Dr. Tim Angelike from the Psychology Department at University of Düsseldorf held a very well attended research talk on May 17th in our iScience research colloquium. His research focuses on how humans generate random numbers and what biases they succumb to. You can find the abstract of his talk below.

Definitely not random: The inspiring conversation that the iscience group as well as the students got to have with Dr. Angelike (second from right) after the talk! ✨

Abstract: Several fields of psychological research have investigated the reasons why people have difficulty behaving randomly. This is often investigated with the so-called random number generation (RNG) task. In this task, participants are asked to generate a sequence of numbers that is as random as possible. The task is often used as a test of executive functioning in cognitive and clinical psychology. Previous studies have used various measures from psychological research, computer science, and mathematics to quantify the randomness of the generated sequences or the lack thereof. However, the use of a plethora of measures has been criticized by researchers for being subjective and not allowing for comparisons between studies. The first study presented here is the first comprehensive, comparative investigation of different methods for quantifying randomness. In a second investigation, a formal model of the systematic behaviors underlying the generation of random sequences in humans was modified and extended. This approach allows for the simultaneous estimation of different systematic biases that people show when trying to generate random sequences. This study showed that the newly proposed model is better able to describe human behavior than the original model. Finally, a simulation study is presented in which a new measure of randomness based on algorithmic complexity theory promising to detect any kind of regularity in a sequence is assessed regarding its usefulness for serving as a universal measure of randomness for the analysis of human-generated sequences.

👏🏻 Thanks to tutors Lisa Hafner, Anne-Sophie Landenberger, Maurin Schmidt and Marc Wiedmann this winter semester’s weekly lecture and exercise by Prof. Reips on Methods and History of Psychology sailed smoothly in fully returned to face-to-face teaching mode. Attendance was very high throughout the semester, as reflected in higher than average grades in the final exam.

After several years as tutors, Lisa and Marc will now move on, as they have finished their Master’s degrees. We are thankful for their diligent tutoring and heartfelt assistance. Good luck and may the methods force be with you!

Below a picture of the semester end meeting between Prof. Reips and the tutors, reflecting over coffee on the previous months. Thanks to the team for making iScience teaching a great learning and exchange experience. See you next winter semester again 😊

👏🏻 Thank you for attending our 5th Summer School on Internet-based Data Collection and Analysis last week! We covered topics like basic and advanced concepts of Internet-based research, experimental design, apps for research, theory and model testing, mixed models, analysis of Internet data, Social Media, Mobile Experience Sampling, Big Data, and Open Science.

👩🏻‍💻👨🏼‍💻The Summer School was an excellent opportunity for attendees to meet and interact with people at different stages of research, get mentoring sessions with the instructors, and learn more about the use of Internet-based research in different fields. The exchange of ideas went on in the classroom and during the social events designed to let participants learn more about the history and attractions of Konstanz (through visits to the Konstanz City-Hall, the Meersburg Castle, and Konstanz Old Town).

Thanks to the organisers, the group assistants and the instructors for making this event a great learning and exchange experience. But most of all, thanks to all the participants for attending and making this event unique! See you in two years again 😊

iScience members, iScience friends, and colleagues from joint DFG projects (like Lilly Roth from the University of Tübingen) had an extraordinary 4-day mid-semester break event this week.

Thanks to precautionary health safety measures (like the free, daily PCR tests of the University of Konstanz), the event took place on-site in Konstanz even in turbulent COVID-19 times, thus enabling a face-to-face exchange of our often remotely working team (with colleagues distributed, for example, in Konstanz, Kreuzlingen, Zürich, Luzern, Tübingen, and Hamburg).

We spent the time together discussing the future of our research, our research tools, and how we can further improve innovative projects and academic collaborations. 

For example, our iScience Research Colloquium (FoKo) with a series of knowledgeable and passionate presentations was an excellent opportunity for us to learn about the wide range of research being done by the different iScience team members. As a result, many conceptual synergies have emerged, leading to new research ideas.

The event also included various coding workshops, methodological discussions, and thus a lively exchange of skills and knowledge. For example, one workshop topic was about current developments in Open Science and the debate on how we can make our research and iScience research tools (like WEXTOR) even more accessible, transparent, and collaborative.

And there were also many opportunities for informal exchange: Team events in restaurants, coffee breaks in the cafeteria, and a hiking trip through the Mainau forest were great ways to celebrate and spend time with colleagues.

At the end of the 4-day event, we all felt inspired and energized to take on new challenges!