Researchers Potentially Skew Vote

Researchers from Dartmouth College and Stanford University crafted official-looking flyers with information about an upcoming election in various states including Montana and sent them to thousands of constituents with the intent of studying the effect of the flyers on the voters. The flyer described two candidates in an upcoming Supreme Court race according to the candidates' political bias even though the candidates were nonpartisan. The flyer had an official state seal and looked like an official voting document; in small print the flyer states that its purpose is for research. Official complaints against the researchers have been filed and they potentially face significant fines if the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices pursues the complaints. Lise Dobrin, a member of UVA's IRB-SBS, commented regarding the ethical implication of the research in Dylan Scott's TPM article.

Darden/Curry Partnership

While poverty and lack of educational resources are certainly factors in poor student performance, mismanaged districts and poor leadership also impact a student's ability to learn and achieve. The University of Virginia Darden/Curry Partnership for Leaders in Education (PLE)'s mission is to restructure the way that education is managed by the state and by the district so that students have better access to talented teachers and improved resources. The program uses a four-lever model to help school districts improve school performance. It addresses improvement in the following areas: organizational leadership, talent management, support and accountability, and data-driven instruction. As recently reported in this article, the PLE worked with districts in Oklahoma and Louisiana and the participating districts saw significant gains in student performance.

"Books Behind Bars:" Russian literature and incarcerated youth

Admittedly it isn't often the IRB-SBS receives protocols from the Slavic Language and Literature department at UVa. It probably isn't that usual for incarcerated youth in juvenile detention centers to discuss Tolstoy. When you are working with someone named Andy Kaufman, perhaps it is best to expect the unusual. Andrew D. Kaufman, UVa professor Slavic Language and Literature professor and expert in all things Tolstoy, expanded his passion for sharing Russian literature beyond his UVa classroom to help improve the lives of incarcerated youth in juvenile detention facilities. Kaufman developed the course for "Books Behind Bars" and with the help of UVa undergraduates, they run discussion groups helping the incarcerated youth to learn about Russian literature. Featured on UVa alum Katie Couric's show, the program highlights the benefits of studying the humanities. Kaufman is set to release a new book entitled Give "War and Peace" a Chance: Tolstoyan Wisdom for Troubled Times.

Back to school and ready to learn social and emotional skills

Sara Rimm-Kaufmann, UVa Curry School of Education researcher

Creating a classroom environment where learning goes beyond the three "r's" to include social and emotional development has a reciprocal affect on student academic achievement. In the study, "Efficacy of the Responsive Classroom Approach: Results from a Three Year, Longitudinal Randomized Controlled Trial," researchers Sara Rimm-Kaufman (University of Virginia), Ross A. Larsen (University of Virginia), Alison A. Baroody (University of Virginia), Timothy Curby (George Mason University), Michelle Ko (University of Virginia), Julia B. Thomas (University of Virginia), Eileen G.Merritt (University of Virginia), Tashia Abry (Arizona State University), and Jamie DeCoster (University of Virginia), looked specifically at Responsive Classroom (RC), a widely-used social and emotional learning intervention. Rimm-Kaufmann reported in this article posted to the Science Daily website that academic gains were found among all socio-economic groups. "The success of many curricula, including those that map onto the Common Core expectations, require that teachers use effective classroom management and develop student confidence and autonomy," said Rimm-Kaufman. "Our trial of the Responsive Classroom approach suggests that teachers who take the time to foster relationships in the classroom and support children's self-control actually enhance student achievement."
"In a time of intense academic demands, many critics question the value of spending time on teaching social skills, building classroom relationships and supporting student autonomy," said Rimm-Kaufman. "Our research shows that time spent supporting children's social and emotional abilities can be a very wise investment." 

Snap Judgements: Race, Religion, and Age

People are like library books, sorted into different shelves because of what they look like, where they come from, what they believe, and how old they are. It's how we make sense of the world. The problem with the organization scheme is that there seems to be an implicit hierarchy, giving some categories more preferable shelves than others. In the Psychological Science article "The Rules of Implicit Evaluation by Race, Religion, and Age," UVa researcher Jordan Axt, with the assistance of Brian Nosek and Charles Ebersole, used the Brief Implicit Association test to measure individuals' quick reactions to images and text as a way of determining their bias towards race, religion, and age. The results indicated that after the individual picked their own group as the top preference, the remaining groups consistently fell into the same order. For example, if the individual was Asian, he would categorically pick positive associations with Asians but for the remaining races they were ordered in the following order with the most preferential first: Whites, Asians, Blacks, Hispanics. Regardless of the individual's race, the remaining races were always listed in that order. For additional information and interviews, check out this article on the Daily Progress website.

Manipulating Facebook Users' Newsfeeds: the Ethics of Testing Emotional Contagion

Facebook is the proverbial gold mine for social and behavioral researchers. Individuals spend hours on it each day documenting their lives, their interactions with others, and their interaction with media. The program collects and analyzes the information, providing an interesting glimpse into various aspects of humanity. The ethics of using Facebook and other social media outlets to gather data is more opaque, however. Facebook users generally post information to a closed group of friends with the expectation that their friends will view the information as part of a normal social interaction. Although the information is posted on the web, some would argue that there is an expectation of privacy. If researchers glean information from Facebook posts without permission, it is similar to a researcher recording a conversation without permission, etc. Engaging participants in a study without their knowledge, particularly by manipulating their newsfeeds, is even more egregious. A Facebook data scientist and two other researchers from the University of California and Cornell University conducted a study in 2012 where they attempted to test the response that users would have to reading negative or positive posts on their newsfeed; they manipulated nearly 700,000 users’ newsfeeds and tracked the users’ responses to see if they mirrored the negativity or remained neutral (i.e. “emotional contagion”).  The Facebook users became unwitting participants in a research study without giving permission; in addition to the lack of consent, the participants were manipulated with the intent to influence the individual’s state of being. While an IRB generally approves using manipulation to study participants, there are specific elements that are required to be in place such as the post-consent debriefing that helps the participant to understand the full nature of the study and provides a more complete consent. In a study where the researcher is manipulating emotions and there is the potential to make a participant upset, the debriefing session is particularly important so that the researcher can gauge the mental state of the participant and assess if additional help is needed.

Facebook users don’t exist in a vacuum. Every day their data are used by corporations to manipulate users to buy products or click on certain links. However, the relationship of trust between researchers and participants is a valuable commodity and when it is abused it is costly not only to participants but to researchers as well. Facebook users voiced their opinion about the manipulation and Adam Kramer, the Facebook data scientist who worked on the study, responded by posting this apology: "I can understand why some people have concerns about it, and my coauthors and I are very sorry for the way the paper described the research and any anxiety it caused. In hindsight, the research benefits of the paper may not have justified all of this anxiety."

Does Being Cool at 13 Pay?

Researchers at the followed a group of Charlottesville, VA, teenagers over a ten year period to gauge whether popularity at age thirteen equates to success ten years down the road. Joseph Allen, professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, led the study that was recently published in Child Development. Their conclusion? Popularity in middle school isn't a guarantee for later success in life and it may in fact have negative consequences as well. As young adults, the more popular youths were using 40% more drugs and alcohol than the "not so cool" kids and were 22% more likely to run into trouble with the law. Kelly Wallace, CNN reporter, submitted this detailed report.

Teenagers More Vulnerable in Police Interrogation

Interrogation techniques used by the police force often incorporate stressors that result in confession, sometimes even false confessions. Teenagers are more susceptible to interrogation pressure and may waive Miranda rights or make incriminating statements without having the proper counsel to guide them through the interrogation process, resulting in higher penalties and loner prison sentences. Only twenty percent of a surveyed police force is prepared to interrogate minors, Todd Warner, a U.Va. PHd candidate in Psychology discovered in his recent study. “Police officers have a very difficult job trying to determine who actually perpetuated the crime under investigation, and while they are well-trained on laws and the legal system, many of them lack knowledge on adolescent decision-making, which can have a detrimental effect on suspects who may not be guilty, and also on the proper functioning of the legal system,” Warner said. For more information about this study, check out the UVaToday article as well as other postings on local Charlottesville news stations.

Congratulations Grant Foundation Scholars!

L-R: Education professor Joanna Lee Williams and psychology professor Noelle Hurd

Joanna Lee Williams and Noelle Hurd were selected to receive major support from the William T. Grant Foundation and are named Grant Foundation Scholars. This honor is rarely bestowed on more than one candidate from an institution and was last received by a UVa recipient (Joseph Allen) in 1991. Both Williams and Hurd are assistant professors and conduct research with Youth-Nex: The UVa Center to Promote Effective Youth Development. They will both receive $350,000 in research support in addition to intense mentoring by relevant scholars. For more information about the candidates please see this UVA Today article.

Mental Maps

Andrew Mondschein, new faculty member in the
University of Virginia School of Architecture.

What are you missing every day on your daily commute? It may be more than you think if you take public transportation or rely on Google Maps to get you there. Andrew Mondschein, faculty member in the UVa School of Architecture, led a team of researchers who discovered that "cognitively active" travelers (i.e. those driving a car, walking, or riding a bike) are more aware of their surroundings as they navigate than "cognitively passive" travelers (i.e. car or bus passengers) who are simply moved from one location to another. Having gaps in your mental map, Mondschein theorized, can be more significant than just missing a billboard advertisement. Cognitively passive travelers may be missing job opportunities, goods and services available, and/or recreation activities that they might otherwise have noticed if they were navigating the streets on their own. “I think transportation planners need to consider the experience of travel in addition to simply establishing links between ‘A’ and ‘B’,” Mondschein said.  ”Travel is exploration, and there’s long-term value in this kind of learning." For more information, check out this article in UVa Today.

Insights on the Family

Tom Graham hosted two UVa professors on Virginia Insights (WMRA) to hear about their research on the family.

Sarah M. Corse, Ph.D. - co-author of the study "Intimate Inequalities: Love and Work in a Post-Industrial Landscape," presented at the August, 2013, annual meeting of the American Sociological Association. Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Virginia.

Robert E. Emery, Ph.D. - Co-author of "Overnight Custody Arrangements, Attachment, and Adjustment Among Very Young Children"  (August, 2013. "Journal of Marriage and Family").  Professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for Children, Families, and the Law, University of Virginia.  Author of numerous books, including  The Truth About Children and Divorce (Penguin Group).

To hear the interview, check out this link.

Getting older may not be a good excuse...

We've all had moments where the answer we are looking for is on the "tip of the tongue" and as age increases, it is easy to assume the temporary memory lapse and a few extra grey hairs are connected. Dr. Timothy Salthouse and U.Va. undergraduate researcher Arielle Mandell created a study to determine if age and a lapse in the brain's ability to recall facts are related. After quizzing over 700 participants, they initially found that older participants did struggle to recall answers as well as their younger counterparts. But after the researchers factored participants' general knowledge, for example, they found no association between how often the participants' memory recall failed and their performance on the types of memory tests often used in the detection of dementia. 

For more information, check out this article on NBC 29.

Marcia A. Invernizzi, 2013 Edlich-Henderson Innovator of the Year

The IRB-SBS would like to congratulate Marcia Invernizzi; she was recently and appropriately awared the 2013 Edlich-Henderson Innovator of the Year for her Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening, or PALS, assessments and teaching tools; they used in six countries and all 50 states to identify and provide customized learning experiences for young children at risk of becoming poor readers. She is the first researcher from the Curry School to receive this award. For more information about her award, check out this article on NBC 29's site.

Often our researchers only hear from our office about the things they need to do to correct their studies but please know that we are so proud of our UVa researchers and the contributions that they make to their fields and to the world. We look forward to seeing more recognition for your work!

Protecting Your Research Participants with Improved Data Management

Advancing technology continues to provide researchers with better and more efficient tools for collecting and processing data, tools that accelerate the progress of scientific study. Paper files are rapidly being replaced with digital data that exist on hard drives instead of in locked file cabinets. While these new modes of gathering and storing data offer significant advantages, they are not without their limitations and vulnerabilities. Hackers, viruses, and other security threats, in addition to hardware or software failures can cause significant loss to data stores and can violate research participants’ privacy and confidentiality. UVa requires its researchers to follow their Data Protection Standards as outlined by IT Services, but if your background isn’t IT heavy, it may be difficult to navigate on your own. UVa Library offers Scientific Data Consulting to help researchers improve their data collection and management techniques. If you have questions or need ideas, consider contacting their office; not only will you better protect research participants, you could improve your research in general.  Check out our Data Collection and Storage section for more information about IRB-SBS policies and recommendations.  

Richard Bonnie Give Insight into Mental Health and Gun Policy

In a recent New York Times article, Professor Richard J. Bonnie, a professor in public policy in UVa's School of Law offered insight into the current dialog surrounding mental health and it's connection to gun control policies. “Anytime you have one of these tragic cases like Newtown, it’s going to expose deficiencies in the mental health system, and provide some opportunity for reform. But you have to be very careful not to overreact.” Bonnie led a state commission that overhauled policies after the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings that left 33 people dead. The vast majority of individuals with mental health conditions are not considered a threat and it is challenging to create a system that identifies those who are a threat and provides that information to those who need it without penalizing those who are not a threat. For more reading, see Health Affairs publication of an article written by Bonnie: "Mental Health System Transformation After the Virginia Tech Tragedy."

Madison House promotes Girls on the Run

Student volunteers at UVa's Madison House are implementing the Girls on the Run program with fifteen Johnston Elementary School girls. The program, started by Molly Barker (a four-time Hawaii Ironman athelete) in Charlotte, NC, helps provide young girls the opportunity for exercise while teaching them about making healthy choices and avoiding risky behaviors. See the full article posted on UVaToday.

U.Va. Employees Legally Obligated to Report Child Abuse

Susan A. Carkeek, Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, sent the following in an email to staff on July 7th, 2012:

"In the 2012 legislative session, the General Assembly passed legislation on reporting suspected child abuse and neglect.  Specifically, the law requires "any person employed by a public or private institution of higher education" to report suspected instances of child abuse and neglect.  All University employees are now required to contact local or state Social Services if they see or suspect child abuse or neglect.  This law went into effect July 1, 2012.

University Human Resources has developed a web page at http://www.hr.virginia.edu/go/abuse-reporting with the legal definition of a neglected or abused child, instructions on where and how to report suspected child abuse or neglect, and other resources.  I ask that you familiarize yourself with the basic definitions and requirements so that you know how to proceed if you encounter or suspect child abuse or neglect. 

All employees need to be aware of this new legislation, particularly those of you who come in contact with children as part of your teaching, research, or other operations.  I appreciate your support in helping us comply with this law, and encourage you to share it with your colleagues. If you have questions, please contact the HR Service Center at 982.0123 or email AskHR@virginia.edu."

In the past, researchers were not obligated to report abuse (though they were highly encouraged!) but the new legistlation changes their status. If you or anyone on your research team interact with children, please be aware of the signs of abuse and how to report. For more information about working with this population, please see Child Abuse on our website.

Seen anything cute lately?

U.Va. researchers Gary Sherman, Jonathan Haidt, and James Coan demonstrated that seeing a cute object can improve your ability to handle delicate things. Participants in their study were shown either a "very cute" picture of a puppy or kitten or a "less cute" picture of an adult cat or dog. After viewing the images, participants were asked to play Operation, a game that requires very careful fine motor skills. The participants who viewed the "very cute" images had greater success in playing the game than the "less cute" image participants, demonstrating that viewing "cuteness" helped to engage the participants in more careful behavior. Alexis Madrigal of the Atlantic Journal highlighted their work in his June 7th article "Why the Puppy Cam Is About to Make the Whole Internet Better at Photoshop." The original article published by Sherman, Haidt, and Coan in Emotion can be found here.

Is Pretend Play Crucial for a Child's Development?

The answer, according to UV.a. psychologist Angeline Lillard, is that the research in the past was not done very well and pretend play may not play a significant role in creative and intellectual development. Lillard and her team concluded after reviewing over 150 studies on the subject that better designed studies need to be done and previous researchers may have been biased in their approach. For more details, see the article on UVa Today.

Announcing the Sixth Annual Virginia IRB Consortium Conference

Join us at UVa's Newcomb Hall on October 12th for the Sixth Annual Virginia IRB Consortium Conference. This year's conference, Research Review Challenges: From the Small IRB to the Age of Technology, will feature Michael Zimmerman, PhD, an assistant professor in the School of Information Studies and the co-director for Information Policy Research at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Registration is free, though your registration form must be submitted by Sept 14th. To register for the conference and for more details about the events, please see our website.