This week in the lab I finally got my lab ID and completed all of the training needed to be added to Columbia's protocol. In order to do this I was asked to activate my UNI and register for a website that gave me access to Rascal courses. I took research training courses pertaining to the health insurance portability accountability act (HIPAA) and to the protection of human subjects. I was required to read documentation and then take a quiz on the material afterwards so I could receive the necessary certification of training. Any score over 80% was considered sufficient. In total I took 8 of these quizzes and am now permitted to record data from naive subjects.
On Tuesday I met with You-Nah, the RA, and Yul, the post grad I am working with to discuss a new matlab assignment. This time the assignment involved analyzing my own data which I acquired from all of the paradigms I have been running to investigate the perceptual decision making of color and motion. For this task, I focused on analyzing the motion data and ignored all of the color data. I was asked to estimate the interaction effect of the motion condition multiplied by the duration of the stimulus on subjM by using glmfit and the logistic model. When I ran the function in Matlab, the answer provided values for four different betas which was the expected result.
To build off of this I plotted the psychometric curves for each duration and tried to plot the prediction from the fit from the interaction term estimation on top of the data from the psychometric curve. The plotting of the prediction was an optional task but I attempted it anyway. It was quite challenging and although I made some errors in the code, I was able to generate a model similar to the one being asked for.
On Thursday I was visited by Ms. Rodrigue in the lab. She stopped in from about 11:00 to 12:30 and during that time we discussed the specifics of my project as well as its larger implications. We also spoke with Yul and You-Nah in which Ms. Rodrigue was able to learn more about the vast assortment of projects going on in the lab in general, as opposed to just my specific assignment. Yul informed her of the plans he has for me for the rest of my time in the lab as well as the progress I have made up to this point. Finally, Ms. Rodrigue observed while I ran a new paradigm which implemented a mask and four targets with different stimulus duration windows than the ones previously implemented. Overall, it was a great visit and I was happy to be able to share some of the work I have been doing with someone who had genuine interest in the specifics of my lab.
Finally, on Friday the lab held another meeting. I have only been to one of these before, and during that gathering I held more of an observational position. I did not find the appropriate time to contribute anything to the conversation nor was I encouraged to. This being said, I expected the same this time. My PI started off the meeting with some logistics, but quickly suggested we go around the room and discuss what we have been working on. To my surprise he suggested we start with me. I was completely caught off guard and was a little bit nervous to speak in front of such an intelligent and experienced group of people. However, I explained where I was in my research and articulated my plans for the next week. After I finished speaking, the PI asked me if I was really going to do all of that by myself. When I answered yes he sounded impressed which I was content in hearing. This made me feel a lot more accepted in the lab. Now that I know my PI is satisfied with the work I have been doing, I am much more comfortable in the lab. In fact, I look forward to engaging in next weeks meeting.
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