Week 8: Post 2

Vicki came yesterday to visit. We discussed how the project would work moving forward. Like I said before if we couldn't get IRB approval in time we were going to pilot test. The only issue with pilot testing is that I can only use people in the lab, so I fear that it may skew my results because I won't have as many participants as I had hoped for. But this is a better alternative to not having any participants at all. We also discussed what questionnaires we would be doing and what order they would go in. The two psychological tests that we are going to measure are the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) and the Perceived Restorativeness Test (PRS). Both of these tests will give us some data as to how the participants feel and we will also be using the Empatica (which is a skin conductance watch that measures heartbeat, temp, etc.) that will help with the actual data.  We also didn't want the participants to have survey fatigue, this is why we decided to only do two surveys. 

So for the entire experiment it will be:

1. Baseline (sit in silence for five minutes)

2. Stressor Task (math test with noises)

3. Psychological tests (PANAS)

4. Nature Environment (10-15 minutes) 

5. Psychological tests ( PANAS, PRS)

6. Demographic Survey 

This would be the same for each environment; I'm just going to have different instructions for each modality for the user. 

I feel much more confident in the rest of this study after talking with Vicki. I really feel like I am going to accomplish what I wanted to do and finally have some results for the summer. I was extremely worried that I wouldn't have anything to present.

 The only things that I have left to implement are the camera recorder for the passive environment and the controllers for the active environment. I also need to print out the questionnaires and have those prepared for when I go to test.