Field Research Techniques Research Articles

Articulating the experience of transparency: an example of field research techniques

Over the past two years, our field research with users has indicated that elements of an application design can disrupt users' work. Understanding how applications disrupt users' work has helped us to articulate the meaning of interface transparency. Interface transparency and related concepts have previously been explored from theoretical perspectives, but have not been grounded in user data.

Applying Field Research Techniques to the Business Enterprise

There are many accepted ways in which the economist may look at the business enterprise, each of which involves a different blend of theory and empirical evidence. Unfortunately, one gets the impression that many microeconomists have had no direct contact with firms: their experience of the very object on which some lavish such intricate mathematical analysis is entirely second‐hand. Happily, such isolation from the proper object of analysis, the firm, is by no means typical of the history of economic analysis. Adam Smith, the founder of modern economics, was well acquainted with the business community of Glasgow. He was on good terms with the leading merchants of the day including, most notably, Provost Andrew Cochrane who assisted Smith in the acquisition of statistical and institutional information later to be used the The Wealth of Nations. Alfred Marshall too had a serious concern for the realities of business activity. In 1885 he made an extended visit to the United States which took him into many factories and provided the basis for his paper “Some Features of American Industry”. Even ten years later “his zeal for field work remained unimpaired”, and the months of August and September saw Marshall undertaking extensive tours of English mines and factories. One hundred years later, one notices scarcely any enthusiasm on the part of economists for fieldwork of the sort that would take them into the business enterprise. A welcome sign of the possibility that this parlous state may yet be modified is contained in an article by Lawson, where it is argued that “more resources should be allocated, and attention paid, to the results of forms of case‐study, to personal histories, and to the study of primary sources. At the very least a re‐evaluation of research priorities and methods may be in order”. Such an attitude is in sympathy with the line of argument pursued in this article.

Zoos as teaching aids for the comparative psychology course

This paper describes a course in comparative psychology, an important feature of which is the inclusion of a series of observational exercises at our local zoological park. These exercises are designed to teach the general principles of evolution as they pertain to life in general and behavior in particular. Another significant feature of the course is the requirement that students conduct an observational research project at the zoo. These projects provide experience with field research techniques and allow students to interact with unusual and rare animals.

Training Volunteer Fieldmen to Conduct Trials for Minor Crop Herbicide Registrations

Abstract As many as 50 different vegetable seed crops are grown annually in Oregon on an estimated 8000 total acres. Often less than 100 acres of parsley [Petroselinum crispum (Mill.) Num.] or celery [(Apium graveolens L. (Dulce group)] are grown, whereas several hundred acres of carrot (Daucus carota L.), radish (Raphanum sativus L.), and other crucifers are produced annually in Oregon. Many of these crops are planted in late summer and overwintered for vernalization. Both fall and spring planted crops are harvested in mid to late summer. Weeds must be controlled throughout the 4-11 months from planting to harvest to reduce interference and to prevent weed seeds from contaminating the harvested seed. Seed company representatives expressed concern that additional herbicide registrations were needed to control weeds in overwintering seed crops. Because these crops are considered to be minor by potential registrants, chemical manufacturers indicated little interest in adding seed crops to their labels, and university resources were inadequate to pursue registrations for the multitude of vegetable seed crops. A program patterned after 4-H efforts was designed to obtain herbicide registrations through the cooperative efforts of seed company volunteers and the extension service. The program provided training in field research techniques to enable seed company fieldman to conduct the field trials necessary to register herbicides for use on vegetable seed crops in Oregon.

Foliar Fluoride Accumulation Under Sprinkle Irrigation

ABSTRACT INCREASED demand for water has prompted the use of fluoride polluted water for sprinkle irrigation. A field research technique was used to evaluate foliar fluoride accumulation as affected by sprinkler rotation speed, set time, evaporative demand, and fluoride concentration of irrigation water. Results from the field tests showed fluoride accumulation increased with irrigation water fluoride concentration, set time and evaporative demand and decreased with slow sprinkler rotation. A simulation model, based on a modified form of Pick's law, was constructed to estimate fluoride accumulation in sprinkled bean plants.

Differential Treatment of Females and Males in Mathematics Classes

This observational study of 10 high school geometry teachers combined the collection of quantitative and qualitative data using participant observation techniques to determine if there was differential treatment of male and female students. Categorical data gathered by use of the Brophy-Good Teacher-Child Dyadic Interaction System were analyzed by inferential and descriptive statistics. Ethnographic data were analyzed using anthropological field research techniques. Combined data showed a distinct trend for disproportionate teacher contacts, in both quantity and quality, with male students. It is hypothesized, based on observed behavior and interviews, that the sites displayed a type of self-fulfilling prophecy, with differential expectations by teachers for behavior of students of each sex causing differential treatment of students, which, in turn, contributed to differences in student behavior.

What Does One Say to a Naked Lady? Validity, Variability, and Data Collection: A Peruvian Example

Because of the nature of the ethnographic data collection task, tests of validity in anthropological research have been somewhat neglected. The development of tests of validity for the concepts used in the discipline enhance the confidence one can have in any given concept. This paper demonstrates the application of one approach to the determination of validity based upon the Multitrait-Multimethod Matrix developed by Campbell and Fisk for the evaluation of psychological tests. The procedure was applied to a data set collected in a squatter settlement in Peru. It was found that a modified application of the Multitrait Multimethod Matrix provided an acceptable tool to determine the validity of abstract concepts when the data was collected using ethnographic field research techniques.

Stress and aversive behavior in non-human primates: A retrospective bibliography (1914–1974) indexed by type of primate, aversive event, and topical area

A retrospective bibliography (1914–1974) of stress and aversive behavior in non-human primates is presented. Each of 582 citations is indexed for type of primate(s) studied, kind of aversive event(s), and topical area(s). The aversive events include air (pressurized and wind), alien species (human, human staring, and snake), aversive drugs, crowding, darkness, electrical stimulation of the brain, gravitational forces, hitting, isolation, looming, noise, nonreward (frustration), pinching, pricking, radiation, restraint, sandpaper, sensory deprivation, shock (electric), slapping, social defeat (induced experimentally), strobe light, tastes (foul), temperature extremes, threat of social separation, time-out from positive reinforcement, unavoidable aversive events, unpredictable stimulus changes, vertical chamber confinement, visual cliff, and water (rain). Index terms include traditional and specific topics such as fear, punishment, and complex schedules of negative reinforcement, topics subdivided within the areas of social behavior, ontogeny, perceptual processes, and psychopathology, and topics of special interest including space research, field research, research subjects, research instrumentation, shaping and training techniques, selected drugs (e.g., morphine), and cardiovascular or gastrointestinal correlates of stress. References whose primary interest were physiology or the study of drug effects were not included. In no case was a citation included if there was no recording of behavior.