I started my week by meeting with my supervisor - she gave me some advice with regards data processing and I then went on to process both sets of data I had collected. My Excel skills have come on leaps and bounds during this project; something which I did not expect but I'm sure will prove to be very useful in the future.
I then began the analysis, carrying out some t-tests, regression analyses, and ANOVAs in SPSS to see if the data gave us any statistically significant results. The results for one of the studies in particular looked very promising, so I decided to collect some more data (we had 100 participants in total). After many hours spent sorting through this additional data, I had another look at the statistics. The extra data definitely reduced the error margins, but the results were surprisingly not what I had expected. Which meant it was time for me to utilise my creativity (something which was revealed in my coaching session last week to be one of my strengths) to try to investigate why we got the results that we did.
This week involved a lot of thinking and deliberating about the statistics, and trying to draw reasonable conclusions. The statistics obviously have great value, however as a scientist I find it very easy to get caught in the details, sometimes needing to remind myself to step back and look at the bigger picture. My ability to flip between these two mindsets is something which I hope I can maintain throughout my time as a researcher, as I really enjoy looking at problems from different perspectives, and find this this allows me to have greater insight.
Two of the three studies I am investigating are now almost complete - next week I will spend some time writing up my findings into a report and a poster. I'm also going to spend a couple of days analysing the fMRI data from the third study, which I set out to do in my original project proposal. It feels crazy that next week is my last week of the project! The time has flown by, but I am so grateful that I have been able to develop my skills and confidence through this opportunity.