OK, so here's what I set out to accomplish at the beginning of term:
1) Write a 6-8000 word critical literature review
2) Write a nearly perfect PhD studentship proposal (Kevin assures us this will be the hardest thing we do on the course, and I believe him)
3) Create an experimental study different from the thesis and write a 3000 word article
4) Create a professional webpage, other goodies for a portfolio
On top of those things, I have to:
5) Conduct the pilot and final experiments for my thesis
6) Design a scientific poster for the BPS conference in May (since I foolishly signed up to do it)
As of right now, I have written 7,300 words of my critical literature review, which has turned into "The relationship between perception, imagery, and hallucinations: with a special focus on visual deprivation"-- it went from being a follow-up to an article on the relationship between imagery and perception, to a mostly hallucination-centred work that integrates the role of visual imagery into visual deprivation-induced hallucinations-- which I pride myself in thinking is a completey new angle on the topic. I have about one full day's worth of work to put into references (I have more than 100 now), and I need to flesh out a couple of paragraphs here and there, do some extensive revision, and then I'm done. Probably 5 full days worth of work left on that.
As for the studentship proposal? As you know, I met with someone about this, and have since created a detailed outline for "The role of visual imagery in AMD hallucinations", AMD being age-related macular degeneration. I am going to express the importance of discovering the role of imagery in hallucinations, and then create an imagery therapy for hallucinating patients with AMD. So I have a specific topic to cover, and I have outlined sessions of interviews/questionnaires and diaries for patients to fill out on my "program" before and after imagery therapy. I have decided to include at least one psychometric measure of imagery in AMD hallucinations, as well. I also found an article that actually describes a structure for imagery therapy for phantom limb pain, which is similar in nature to hallucinations, and I can use much of this structure for my imagery therapy for hallucinating patients.
The problem is, the people who conduct imagery therapy for phantom limb pain are clinical psychologists. This brings me back to the question... do I really want to be a clinical psychologist? If it's the only way to do this study, then yes. I will do what I have to do to run the experiments I want to run. But really, the people who are studying AMD hallucinations are mostly ophthalmologists, then clinicians, then finally experimentalists. Since ophthalmology is out (need a medical degree), I still have the couple of options I always had... but the chances of my becoming a clinician are almost nil, considering I have no relevant experience... I have only studied one patient in my time, and that was not for therapy purposes. But who knows, maybe it'll happen...
Anyway! So I have some ideas for the proposal but nothing in paragraph form yet. This has turned out to be the most difficult project so far. Moving on.
I have finished the "random experiment" I was to do for the course, which had to be different from my thesis experiment. I ended up comparing the difference in source monitoring errors (remembering words as pictures and vice versa) in fantasy-prone versus non-fantasy prone individuals. Prior literature has found that fantasy prone people do not confuse imaginings with reality. Confusing imaginings with reality, though, is more generally a clinical symptom-- it's more extreme than confusing words and pictures in memory. My experiment used the same design as an experiment conducted on hallucinating and non-hallucinating schizophrenics. Fantasy-prone people are both hallucination-prone and have more vivid imagery than normal (people who have more vivid imagery have also been found to make more source monitoring errors than normal), so I wanted to know if I would find a difference using fantasy-prone individuals and a more sensitive experimental design. Turns out, my fantasy prone group scored no differently than my non-fantasy prone group. Oh well!
Now I just need to show my results using statistics. I have the entire "Design and Methods" section finished, a couple paragraphs of intro, and an outline of the rest of the introduction, which I will hopefully write out today. All in all, I have about 1000 words written out of 3000 (without intro outline). Not too bad.
As for a webpage? Twitter? Press release? Other goodies? The only thing that seems to be panning out is the press release we are supposed to write on our research. We never did have to make a webpage or twitter... I wonder if we'll have to? At any rate, the press release, which we definitely DO have to write, only has to be a page or so long, and I probably won't think about it until the week before it's due.
My thesis: I am happy to report, the experimentation will be done on April 1st. I am cutting it so close, it's not even funny (April 1 is a Friday, there is no experimentation done on the weekends, and I go home on Monday)-- but I'll get it done! There's nothing that can stop me now. I have been analyzing the data as I go, and it looks REALLY good. I am so happy with it, after the "NULL SCARE" of a few weeks ago. Looks like I'm going to have an ACE thesis-- to be written over the summer months.
And the BPS poster, as you know, is finished-- my .pdf has been sent off to the conference admins for the contest, got it printed on Wednesday, and I have it sitting in my room right now. I am so proud of it!
So as you can see, even though I've been a complete lazybones this whole semester, I managed to get a lot done! I actually have no idea how I did it, considering I've been wasting whole weekends on things like a visual deprivation "study", watching ridiculous amounts of hours of TV with Jana on random days, re-reading Harry Potter for the millionth time, and all sorts of other things...
Nevertheless, I still have at least one entire paper to write (studentship proposal) as all I have now is the outline. "Random experiment" write-up should be a breeze, but I have to finish my powerpoint on it for a presentation in two weeks time. I HAVE written out the skeleton of the ppt, so at least there's that. I also have to prepare for a small group teaching session tomorrow, which I am mostly prepared for-- I just need to write out some questions to ask the class to get them engaged, etc. I DID have a 15-minute non-stop lecture prepared, but HOC said he did not want it done that way, so I had to completely restructure it, and now it's going to be dead easy.
So, for the next two weeks I will be running experiments, perfecting my powerpoint, and preparing for "mock interviews"-- we will have to role-play as interviewers and interviewees for a PhD position on the last day of class, which I hear is a pretty fun experience. Not too much else to do except read, write... and, oh yes-- go to conferences! I'm going to a Synaesthesia conference in London at the end of next week-- should be great fun! I will tell all upon my return.
OK, this has been a long enough post-- now-- on to post #2 of the day: HIKING hills in the Peak District!
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