• Question: What was your most challenging experiment and why?

    Asked by anon-285844 on 8 Mar 2021. This question was also asked by anon-284378.
    • Photo: Alex Baxendale

      Alex Baxendale answered on 8 Mar 2021:

      During my Masters degree I did a really tricky one! We were looking at something called ‘semantic priming’ which means that when we see a word, if the next word we see is linked to that first one then we will read it quicker (so the words snow – white would go together, but lemon – car would not). I had to go through this special website were researchers listed word pairs they had used, and had tested how closely linked they were, which took AGES! I had to find words that lots of people would link together.
      To make things even harder we even used a special piece of technology called Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation where we had to use a strong electromagnet on people’s heads – this magnet tires that area of the brain out so it stops working properly for about 20 minutes, so we could see if people with that specific area tired out would do better or worse when looking at these words.

      We had to do lots of training, and looking for all these word pairs took ages – then whilst testing participants we had to try to find the area we were using our magnet on which could take a while!

    • Photo: Myrto Efstathiou

      Myrto Efstathiou answered on 8 Mar 2021:

      So far, my most challenging experiment was the first experiment I ever did (maybe that is why was so challenging?). Basically, I was using this technique named transcranial direct current stimulation, in which you use two electrodes to apply very mild electrical current to a brain area. Because of this technique, there were certain safety protocols and eligibility requirements that participants had to meet to take part in the study (no migraines or headaches, no neurological conditions, medical conditions, no brain traumatic injury history etc). For that reason, finding participants was a bit challenging and I didnt have an incentive (e.g. money as a reward) to offer, but people were quite intrigued about the “electrify” my brain idea.

    • Photo: Lisa Orchard

      Lisa Orchard answered on 9 Mar 2021:

      Hi Niamh. When I was doing my PhD, I was completing a study on Facebook profiles and wanted to look at the way people represented themselves through their profile. The study required people to copy and paste aspects of their profile into a form, that I was later going to analyse using something called content analysis. All was going fine – except Facebook decided to change the way it was set up half way through the study. For instance, previously you could write paragraphs in about your likes and dislikes, but this was changed to a generated list of Facebook links related to things that had been mentioned. It was very stressful at the time, as I had already partly collected the data, so I had to go through and see what could be used. I still got some interesting results, but unfortunately some of it was not reliable because of the changes. These things happen though – and it was definitely a learning curve for me.

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 9 Mar 2021:

      Hi NiamhS,
      Not directly from me, but I was part of a research study as a participant nearly 10 years ago. I was asked to watch three graphic videos (won’t go into details) and asked to recall them every day for two weeks to measure memory and emotions. I can still remember the videos clearly even now, I think it was very challenging from an ethical point of view!

    • Photo: Dennis Relojo-Howell

      Dennis Relojo-Howell answered on 10 Mar 2021:

      It’s not an experiment. But I would say the one I carried out during my undergraduate degree. I interviewed mothers who have children with autism. At one point, one of the mothers cried during the interview. And at 23, I was not fully equipped how to handle that situation.

      I still do interviews for my research, even now for my PhD. I try to learn from past mistakes and I’m also grateful that I have experienced research supervisors who guide me how to navigate these situations.

    • Photo: Harry Piper

      Harry Piper answered on 11 Mar 2021:

      This is a great question! Each study I have been done has been challenging for different reasons (mainly getting people to take part!) I think an upcoming study might be the most challenging though. I’m going to be doing interviews with people about their experiences of assault. It’s going to be (I expect) very emotional and tough to listen to the stories people have to tell!

    • Photo: Ellen Smith

      Ellen Smith answered on 24 Mar 2021:

      Hi Niamh, I think the most challenging research study has been the first study of my PhD. As I really struggled to get enough participants to take part. I needed a specific demographic of participant (aged 35-65, with a BMI that classified them as overweight or obese, and without health conditions). They also needed to come into the research centre 3 times, for long days (8 hours) and do difficult cognitive tasks for a lot of that time. They also had to provide biological samples (blood, urine and stool) which puts a lot of people off. I needed to get 110 participants and it was so difficult to get to that point. It took a lot of hard work and time trying lots of different recruitment methods, but I got there in the end!

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