Dropping Like Flies

First, my apologies for missing out on my blog post yesterday, because I know you all are just DYING to find out what happens next with my research.... Well, yesterday was fairly interesting and busy, hence my late update. Yesterday was the first day in my research career in which I lost a participant. And not only did I lose a participant, but I almost lost a second participant! The first participant's computer decided to run an automatic computer update in the middle of the test, causing the computer program to stop in the middle of the test. The way the computer records the data for each subject's test doesn't allow participants to stop in the middle of the test and continue the testing later.Thus, when the computer stopped the test as the participant was almost finished, the subject would have had to wait at least a day to retake the test if she had wanted to remain in the data group for the experiment. However, the subject was not able to complete the test the next day or even next week, because she was leaving the country! So, we lost our first subject. The second subject was not very far into the test when the computer randomly terminated the test. I still have no idea why. Dr. Bopp said that sometimes when subjects accidently double click or do something funky when entering answers into the program, the computer program has a bad reaction, so to speak and stops the test. Regardless of why the test was stopped, I got super lucky because the subject agreed to come back the next day to redo the computer part of the test! SO, THANK YOU SUBJECT! You know who you are!
I've been aware for years now that attrition in psychology and other types of research is fairly common-- people don't show up to begin with, people don't complete all parts of a multi-part trial, participants end up being outliers, and the list goes on and on. However, I never actually believed that I would lose a participant. In some ways I feel as if I have failed a little bit; but I almost feel as if I have finally reached a sort of "researcher status," where I have the right to say, "I know what you mean!" when other experimenters talk about losing subjects as well. Overall, it is now clear to me that losing participants is just part of the process and finding tons of participants to ensure that you have a large enough sample size is a crucial part of experimenting. So yesterday was a learning experience and a bittersweet day for me, but I wouldn't change a thing! Monday begins week two, so get ready for the latest news...

Reagan