Real Frustration

Speechless. Frustrated. Helpless.

I have been programming a new experiment using the latest version of a computer program. The latest version was out only very recently. What one would expect is the unaviodable errors. But the error i encountered today is really frustrating.

After weeks of programming and experimenter-training, i finally started data collection today. The major part of this study is "serial reproduction" procedure. In a nutshell, participants read about some people then write their impression about these people. Then, what they wrote will be read by another participant, who will write about this impression. This reproduction goes on for a few rounds. With this procedure, we will be able to observe how information is actually modified through communication. I use the computer program to record all the writings.

The specific experimental procedure requires two undergrad experimenters dealing one participant at a time at 20-min intervals. That means, with the work of two experimenters, we are able to collect 3 data points in an hour. Not to mention the set up time. Because of time constraint, i can only have 8 data point collected each day. You can see how "desperate" I am.

Here comes the ever-true Murphy's Law

After hours of experiment sessions, i opened one of the data files, which is supposed to contain the writing and responses to other questions. Your guess is correct! There is no writing recorded in the data file!! I opened another data file, there is no writing there neither. None of the datafiles has the writing part in it.

I know, that's my fault. I had a number of trial runs before. They were fine. Just two days ago i decided to use another function that times the writing better. Who would know that by checking a little box in addition to "what is already okay" would make it "not okay"? There is something wrong with the function--checking the function refrains recording of response. Even though the function has nothing to do with data recording. That's my fault: i take for granted that things will operate the way it is supposed to.

My students were frustrated. I was not, at least at that time. I know Murphy's Law. I knew that something will go wrong. My experience of conducting experiments always have something wrong. I actually comforted my students that these are normal. But now, after a few hours, when i am trying to fix the problem, i cannot help but feel the huge frustration inside.

On the other hand, my other boss just cannot let me have a break from her work. That's the difference between a boss and a grad student. When a boss has something emergent (a paper to revise and resubmit, an experiment to wrap up, or something about a conference), a boss can always slack off on other projects. A grad student just does not have anything qualified as emergent.