This summer, I worked on a research project that explored the role of devaluation at relationship initiation. Our study focused on devaluation of physical attractiveness, which refers to negatively biased evaluations of a temptation. The study took place under the supervision of Prof. John E. Lydon at the Lydon Lab. Data was collected throughout the summer via an online dating study where single McGill students were matched with confederate profiles. Subsequently, devaluation was measured, both implicitly and explicitly.
My interest in an ARIA research project came from my experience doing my first honours thesis during the 2023-2024 academic year. I had a great experience working with the lab and graduate students and was excited to further develop my research skills and knowledge of interpersonal social psychology. Therefore, I decided to apply for the ARIA. Additionally, I felt that applying for this award would allow me to focus on research, since I could devote my full time to the project, as opposed to doing research while taking other courses. My learning objectives included being involved in every aspect of the research process, which involved creating, designing, and launching recruiting initiatives, preparing and organizing materials, data collection, data cleaning, and data analysis. I also completed additional tasks related to other ongoing studies, which allowed me to further expand my knowledge in the field.
One of the highlights of my ARIA was working on an algorithm that was used in the study. I had regular meetings with our IT assistant and guided him through the changes and improvements we wanted to make for the study. That experience allowed me to get a deeper understanding of how the algorithm worked. Another highlight of my ARIA was the team I worked with. I am very grateful to have worked with such a lovely team, from my supervisor to the graduate and undergraduate students, who all made my experience even better than what I expected.
Most of the challenges I encountered were related to preparing the materials for the study. For example, the algorithm generates a profile that includes a photo of an attractive confederate. This meant that we had to go out on campus and take photos of potential confederates. Therefore, we had to reserve a suitable camera, and figure out the best lighting and angles for the photos. We also had to choose what days would be the best to go out on campus, since we were taking photos outside and there were not always many students on campus. In the end, we were able to overcome this by going out on campus for several days and getting a few photos each time. Additionally, these photos had to be morphed with other faces for our implicit measure of devaluation. This created some issues since the morphs did not always look good. However, after playing around with the software with the help of Marlee Brownstein, the graduate student whose study I was working on, we were able to adjust certain settings to make the morphs look better and useable for the study. We also had some issues with recruitment. Since it was the summer, recruitment was a bit slow. To overcome this, we recruited participants using Facebook ads that I posted on various McGill student groups. This allowed us to have a lot more participants and increase the power of the study.
I think this ARIA research project will be a great addition to my undergraduate research experience, which is very important to me since I am considering applying to graduate school. Not only did I learn more about the research process, but I was also able to get some mentoring from my supervisor and the graduate students. They often took the time to give us advice on graduate school and even organized a professional development lab meeting, where we were able to ask questions about graduate school and careers in psychology. This helped me plan the rest of my undergraduate studies, as well as make decisions for the future. I feel that I am much more equipped now to conduct research. This experience also confirmed that I want to do a second honours thesis for my final year. Finally, I learned that I enjoy using my knowledge to teach others how to complete certain tasks since I spent the last few days of my internship working on training other undergraduate students who stayed at the lab.
I’d like to finish off by thanking the Arts Internship Office for awarding me with the ARIA, as well as the members of the Lydon Lab for supporting me and allowing me to contribute to their fascinating research.
