During week one, I completed the experimental script, repeatedly revised the methods and procedures, set-up the equipment that is going to be used, prepared participant recruitment materials, and gathered or made the materials needed to complete the project. Additionally, I ensured that the laboratory space was secured and reserved for the length of time needed.

Week two was challenging. I primarily recruited participants and reworked the script. I also ran through several iterations of practice sessions. We looked at the laboratory and ensured that all the required equipment was available and ready.

We began running participants during week 3. This brought a whole new dimension to the experiment as many issues arose that needed to be immediately dealt with. For example, we had to use a laptop to run participants rather than using our cell phones as planned. The issues have been dealt with though, and now the experimental sessions are running smoothly and without any major incident. Each participant is special and different though, and while we do follow a script, it requires a certain amount of creativity to keep the sessions consistent.

Week four was fairly easy considering it was similar to week three. Once the kinks in the experimental session were worked out, it became much easier to begin running and recruiting participants en masse. I got a great deal of practice with the experimental script, and a lesson in patience, as dealing with the participant’s schedules is like solving a massive puzzle. I also began to contact professors directly to see if they would allow me to recruit in their classes. Overall, it was quite a busy week. Each participant takes at least an hour to run, plus constantly emailing to set up times to run them, all while finding time to write the manuscript. It ends up being a pretty intense schedule.

More of the same during week 5. Constantly finding participants and running them. I really wish that i had a research assistant sometimes, that way i can focus on the manuscript without constantly being interrupted by potential participants looking for extra credit in their classes. Beyond what I did last week, I also emailed the summer school director and asked him to send out an email to the entire student body about my research. Hopefully it all works out and I can finish the remaining participants for the summer by the first week in summer session II but that is going to be a tall order. At this point, I’m looking forward to having a couple days off after summer session I ends.

Week 6 was short thankfully, but still very productive. I was able to run 7 participants in just a couple days which works out perfectly, because i only need 8 more to reach my goal. I only worked on research Monday Tuesday and part of Wednesday, as I needed to study for my exam, but I devoted all of Friday to writing the paper while everyone else was gone. I refined the methods and procedures portion, and along with the help from my adviser was able to begin digging into the literature for the introduction. The more I read, the more i realize just how big of  topic this truly is, and how interdisciplinary it is. It draws together aspects of Neuroscience, Physiology, and psychology all in one project. Really that just means more reading, writing, and research for me.

Week 7 was all writing. Most of my work from here on out is going to be nothing but. I was really looking forward to the holiday weekend, and hope that it will give me some hard earned time off. I finished a rought draft of the introduction this week, and am working quite hard on getting it prepared to send to my adviser of final revisions. It really it a vary rough draft, but that is okay, by the end of the summer hopefully it will be a polished and clean product. Honestly, that is the goal for the summer. I just want to walk away with a draft that I don’t have to make major adjustments to when I send it to an article to publish. Over all the manuscript is coming along, and I am bogged down with it. Next week I plan on continuing to recruit the new summer school students.

Summer Session II students are a lot less cooperative with participating, so during week 8 I focused on recruiting them more and more. I contacted teachers, I sent out an email to the entire summer student body, and am generally just working on getting the word out there again. I feel like I am starting from square one again, but It is okay because I have the lessons that I learned from recruiting participants the first time around. I do have a couple scheduled for next week , so hopefully I can get  the last 8 out of the way and move on with my manuscript. Up to this point, I have don’t a lot of work on the manuscript so i think that i am good to go, at least until I have the rest of my data and I can run the data analysis. Once that is done then the results will be easy and last comes the discussion which shouldn’t be too difficult.