report inventories.) Implicit racial attitudes are typically measured with computer programs that generate scores based on respondents’ ability to quickly and accurately categorize different concepts. Given that gamers have a lot of skill and experience at exactly this type of activity, we think that gamers may pose a real challenge to this measurement approach. You can help us by taking the test and doing the best you can – much like you do when you are playing games online. We admit this test will not be as much fun for you as StartCraft II, but your responses can help advance the science of implicit attitude measurement. If you agree to participate in this research study, you will be asked to answer questions regarding race relations in the U.S., your competitiveness and your social life. You then will be asked to complete a task designed to measure implicit racial attitudes. In all, we estimate that this study will take approximately 30 minutes to complete. As this study is web based, all study tasks can be performed via our website from your web browser. Our interest in this study is to test whether this measure "measures up" when completed by people like you -- people who react faster on computer tasks than the average person and who have better multi-tasking skills. Because we are testing validity of this measurement technique, we are not concerned with your individual attitudes nor can we give you any feedback on the meaning of your test score.
I have no idea if the University of Connecticut is a serious research school (I assume it is), but I went to a serious research university and we always gave people a stipend of anywhere between $5-$50 for participating in research. My wife's school did the same. Is this research not funded? Why is there no stipend? The lack of a stipend makes me question this research, maybe it is just some exercise for his class.
It's actually fairly common for there to be little monetary incentive to take part in a study like this, given that it's web-based, only involves a single session, and only takes a relatively small amount of time...
There isn't little monetary incentive here, there is no monetary incentive. I do remember clearly my professor talking about the multiple reasons why research should include a stipend to participants. And it wasn't just attract participants (though that was very important) but also because participants are far more likely to invest themselves and take the research seriously if they are being paid for their time, even if it is only a small amount of money.
There is even research that shows that. Serious research should include a stipend for those reasons, and does from my experience. For a research university, $5 to each participant is nothing, and the quality of the resulting data more than justifies it.
I stopped in the middle when it started associating white with good and black with bad. Seriously, what kind of crap was that? Not to mention MANY of your questions were so laden with assumptions the "survey" basically felt like a push-poll trying to emphasize racial difference.
And don't get me started on your complete failure to define "success", making so many of those questions useless.
Seriously, whoever concocted this survey needs to go back and learn some basics.
On June 18 2013 00:25 MisterFred wrote: I stopped in the middle when it started associating white with good and black with bad. Seriously, what kind of crap was that? Not to mention MANY of your questions were so laden with assumptions the "survey" basically felt like a push-poll trying to emphasize racial difference.
And don't get me started on your complete failure to define "success", making so many of those questions useless.
Seriously, whoever concocted this survey needs to go back and learn some basics.
I just graduated from UConn psychology and it's a decent department, nothing special. Never had a class with Mr.Blanton but hope your research goes well.
What do I put for "Cultural or Ethnic Background" if I'm a white, middle-class, straight male of hearty German stock? Or is that too privileged for this test? I haven't had it checked lately.
Edit: Screw it, I'm from Bengal now, and while I'm pretty sure that's in Africa or Asia, it's the only one I didn't know for sure was "not-white".
You are invited to participate in a web-based research study to investigate the validity of computer-based attitude inventories when given to frequent gamers (like you). We are recruiting current StarCraft II players from the North American server over the age of 18 that are also current U.S. residents or citizens. Of interest to us is how gamers will perform on measures designed to assess “implicit racial attitudes.” (These are attitudes people hold but cannot easily report on using standard self-report inventories.) Implicit racial attitudes are typically measured with computer programs that generate scores based on respondents’ ability to quickly and accurately categorize different concepts. Given that gamers have a lot of skill and experience at exactly this type of activity, we think that gamers may pose a real challenge to this measurement approach. You can help us by taking the test and doing the best you can – much like you do when you are playing games online. We admit this test will not be as much fun for you as StartCraft II, but your responses can help advance the science of implicit attitude measurement. If you agree to participate in this research study, you will be asked to answer questions regarding race relations in the U.S., your competitiveness and your social life. You then will be asked to complete a task designed to measure implicit racial attitudes. In all, we estimate that this study will take approximately 30 minutes to complete. As this study is web based, all study tasks can be performed via our website from your web browser. Our interest in this study is to test whether this measure "measures up" when completed by people like you -- people who react faster on computer tasks than the average person and who have better multi-tasking skills. Because we are testing validity of this measurement technique, we are not concerned with your individual attitudes nor can we give you any feedback on the meaning of your test score.
I have no idea if the University of Connecticut is a serious research school (I assume it is), but I went to a serious research university and we always gave people a stipend of anywhere between $5-$50 for participating in research. My wife's school did the same. Is this research not funded? Why is there no stipend? The lack of a stipend makes me question this research, maybe it is just some exercise for his class.
It's actually fairly common for there to be little monetary incentive to take part in a study like this, given that it's web-based, only involves a single session, and only takes a relatively small amount of time...
There isn't little monetary incentive here, there is no monetary incentive. I do remember clearly my professor talking about the multiple reasons why research should include a stipend to participants. And it wasn't just attract participants (though that was very important) but also because participants are far more likely to invest themselves and take the research seriously if they are being paid for their time, even if it is only a small amount of money.
There is even research that shows that. Serious research should include a stipend for those reasons, and does from my experience. For a research university, $5 to each participant is nothing, and the quality of the resulting data more than justifies it.
You should really cite your research, I'd like to see if it applies to single-session, half-an-hour, online assessments or not. I'd fully expect there to be monetary incentives if this research took a decent amount of time, required more than one session, or required you to be there in person, but I honestly don't recall seeing many studies of this nature giving out monetary incentives to everyone taking part. The very best I've seen for this sort of thing is for participants to be entered into a raffle to win something, usually something small like an MP3 player. Admittedly, I'm a Chemistry student and not a Psychology student, so I didn't work in that department (neither as an undergraduate nor as a PhD student), so this is entirely based on the weekly "call for volunteers" e-mail that was sent to the University's mailing list.
I suppose it's possible that this is a UK/US culture difference thing, akin to the difference in tipping standards, but if you think that it's because I went to a poor research University then I'd love to hear your argument for the University of Manchester being a poor research institute =P
It's a very very bad idea to offer any kind of monetary payment for a quick online survery like this, or any kind of survey which is filled out by the volunteer for that matter. You will get people who randomly click every answer as quick as possible in order to get free money, which will drastically lower the quality of your results. No reward ensures that the maximum proportion of people possible take the exercise seriously in an attempt to understand what it's about or just out of genuine good will.
Stipends for research are introduced when people are forced to travel to you or if they undergo any kind of uncomfortable procedure such as injections or biopsies. And in that case, if they don't give a crap about your research you at least get your samples.
That being said, I'd do your test, but wrong country ^_^
This is sort of random, but do you sometimes run it with the black and good association first, then the white and good association? I feel like whichever one I do first has a big imprinting effect on my muscle memory which is (hopefully) independent of any implicit associations.
Would of course have done it had I been an American citizen. I really find it interesting when people use "gamers" as a certain group of individuals. No one would have done that 15 years ago. I feel strangly happy and perhaps even a bit proud of that.
Okay. I said I was Idra just to have a look at the survey (as a non-US resident). There really is no point for a non-US resident to even start filling that in, as the questions are specifically about what you think about current politics regarding black people in the US (or at least, they all were until I just gave up).
where do I find my character code? I thought it was the four digit number next to my name but it only lets me put in three characters so that obviously isn't it.
I was confused when it gets to the section on black or bad. Things like wonderful would come up and it wouldn't let me select the black or bad. was there some prompt telling me to only related images to the catagories when there wasnt an or statement?
Wampa, you're not following the instructions. First time through you are supposed to click one column for white and good stuff, and another for black and bad. Then the next time through, you click one side for black and good, and the other for white and bad, so eventually you will do all combinations. What it is measuring is the difference in your reactions between the two pairs.
On June 22 2013 11:27 Wampaibist wrote: I was confused when it gets to the section on black or bad. Things like wonderful would come up and it wouldn't let me select the black or bad. was there some prompt telling me to only related images to the catagories when there wasnt an or statement?
EPT![[image loading]](http://surveysensei.uconn.edu/letterhead.png)
