Today was the day I officially realized that research is no part-time job… it is definitely a full-time, ongoing project that you sucks you in verrrry quickly. It has now been less than a week working on my independent research project and I already feel the need to work in the morning, all afternoon, and sometimes at night to “tie up lose ends.” This is partially due to the fact that research and data analysis does take a considerable amount of time, seeing as you can’t just plug some information into the computer and expect to receive instantaneous results and answers. However, I am somewhat ashamed to admit that data analysis and seeing results start to appear is a little bit addicting. Once I begin to input data, analyze the data and see charts and graphs linked to the data changing, I’m intrigued and I want to understand what it all means… NOW! Needless to say, I’m beginning to see some preliminary results and trends forming across the subjects’ data, which is very exciting. One reason I am able to see these results so early is because I am analyzing the data as I go through the trials. Dr. Bopp suggested that I do this in order to quickly see whether there are some outliers in the experiment, or perhaps if there is an error in any of the experiment trials. Analyzing as you go is a good way to see if there are mistakes or the test is too difficult, in addition to recognizing and detecting whether the data is supporting any of our hypotheses. Analyzing as you go also saves the researcher time after all of the testing is completed because the researcher has already pieced together much of the data already. So word to the wise: analyzing as you go through an experiment is one of the best things you can do as a researcher!
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