Category: Tech

Guidance, Resources, Tech

Looking for a source of free images?

Joe |

Most of the images you find on the web will have some sort of copyright or ownership rights that will prevent you using them in lectures, posters or as dissertation stimuli for example. There are a number of free sources of images, and here they are! If you find any more please let Joe the psychology technician know.

https://pixabay.com and https://unsplash.com  are searchable sources for free images.

You can also use search.creativecommons.org to search Flickr for images that are licensed for reuse. It allows you to filter by commericial/non-commercial reuse so it is very helpful.

You can also try:

http://www.pics4learning.com  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

More guidance for University of Brighton students using images

 

 

 

 

Resources, Tech

Research Grade eye tracking and psychophysiology equipment

Joe |

The lab is home to a range of eye tracking and psychophysiology monitoring kit that can be used by staff and dissertation students.

As part of the strategic research development of the School of Applied Social Science, the lab is very interested in making innovative partnerships with other Schools in the University of Brighton using the cutting edge research grade equipment equipment outlined below.

Read more about the eye-tracking and psychophysiology equipment.

Here is more information on the specific equipment:

Mobile eye tracker (SMI RED250 mobile) This is a screen-based  laptop sized eye tracker capable of measuring eye movements, fixation duration and pupilometry.
Eye tracking glasses (SMI ETG) This is a wearable and totally mobile eye tracker capable of measuring the scene viewed by the participant, the participant’s gaze within the scene and the audio present at the time.
Psychophysiology monitoring equipment (BioPac MP160 with BioNomadix wireless recorders)  This allows static measurement of blood pressure and response monitoring, and wireless monitoring of EEG, ECG, EMG, Pulse Rate and EDA (see presentation above for more info.

If you are a researcher from another School in the University of Brighton and would like to explore using the equipment in a partnership please note that any  partnership must meet the following criteria:

  • Professional level research;
  • Not speculative;
  • Pilot project, with the aim to lead to a research grant application;
  • Health related proposals are particularly welcome.

External partners will be allocated a member of SASS research staff who will work with the external partner to take the work forwards. Please note that the equipment, lab and psychology technician are provided primarily for psychology students and staff, and that equipment and support can only be accessed between May and November (when the lab is not being used for dissertation data collection).

Please speak to Jay or Martina if you want to explore using this equipment.

Facilities, Guidance, Tech

Want to produce an academic poster?

Joe |

PosterThe psychology lab and the computers in the Falmer Library all have Microsoft Publisher, which is an easy way to quickly create professional looking academic posters like the one above, which was created by one of our Level 6 students for the 2016 BUDS conference. If you would like a demo of Microsoft Publisher, please ask the psychology technicians. The lab has produced a short guide which can be used to set up Microsoft Publisher for producing an academic poster and helps you understand some of the key features which also contains links to further information.

Further support on Microsoft Publisher can be found on Microsoft’s website.

Resources, Tech

Want SPSS on your own computer?

Joe |

spss logo

 

 

 

 

See the link below access software: 

http://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/covid19studentupdate/software/

 

 

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If you are a student at the University of Brighton, you can purchase a CD containing SPSS for use on your own PC or Mac for £7 per year.

CDs/USBs are available from the Computer Store on the First floor of the Watts Building, or the vending machine in the Falmer Library computer pool room.

Resources, Tech

Equipment guide – Voice recorders

Joe |

Olympus VN712pc

The lab has a number of Olympus VN-712PC voice recorders which can be borrowed. They are very simple to use and give good quality recordings for interviews and focus groups.

They run on AAA batteries which we supply you with (battery life is around 70 hours). We can supply you with additional memory, but most people find the built in memory is fine – allowing between 131 and 823 hours depending on the quality setting. We can provide you with a USB cable that you can use to download your recordings to your computer, or Joe the psychology technician can put your recordings onto a USB stick if you’d prefer.

Download the user manual here.

If you would like to book one please speak to Joe the psychology technician, who will also make sure you are comfortable using it before booking it out to you.

Facilities, Guidance, Tech

Do you want to present a psychology experiment on a computer?

Joe |

Do you want to present images, text or video to participants, and measure their responses and reaction times accurately,  easily and automatically? If so you need to check out the Psychology lab’s SuperLab software, which is installed on the computers in the lab’s soundproof testing booths. We also have a number of response pads, which can be easily configured to allow participants to quickly and easily interact with your experiments.

You can create whatever experiments you desire. We have pre-programmed the Stroop task and the Implicit association test. Other examples of experiments include tasks  relating to perception and attention, memory, perceptual representation, representation of meaning and reasoning. We can help you with programming your own experiment, whether by providing training or by helping you build the experiment from scratch.

If you are interested in running any of these pre-programmed experiments, creating your own experiment, or just having a look at what SuperLab entails please speak to the psychology technicians. If you would like to have a read about SuperLab and how easy it is to present an experiment, please take a look at the SuperLab manual.

Guidance, Resources, Tech

Which free online survey should I use?

Joe |

Third Year Dissertation students are strongly encouraged to use SONA to create their surveys for free, as this also gives a lot of help with recruitment. If you are not using SONA, there are other options. Most people have heard about Surveymonkey, but what about Qualtrics or SogoSurvey? As a student, you really do not have to pay for online survey software. You may find that the free version of Surveymonkey is too limited for your needs – if you do please click the link below for a round-up of some better free options!

Comparison of free survey tools

If you have any questions after reading this, please speak to Joe the psychology technician.

Resources, Tech

Using iPads for qualitative research

Joe |

Very interesting blog post here from Fiona Macneill (Learning Technologies Advisor) on using iPads for qualitative research, including using them to record interviews and focus groups, and the apps and hardware that may help.

http://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/elearning/2015/03/10/using-an-ipad-for-research/

If anybody is interested in using the apps mentioned here for dissertations or research please speak to me and I’ll get them installed on the Psychology Lab’s iPads. The lab is happy to lend students and staff iPads, mics, voice recorders, video cameras – just click view &  book lab resources to see what we can offer.