Disruption Leads to Methodological and Analytic Innovation in Developmental Sciences: Recommendations for Remote Administration and Dealing With Messy Data

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted data collection for longitudinal studies in developmental sciences to an immeasurable extent. Restrictions on conducting in-person standardized assessments have led to disruptive innovation, in which novel methods are applied to increase participant engagement. Here, we focus on remote administration of behavioral assessment. We argue that these innovations in remote assessment should become part of the new standard protocol in developmental sciences to facilitate data collection in populations that may be hard to reach or engage due to burdensome requirements (e.g., multiple in-person assessments). We present a series of adaptations to developmental assessments (e.g., Mullen) and a detailed discussion of data analytic approaches to be applied in the less-than-ideal circumstances encountered during the pandemic-related shutdown (i.e., missing or messy data). Ultimately, these remote approaches actually strengthen the ability to gain insight into developmental populations and foster pragmatic innovation that should result in enduring change.

Download Full-text

The Savvy Academic

10.1093/oso/9780190095918.001.0001 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Seth J. Schwartz

Keyword(s):

Data Collection ◽

Longitudinal Studies ◽

Conflicts Of Interest ◽

Scholarly Publishing ◽

Early Career ◽

Journal Articles ◽

Writing For Publication ◽

Review Articles ◽

Publishing Career ◽

Data Analytic

This book covers the process of writing for publication from start to finish—from selecting a topic and reviewing literature to working with coauthors, writing theoretical and review articles, and responding to editor and reviewer comments when revising manuscripts. Dr. Schwartz uses examples from his own scholarly publishing career and provides concrete advice for both early-career and more experienced writers. The book also covers important topics such as planning studies, managing and supervising data collection, retaining participants in longitudinal studies, data analytic ethics and conflicts of interest, and dealing with writer’s block. Dr. Schwartz provides guidance for writing journal articles, books, and book chapters, as well as for dealing with manuscripts that have been repeatedly rejected. He offers guidance for writing first drafts, editing drafts, incorporating coauthor feedback, and working with difficult or resistant coauthors. This book is a “how-to” in terms of writing for publication.

Download Full-text

Speed vs. comfort: Testing the efficacy of a single question for predicting transit users’ route choices

10.31234/osf.io/drj2a ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Joseph John Pyne Simons ◽

Ilya Farber

Keyword(s):

Data Collection ◽

Efficient Method ◽

Choice Task ◽

The Self ◽

Self Report ◽

Model Parameters ◽

Single Item ◽

Alternative Approach ◽

Single Question ◽

Insight Into

Not all transit users have the same preferences when making route decisions. Understanding the factors driving this heterogeneity enables better tailoring of policies, interventions, and messaging. However, existing methods for assessing these factors require extensive data collection. Here we present an alternative approach - an easily-administered single item measure of overall preference for speed versus comfort. Scores on the self-report item predict decisions in a choice task and account for a proportion of the differences in model parameters between people (n=298). This single item can easily be included on existing travel surveys, and provides an efficient method to both anticipate the choices of users and gain more general insight into their preferences.

Download Full-text

Understanding Hospice Life

10.1093/oso/9780198813958.003.0006 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Alan Baron ◽

John Hassard ◽

Fiona Cheetham ◽

Sudi Sharifi

Keyword(s):

Data Collection ◽

Death And Dying ◽

Everyday Work ◽

Working Practices ◽

Insight Into

This chapter presents a reflexive account of life in a hospice—one that will reveal how the members see, feel, and think about the culture of their organization. During the period of data collection the authors had extended conversations with staff from all disciplines and with a number of people who regularly volunteer at the Hospice. They also attended many meetings and observed working practices to give a greater insight into what the Hospice means to those who work there. The chapter examines how dealing with issues of death and dying as part of everyday work can impact on the members and stakeholders of the Hospice. Wider discussion of some of the major ideas in the literature, and their application to the Hospice setting, provides evidence to support some of the main theories reviewed.

Download Full-text

Coping with longitudinal data in research on developmental psychopathology

International Journal of Behavioral Development ◽

10.1177/0165025406059969 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 30 (1) ◽

pp. 20-25 ◽

Cited By ~ 35

Author(s):

David A. Cole

Keyword(s):

Data Collection ◽

Longitudinal Data ◽

Developmental Psychopathology ◽

Careful Consideration ◽

Two Dimensions ◽

The Other ◽

Outcome Variable ◽

The Third ◽

Data Analytic ◽

Over Time

Many outcome variables in developmental psychopathology research are highly stable over time. In conventional longitudinal data analytic approaches such as multiple regression, controlling for prior levels of the outcome variable often yields little (if any) reliable variance in the dependent variable for putative predictors to explain. Three strategies for coping with this problem are described. One involves focusing on developmental periods of transition, in which the outcome of interest may be less stable. A second is to give careful consideration to the amount of time allowed to elapse between waves of data collection. The third is to consider trait-state-occasion models that partition the outcome variable into two dimensions: one entirely stable and trait-like, the other less stable and subject to occasion-specific fluctuations.

Download Full-text

The Learning Pathways Grid

International Journal of Qualitative Methods ◽

10.1177/1609406918791605 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

pp. 160940691879160 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Andrew Stuart Lane ◽

Chris Roberts

Keyword(s):

Qualitative Research ◽

Data Collection ◽

Data Gathering ◽

High Fidelity ◽

High Fidelity Simulation ◽

Cognitive Frames ◽

Open Disclosure ◽

Learning Pathways ◽

Social Constructivist Approach ◽

Insight Into

The interview is an important data-gathering tool in qualitative research, since it allows researchers to gain insight into a person’s knowledge, understandings, perceptions, interpretations, and experiences. There are many definitions of reflexivity in qualitative research, one such definition being “Reflexivity is an attitude of attending systematically to the context of knowledge construction, especially to the effect of the researcher, at every step of the research processes.” The learning pathways grid (LPG) is a visual template used to assist analysis and interpretation of conversations, allowing educators, learners, and researchers, to discover links from cognition to action, usually in a retrospective manner. It is often used in simulation educational research, with a focus on understanding how learners access their cognitive frames and underlying beliefs. In this article, we describe the use of the LPG as a prospective adjunct to data collection for interviews and focus groups. We contextualize it within a study among medical interns and medical students who were engaged in high-fidelity simulation exploring open disclosure after a medication error. The LPG allowed future optimization of data collection and interpretation by ensuring reflexivity within the researchers, a vital part of research conduct. We conclude by suggesting the use of the LPG has a reasonable fit when taking a social constructivist approach and using qualitative analysis methods that make reflexivity explicit and visible, therefore ensuring it is truly considered, understood, and demonstrated by researchers.

Download Full-text

ALS longitudinal studies with frequent data collection at home: study design and baseline data

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Frontotemporal Degeneration ◽

10.1080/21678421.2018.1541095 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 20 (1-2) ◽

pp. 61-67 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Seward B. Rutkove ◽

Kristin Qi ◽

Kerisa Shelton ◽

Julie Liss ◽

Visar Berisha ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Data Collection ◽

Longitudinal Studies ◽

Study Design ◽

Baseline Data ◽

Home Study ◽

At Home

Download Full-text

Remote Sensing Is Changing Our View of the Coast: Insights from 40 Years of Monitoring at Narrabeen-Collaroy, Australia

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs10111744 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (11) ◽

pp. 1744 ◽

Cited By ~ 28

Author(s):

Kristen Splinter ◽

Mitchell Harley ◽

Ian Turner

Keyword(s):

Remote Sensing ◽

Data Collection ◽

Temporal Resolution ◽

Monitoring Program ◽

Google Earth ◽

Airborne Lidar ◽

Data Collection Program ◽

Insight Into ◽

Collection Program

Narrabeen-Collaroy Beach, located on the Northern Beaches of Sydney along the Pacific coast of southeast Australia, is one of the longest continuously monitored beaches in the world. This paper provides an overview of the evolution and international scientific impact of this long-term beach monitoring program, from its humble beginnings over 40 years ago using the rod and tape measure Emery field survey method; to today, where the application of remote sensing data collection including drones, satellites and crowd-sourced smartphone images, are now core aspects of this continuing and much expanded monitoring effort. Commenced in 1976, surveying at this beach for the first 30 years focused on in-situ methods, whereby the growing database of monthly beach profile surveys informed the coastal science community about fundamental processes such as beach state evolution and the role of cross-shore and alongshore sediment transport in embayment morphodynamics. In the mid-2000s, continuous (hourly) video-based monitoring was the first application of routine remote sensing at the site, providing much greater spatial and temporal resolution over the traditional monthly surveys. This implementation of video as the first of a now rapidly expanding range of remote sensing tools and techniques also facilitated much wider access by the international research community to the continuing data collection program at Narrabeen-Collaroy. In the past decade the video-based data streams have formed the basis of deeper understanding into storm to multi-year response of the shoreline to changing wave conditions and also contributed to progress in the understanding of estuary entrance dynamics. More recently, ‘opportunistic’ remote sensing platforms such as surf cameras and smartphones have also been used for image-based shoreline data collection. Commencing in 2011, a significant new focus for the Narrabeen-Collaroy monitoring program shifted to include airborne lidar (and later Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)), in an enhanced effort to quantify the morphological impacts of individual storm events, understand key drivers of erosion, and the placing of these observations within their broader regional context. A fixed continuous scanning lidar installed in 2014 again improved the spatial and temporal resolution of the remote-sensed data collection, providing new insight into swash dynamics and the often-overlooked processes of post-storm beach recovery. The use of satellite data that is now readily available to all coastal researchers via Google Earth Engine continues to expand the routine data collection program and provide key insight into multi-decadal shoreline variability. As new and expanding remote sensing technologies continue to emerge, a key lesson from the long-term monitoring at Narrabeen-Collaroy is the importance of a regular re-evaluation of what data is most needed to progress the science.

Download Full-text

KESALAHAN PRODUKSI KALIMAT PADA LOMBA DEBAT KONSTITUSI MAHASISWA TAHUN 2018

Jurnal Metamorfosa ◽

10.46244/metamorfosa.v8i2.1065 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (2) ◽

pp. 154-165

Author(s):

Dwi Utari ◽

Nur Aini Puspitasari

Keyword(s):

Data Collection ◽

Data Management ◽

Qualitative Method ◽

Sentence Production ◽

The Public ◽

Source Data ◽

Data Collection Technique ◽

Production Errors ◽

Insight Into ◽

Descriptive Qualitative

This research aims to describe sentence production errors especially pause and tongue slips in the 2018 Student Constitutional Debate Competition. The benefits of research for the researcher are to deepen knowledge about language, especially errors in the production of sentences, and for the reader to give knowledge to the public about the study of psycholinguistics in producing a sentence and broaden the insight into language about sentence production. Descriptive qualitative method was used in this study. This research used source data of 2018 Student Constitutional Debate Competition semifinal one and final one video. In this study the tapping technique was used for the data collection technique. Based on the results of data management and analysis, the sentence production errors contained in the 2018 Student Constitution Debate Contest video are (1) Breathing pause, (2) Doubt pause, (3) Malaproprism, (4) Transposition tongue slip, (5) Anticipation tongue slip, (6) Perseveration tongue slip. Abstrak Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mendeskripsikan kesalahan produksi kalimat terutama senyapan dan kilir lidah pada Lomba Debat Konstitusi Mahasiswa Tahun 2018. Manfaat penelitian bagi peneliti adalah untuk memperdalam pengetahuan mengenai bahasa khususnya kesalahan produksi kalimat dan bagi pembaca yaitu untuk memberi pengetahuan kepada masyarakat tentang kajian Psikolinguistik dalam memproduksi suatu kalimat serta memperluas wawasan kebahasaan mengenai produksi kalimat. Dalam penelitian digunakan metode berupa desktiptif kualitatif. Penelitian menggunakan sumber data berupa video Lomba Debat Konstitusi Mahasiswa tahun 2018 babak semifinal satu dan final satu. Penelitian menggunakan teknik pengumpulan data berupa teknik sadap catat. Berdasarkan hasil pengelolaan dan analisis data, kesalahan produksi kalimat yang terdapat dalam video Lomba Debat Konstitusi Mahasiswa Tahun 2018 yaitu (1) Senyapan pernapasan, (2) Senyapan keraguan, (3) Kilir lidah malaproprisme, (4) Kilir lidah transposisi, (5) Kilir lidah antisipasi, (6) Kilir lidah perseverasi. Kata Kunci: Kesalahan Produksi Kalimat, Debat, Kilir Lidah, Senyapan

Download Full-text

Systematic review and meta-analysis of attrition within digital health interventions for people with multiple sclerosis (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.27735 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

William Bevens

Keyword(s):

Multiple Sclerosis ◽

Systematic Review ◽

Digital Health ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Health Interventions ◽

Attrition Rates ◽

Participant Engagement ◽

Randomised Controlled ◽

And Control ◽

Insight Into

BACKGROUND Digital health interventions (DHI) have revolutionised the management of multiple sclerosis (MS). It is now understood that the technological elements that comprise DHIs can influence participant engagement and that people with MS (PwMS) can experience significant barriers to remaining enrolled in DHIs related to the use of these elements. It is essential to explore the influence of technological elements in mitigating attrition after allocation. OBJECTIVE We examined the study design and technological elements of documented DHIs targeted at PwMS and how these correlated with attrition among participants of randomised-controlled trials (RCTs). METHODS We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of RCTs (n=17) describing digital technologies for health interventions for PwMS. We analysed attrition of included studies using a random-effects model and meta-regression to measure the association between potential moderators. RESULTS There were no measured differences in attrition between intervention and control arms; however, some of the heterogeneity observed was explained by the composite technological element score. The pooled attrition rates for the intervention and control arms were 10.6% and 11.2% respectively. CONCLUSIONS Ultimately, this paper provides insight into the technological composition of DHIs and will aid in the design of future studies in this area.

Download Full-text

Pigmentary keratitis in pugs in the United Kingdom: prevalence and associated features

BMC Veterinary Research ◽

10.1186/s12917-019-2127-y ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 15 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

S. Maini ◽

R. Everson ◽

C. Dawson ◽

Y. M. Chang ◽

C. Hartley ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United Kingdom ◽

Longitudinal Studies ◽

Lower Eyelid ◽

Disease Prevalence ◽

Breeding Strategies ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Social Events ◽

Prospective Longitudinal ◽

Underlying Pathophysiology ◽

Insight Into

Abstract Background Pigmentary keratitis (PK) is commonly recognised in Pugs, but its aetiology is not completely understood. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and associated features of PK in Pugs in the United Kingdom (UK). Results A total of 210 Pugs (420 eyes) were recruited from 12 UK dog shows and social events. The median age of Pugs recruited was 2.50 years (range 0.25–16.25 years). Pigmentary keratitis was detected in 369/420 (87.8%) eyes and in at least one eye 193/210 (91.9%) Pugs, of which 17/193 (8.8%) were affected unilaterally and 176/193 (91.2%) bilaterally. Pigmentary keratitis was typically mild to moderate (46.3 and 49.9% of eyes, respectively). Detection of PK was significantly associated with increased age (P = 0.002) and the presence of medial entropion of the lower eyelid (MELE) (P = 0.001). Severity of PK was significantly associated with the grade of MELE (P < 0.001). There was also a correlation between the presence of limbal pigment and PK (P = 0.036) that warrants further study. Conclusions This study estimated a high disease prevalence of PK in UK Pugs, and demonstrated significant associations with age and the presence of MELE. These associations, which have not been previously reported, offer an insight into the underlying pathophysiology of this condition in Pugs. The results encourage further population research, such as prospective longitudinal studies. These findings also support the development of clinical and breeding strategies based on the reduction of MELE and, possibly, limbal pigment.

Download Full-text