Using StatHand to Train Structural Awareness

Allen, P. J. (Peter)¹, Fielding, J. L. (Jessica)¹, Kay, R. (Ryan)¹, East, E. (Bissy)^1
1University of Bristol

 

Submission type

Oral only

Scheduled

Bouillonzaal, 26-09-2019, 15:30 - 17:00

Keywords

StatHand, Statistics, Research Methods, iOS, App, Structural Awareness, Bayesian

Summary

Many psychology undergraduates struggle to select appropriate statistics for different types of hypotheses and data. This skill is underpinned by ‘structural awareness’, or the ability to disregard a research problem’s topic and instead focus on its structural features and the relationships between them. Research indicates that structural awareness can be trained, although such training is limited in most undergraduate psychology courses. In the current study we are testing the hypothesis that brief training with the free StatHand iOS app can promote structural awareness. Our initial 62 psychology undergraduate participants were randomised to a training or control condition. Training involves structured practice using StatHand to identify appropriate statistics for different research problems. Members of the control condition used an origami iPad app instead. Participants then independently completed several tasks reflective of structural awareness. Bayesian t-tests provided support for the hypothesis that students trained using StatHand demonstrate greater structural awareness than students who have not been trained. Our current data support the conclusion that brief, structured training using StatHand can promote structural awareness amongst psychology undergraduates. Such training can be easily incorporated into undergraduate psychology research methods courses. Data collection for this project is ongoing and will stop when N = 102.

 

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