Ryan Lab Group Meetings

Fall 2020 (2208)

Prior to start of semester

2020_09_02_a-Notes on research progress as of Fall 2020
2020_09_02

StatsSE:

Manuscript: The ms is almost completely written. Just needs the last part of the Discussion finished.
Literature: Could use more citations in the discussion
Data and Materials: On the OSF, need to check if all response sheets anonymized (should be). Need to remove any other IDing info from original site to be made public. Need to possibly clean up the original site before making it public.
Other: Need to contact (accounts payable?) to see what to do with the grant fund account
Submission: None yet. Try Psych Science first

Difficulty Factors:
Manuscript: Done but (needs more refs?)
Literature: Check with (Joe Moyer? others?) on refs they found, figure out how to incorporate, and incorporate them
Submission: Try new places (???)

Interleaving:
Manuscript: Done but needs ( ??? )
Literature: ???
Submission: Try new places (???)

02020_ 09_07

Got a good html editor. Started these Fall 2020 Lab meeting notes and put John Ritter's email in it.

= = = = = BEGIN EXCHANGE OF EMAILS WITH JOHN RITER = = = = =

from:		John Riter jriter515@gmail.com
to:		Bob Ryan <cogprofessor@gmail.com>
date:		Aug 27, 2020, 2:03 PM
subject:		Research - SE Project

Dr. Ryan,

I saw that you reached out to Derek Richkards regarding the completion of the SE research project. I am hopefully going to pursue a Masters in Forensic Psychology, and I was curious as to whether I would be listed as a contributor on the research paper, since this would bolster my credentials for a Masters program. In addition to Derek, both Andrew Romeo and I did actively participate in assisting with this research. Derek, Andrew, and I also met on numerous occasions outside of classes to brainstorm ideas to further this research. If you feel that I should not be listed as an active contributor on this research paper, I completely understand. I just didn't want to miss the opportunity if it was feasible.

On a side note, since this project seems to be drawing to a conclusion, I would love to assist with your next research project moving forward.

Hope you to be in contact.

Respectfully,

John T. Riter

from:		Bob Ryan cogprofessor@gmail.com
to:		John Riter <jriter515@gmail.com>
date:		Aug 28, 2020, 10:03 AM
subject:		Re: Research - SE Project

Hi, John,

Great to hear from you. I'm glad you're pursuing an advanced degree. I'd be happy to help.

I think I have an idea that will help you. The decision whether to include someone as an author can be a bit tricky. I've been taught that the deciding factor is whether the person made an intellectual contribution to the research (as opposed to providing labor - such as running subjects, or the ID info stripping that you worked on). I'm glad you reminded me that you and Andrew worked with Derek at designing the study. My decision to ask Derek if he'd like to be included was based on my notations in my lab meeting notes that Derek contributed the idea of using the "initial training." It could be that you contributed something in those discussions that sparked his idea. Nevertheless, I have to be careful to avoid being overly generous with sharing credit. If you tell someone (like a grad school admissions committee member) that you share authorship on a paper, but they interpret it as your mentor having "thrown you a bone," that could be unhelpful - and at worse - detrimental.

So here's what I propose. It has taken me so long to get this paper close to being ready to submit, that there might be new research out there in the literature that's relevant, or there might not be. Reviewers are usually up on the latest literature, and they question why an author didn't cite it. So, I need to have someone scour the literature (starting with whatever year is the year of the most recent paper already cited in the manuscript) to determine whether there is more relevant research or not. That would be definitely enough of an intellectual contribution to justify putting your name on the paper. It wouldn't even matter whether you did find something or you didn't. Just as long as, if you didn't find anything, you could honestly say that if it was out there you would have found it.

This idea is definitely not just "throwing you a bone." I really need this done. Let me know if this is something you could take on.

And, I'm glad to hear you might be interested in research going forward. Given that the Self-Explaining study suggests that SEing does not help, or at least not very much, with retention, the next study should try a method that might be more promising. The idea of "distributed retrieval practice" (let's call it DRP) could be such a promising method. I need to try to develop a study that randomizes either students, or classes, into a DRP condition and an appropriate control condition. I'm thinking of trying to recruit Psych professors from around the PASSHE schools in order to make the study large enough to be high powered. I'd love to find some journal that would be willing to "peer review" a proposed pre-registration and offer a conditional pre-acceptance. Those are ambitious goals, but why not shoot high?

If you would be willing to work on designing such a study, that would be great. Or maybe, instead of using Statistics as the "to-be-learned" material, you could think of something that would be relevant to forensic psychology. I'm open to your ideas.

Thanks for keeping in touch. I'll be looking forward to hearing from you.

--- Dr. Ryan

from:		John Riter jriter515@gmail.com
to:		Bob Ryan <cogprofessor@gmail.com>
date:		Sep 1, 2020, 9:00 PM
subject:		Re: Research - SE Project

Dr. Ryan,

I would be more than happy to determine if there is recent or current literature that is relevant to the SE research. Can you please provide me with a copy of the manuscript so that I know what the most recent paper cited in the research is? I will begin searching from that date until the present.

With regards to DRP, I am very interested in this method of learning and its effects on information retention and recall. I would be willing to work on designing this study and will ruminate about possible material that would be appropriate for the research. I will keep you updated about this.

I am very excited to continue assisting you with your research. I hope to hear from you soon.

Respectfully,

John T. Riter

from:		Bob Ryan cogprofessor@gmail.com
to:		John Riter <jriter515@gmail.com>
date:		Sep 7, 2020, 9:52 AM
subject:		Re: Research - SE Project

Hi, John,

Sorry it's taking me a few days to respond to these types of emails now that the Fall semester is in gear. I'm very happy that you want to still be involved. I attached the most recent version of the paper, as you asked. Today I'll be working on posting the latest "Ryan lab group meeting notes," which are actually now more like notes to myself regarding where I am and what I need to do next. I need those reminders because I'm juggling a lot of responsibilities and, as noted above, it sometimes takes me a few days to get back to something. But, at any rate, soon (hopefully by the end of the day today) you should be able to go to " https://faculty.kutztown.edu/rryan/research/labgrp/index.html " and see what's going on with me and my research assistants. For starters, you can take a look at the paper.

Feel free to keep in touch. You said you're going to hopefully pursue a Master's in Forensic Psych. What else are you up to? And, for that matter, where are you living now? I try to get together with my former students when I can. Sometimes that's when I go to a conference (nothing like that happening now with the pandemic going on, but in the future). Other times, if people are close enough, I try to get together if I'm on a family visit close by.

Once again, glad to be working with you again. Keep in touch.

--- Dr. Ryan

Attachment: 2020_08_28_SE Improves Learning not Retention - with graphs.odt

from:		John Riter jriter515@gmail.com
to:		Bob Ryan <cogprofessor@gmail.com>
date:		Sep 14, 2020, 7:51 AM
subject:		Re: Research - SE Project

Dr. Ryan,

I will begin searching for similar studies, articles, and research related to SE, information retention, and information recall. If I find anything (or don't), I will let you know. I will also periodically check in to the lab group to see what type of things are going on.

As for my life, not too much is going on. The Covid-19 pandemic has really made life fairly stagnant! I'm still working in Lebanon County as my department's Mental Health Officer and just recently moved back to Duncannon, PA to help with my family's farm. However, I do occasionally venture back to the Kutztown area. Maybe we could set up a meeting of some sort the next time I am in your area. If you are ever going to a conference at Penn State, you will pass right through Duncannon, PA. Feel free to stop on in for a bite to eat!

I am also very excited to continue working with you! I will be in touch with my findings as soon as possible.

Respectfully,

John T. Riter

from:		Bob Ryan cogprofessor@gmail.com
to:		John Riter <jriter515@gmail.com>
date:		Sep 14, 2020, 12:26 PM

Great. We'll keep in touch.

--- Dr. Ryan

= = = = = END EXCHANGE OF EMAILS WITH JOHN RITER = = = = =

= = = = = BEGIN EXCHANGE OF EMAILS WITH DEREK RICKARDS RE AUTHORSHIP ON STATS_SE = = = = =

I had left a message on Derek's FB page asking if he wanted to be included as an author on the Stats SE paper because he had contributed the idea of the "initial training" (See notes from Spring 2014, twelfth week, Wed., 04/09/14.)

from:		Derek Rickards drick913@gmail.com
to:		"rryan@kutztown.edu" <rryan@kutztown.edu>
date:		Aug 27, 2020, 3:11 PM
subject:		Learning Statistics using Self Explanation_Derek Rickards

Hi Dr. Ryan,

Foremost, great to hear from you. Hope all is well for you and your family alike during these days. Congratulations on a long study almost complete! As far as the contact information you may include any of the information below:

Derek T. Rickards

Bachelor of Science, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania

M.A. Industrial Organizational Psychology, University of New Haven

Drick913@gmail.com

www.linkedin.com/in/derekrickards

After Kutztown, I went on to spend two years at the University of New Haven in Connecticut where I received a M.A. in IO Psychology. In Connecticut, I was fortunate to land an internship with a company called Yarde Metals Inc. (You may have seen their black trucks driving around the PA area). Later, I transitioned from an internship and worked full time for this company in the “in-house” Human Resources department.

At the University of New Haven, I met my now girlfriend who came to the university ‘initially’ for a semester abroad. After 2 years together in the United States we decided to move to Norway (where she is from). To sum up my days until now, I am taking Norwegian language classes at night as part of my visa in Norway along side working full time with a clothing company called lululemon. Things are a little different over here as you can imagine. The nature is incredible and driving is a bit different. There are no paper checks and everything in life is performed over the internet or smart phone (Banking, Doctors, Dentist, Bus Passes, everything!) I do have to say I miss fatty American food like Wawa and New York style pizza. For lunch Norwegian prefer it simple and eat bread with stuff on it called “pålegg”. It’s healthy but gets boring after a while.

I still think about sitting in your office and watching in amazement you going through your Linux desktop. Not may professors or working professionals use it as the operating system of choice so it stuck with me. Thank you for being a great mentor and staying in contact.

Warmly, (and in Norwegian “Med Vennlig Hilsen”-with friendly greetings)

Derek Rickards

rom:		Bob Ryan cogprofessor@gmail.com
to:		Derek Rickards <drick913@gmail.com>
date:		Aug 28, 2020, 11:22 AM
subject:		Re: Learning Statistics using Self Explanation_Derek Rickards

Great to hear from you. Glad all is going well. I'll use that info to add you to the paper. Also, I heard from John Ritter - remember him? I'm hoping he's going to help with scouring the literature for any more recent papers that should be added to the lit review in the Intro of the paper. If he can do that I'll add him as an author as well.

Med Vennlig Hilsen,

--- Bob

= = = = = END EXCHANGE OF EMAILS WITH DEREK RICKARDS RE AUTHORSHIP ON STATS_SE = = = = =

= = = = = BEGIN EXCHANGE OF EMAILS WITH JOE MOYER RE LIT FOR DIFFICULTY FACTORS MS = = = =
= = = The articles here are in Lit for Difficulty Factors. There are more emails that I need to get to = = =

from:		Moyer, Joseph jmoye887@live.kutztown.edu
to:		Bob Ryan <cogprofessor@gmail.com>
date:		Jan 16, 2020, 12:35 AM
subject:		Literature Review

Dear, Dr. Ryan,

I have some articles to share with you that I think may be useful. I attached both and both have highlights of information I think is important.

It has been particularly difficult to find articles that have directly looked equation format factors and how they influence algebra problem solving. I also have not found anything about unwinding.

However, the articles I found do discuss equation format. One discusses how equation format affects algebraic modeling. The other discusses how perceptual processing affects how problem solvers follow the order of operations.

I will provide some notes to you in this email and I will start with the article titled: Following the standard form: "Effects of equation format on algebraic modeling."

Using mathematically equivalent standard (multiplication) and non-standard (division) form algebraic equations, they found that most college students have sufficient understanding of algebraic modeling to construct correct algebraic models when using the non-standard format. Results of their third experiment indicate that standard form equations (e.g., 7X = Y) are more likely than division-format equations (e.g., X/7 = Y) to elicit models of equivalence (“For every seven athletes on the team there is one coach.”), whereas division-format equations are more likely than standard form equations to elicit models of problem solving solutions (e.g., “The number of apples divided by 7 will give you the number of oranges.”).

I am not entirely sure if we will be able to use this but I hope so.

Now I will provide some notes on the article called: "Persistent perceptual grouping effects in the evaluation of simple arithmetic expressions." I understand this has to do with arithmetic expressions rather than algebraic expressions, but I am hoping since it discussed errors with the order of operations that we may be able to use it.

In the article, they discussed that Landy and Goldstone (2007) demonstrated that operator precedence (order of operations) is enforced in part by perceptual processes like unit formation and attention. When perceptual grouping competes with operator precedence, errors increase. Consider compound expressions involving one single-digit addition and one single-digit multiplication (e.g., 3 + 4 × 5). Expressions with spacing consistent with the rules of operator precedence would have multiplications spaced closer than additions, whereas expressions with spacing inconsistent with the rules of operator precedence would have additions spaced closer than multiplications. Landy and Goldstone found that errors, especially errors in enforcing the rules of operator precedence (operator precedence errors) and errors of symbol identity, were more common when the symbol spacing was inconsistent, for example, 4+3 × 2, than when the symbol spacing was consistent, for example, 4 + 3×2, with the rules of operator precedence.

I know you discussed in your paper that the college student participants may have lacked the initial acquisition or may not have fully retained the knowledge for manipulating algebra problems. In their paper, they discussed that there is evidence that the evaluation of simple sums and products (e.g., 2 + 3 or 4 × 5) involves recall mediated by abstract representations of arithmetic facts^ stored in long-term memory (McCloskey, Harley, & Sokol, 1991). However, the evaluation of expressions involving larger numbers or compound expressions involving more than one operation likely relies on working memory representations (Hitch, 1980) that may be visuospatial, verbal, or both (see, e.g., Baddeley, 1986).

I am thinking because your problems involve more than one operation, that we can potentially incorporate that cognitive/visuospatial factors involving working memory may have contributed to the difficulty.

I have a few more articles that I will be in touch with you about shortly. One is called "Presentation effects on arithmetic problem solving." The main finding is that in problem solving, the equation format can exceed other factors such as the size of the problem, and difficulty of the problem. I understand this only discusses basic arithmetic problems, however, I am hoping we may be able to use it.

I will try harder to find studies that look specifically at difficulty factors in solving algebra problems, and unwinding. Perhaps there is another term for unwinding I can try?

Regards,

Joe

= = = = = END EXCHANGE OF EMAILS WITH JOE MOYER RE LIT FOR DIFFICULTY FACTORS MS = = = =

= = = = = MY EMAIL TO TOUCH BASE WITH RESEARCH ASSISTANTS = = = = =

from:		Bob Ryan cogprofessor@gmail.com
to:		"Moyer, Joseph" <jmoye887@live.kutztown.edu>, James Koppenhofer <jkopp945@live.kutztown.edu>, "Stanley, Branden" <bstan539@live.kutztown.edu>, John Riter <jriter515@gmail.com>, "Cohen, Matthew" <mcohe786@live.kutztown.edu>
date:		Oct 13, 2020, 2:26 PM
subject:		Research with Dr. Ryan

Hello all,

This Fall 2020 semester has been, as you can imagine, nothing like usual, what with the pandemic and teaching online. I just wanted to touch base with you to let you know what I've been doing to try to move research ahead. On my website, I have added to the "meeting notes" just to try to keep records of who is working on what for me ( https://faculty.kutztown.edu/rryan/research/labgrp/meetings_2208.html ). If you check them out you'll see I'm barely keeping my head above water.

All of you have been very helpful to me and I hope, as time goes on, I'll be able to move things forward so that you can get some credit for your work. I have yet to read the papers that Joe sent regarding the Difficulty Factors manuscript (sorry, Joe), but at least I took a quick look at your email and downloaded the papers. One of them has Miriam Bassock as one of the authors. She's a friend of mine from my days as a grad student at Pitt.

I'm going to prioritize moving ahead with the StatsSE manuscript first. Thanks to good work by some of you the identifying info from the response sheets has been stripped. Next I need to clean up the OSF site some more, add some refs to the manuscript, finish it up, and get it submitted. Then I can turn my attention back to trying to get the older manuscripts (Difficulty Factors and Interleaving) published somewhere.

I just wanted to reassure you that I haven't completely dropped off the face of the earth. Hang in there. I hope once we get out of this coronavirus mess things will progress faster.

Thanks,

--- Dr. Ryan

= = = = = END MY EMAIL TO TOUCH BASE WITH RESEARCH ASSISTANTS = = = = =

= = = = = EMAIL TO SHAFA RE BECOMING A RESEARCH ASSISTANT = = = = =

In the email exchange regarding a letter of recommendation Shafa asked if I needed a research assistant

from:		Bob Ryan cogprofessor@gmail.com
to:		"Sadiq, Shafaq" <ssadi546@live.kutztown.edu>
date:		Sep 30, 2020, 1:13 PM
subject:		Re: Info re recommendation

Hi, Shafa,

I'd love to have you join my research assistant team. As you can imagine, what with the new teaching formats that we've had to adapt to because of the pandemic, I'm pressed for time. I just today started to update my list of members on the team for Fall 2020. I'm also working on updating the lab groups meeting notes ( they can be found at https://faculty.kutztown.edu/rryan/research/labgrp/index.html - Now they're notes of correspondence instead of meetings ).

A couple of my previous research assistants, Branden and James, are interested in continuing this Fall (2020), as far as I know. I'll get in touch with them soon to verify that. Here is the email I sent to James regarding what they could work on. I could have you work with them.

***
What followed was my email to James Koppenhofer around Feb 2020, which is in the meeting notes for Spring 2020, so I won't repeat it here.

***

I've attached the latest version of the manuscript describing the StatsSE study (it's an Open Office/Libre Office document, but it should open in MS Word). If you're interested in helping, you could start by reading that manuscript. The email to James (above) will make more sense after you read it. Then you can let me know what you think.

Thanks,

--- Dr. Ryan

**** The attachment was the 2020_09_14 version of the SE ms.

= = = = = END EMAIL TO SHAFA RE BECOMING A RESEARCH ASSISTANT = = = = =

= = = = = EMAIL TO CANDACE REYES RE BECOMING A RESEARCH ASSISTANT = = = = =

from:		Bob Ryan cogprofessor@gmail.com
to:		"Reyes, Candace" <creye904@live.kutztown.edu>
date:		Oct 16, 2020, 4:07 PM
subject:		Re: Research opportunity

***** Candace had initially emailed me to ask about my eyewitness identification research. I answered her, explaining that was older research, and sent her some of the old papers on verbal overshadowing. She then responded that she was interested in getting involved in my current research. Therefore, I sent her the same email that I had sent to Shafa (see above) with the same attachment. *****

= = = = = END EMAIL TO CANDACE REYES RE BECOMING A RESEARCH ASSISTANT = = = = =