My Research Journey

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I conduct basic and applied research studies. 

Asking questions.

I have served as a researcher in various research studies conducted since 2005, from clinical research studies to educational studies throughout my undergraduate and graduate studies. At times I have collected data as

a research assistant in projects that have already been established and aimed to advance knowledge in a   

current topic. Sometimes I led the projects under prominent supervisors to find solutions to problems. Throughout these years, curiosity, willingness to explore, and seeking answers to different questions encouraged me to serve as a researcher for various research studies from stimulus preparation to data analysis. 

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I conduct quantitative and qualitative research at each stage of the research process. 

Using different software programs to generate stimulus.

As a research assistant, a researcher, and a lead researcher throughout the years, I was involved in conducting different research studies. Most of the studies enabled me to learn various software programs to generate and present the stimulus. In the study that I examined the stimulus features contributing to complex scenes' perceptual organization,  I generated the visual stimulus using Adobe Photoshop. I collected data by presenting the stimulus on the E- prime Psychology Software Tool. During my dissertation, I developed a tool to test context processing; I generated the infographics test using Adobe Illustrator.  

Using various neuropsychological and psychological tools to collect data. 

When I served as a research assistant at the Sleep Research Laboratory, I sought to understand the sleep patterns, cognition, and metacognition of patients with paradoxical and psychophysiological insomnia. I collected data by evaluating each patient’s clinical, cognitive, and social functions using standardized neuropsychological tests (e.g., Judgment of Line Orientation Test) and psychological tools (e.g., MMPI). During my dissertation, to validate the test that I developed, I administered various cognitive tests (e.g., Hooper Visual Organization Test), subtests of Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, and Graphical Literacy Scale. 

Using various software programs to analyze and present data.

In most of the projects  I was involved in, I analyzed quantitative data in the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).  I utilized Airtable to organize qualitative data when I served as a design researcher in the design consulting firm.  In the recent project that I have been working on, I use OpenRefine to clean data and Tableau Desktop for data visualization. 

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Verbally and visually explaining each stage of the study and sharing the results through poster presentations and published papers.
One of the most important stages in the research studies is verbally explaining how we conduct the studies and sharing the results with others through poster presentations and published papers. I presented posters at Vision Sciences Society Annual Meetings, Annual Meetings of the Northeast Conference for Teachers of Psychology, and published a research paper in the Statistics Education Research Journal along with my colleagues.

I conduct student-experience research studies. 

Willingness to solve problems.

While teaching the laboratory portion of the statistics class at Brooklyn College, I noticed that some of my students had a fear of statistics and low motivation at the beginning of the semester. I encountered similar student motivational patterns in subsequent semesters. In order to address this problem I  decided to initiate and lead a research project entitled "How to gamify statistics labs" that examined the association between gamified learning environments and the psychology statistics students' intrinsic motivation. I designed prototypes of the materials and developed the content in coordination with my team members. Throughout this project, I had the opportunity to work with very knowledgeable and open-minded faculty, my PhD supervisor, and other team members. I had a chance to utilize my project management skills by collaborating with faculty from different disciplines, managing research assistants, communicating with other departments (e.g., Computer Science Department) in a highly efficient and timely manner, delivering rapid feedback to the corresponding parties, and completing projects with team members.