6B Wednesday, March 16, 2011 // The Statement
Wednesday, March 16, 2011 The Statement 3B
news in review
Five of the most talked-about stories of the week, ranked in ascending order of actual importance
STUDYING STUDENTS
BY VERONICA MENALDI
Why students donate their bodies and minds to
University research
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Soft drink titan PepsiCo debuted
First-year graduate student Cailin
Collins may have been vaccinated
for anthrax, but she isn't sure. She
might have received a placebo
instead.
Collins is one of many students who par-
ticipated in a University vaccination study.
In addition to maybe having been vaccinated,
she's had blood drawn multiple times and has
even undergone a bronchoscopy - a medical
procedure that examines the respiratory sys-
tem. Despite the needles and time commit-
ment, she participates in studies whenever
possible.
Whether mandated by a professor or simply
a source of extra income, many University stu-
dents serve as participants in research studies
on campus. Because research studies are a pop-
ular means of obtaining credit in introductory
level communications and psychology courses,
and typically offer approximately $10 per hour,
the subject population often consists of the
same student participants in multiple studies.
Subjects for communication and psychology
studies are either drawn from a participant
pool - which consists of all introductory level
undergraduates - or volunteer students.
Rowell Huesmann, a Amos N. Tversky com-
munication studies and psychology professor
and director of the Research Center for Group
Dynamics, said students are not forced to par-
ticipate in studies. Ifa study doesn't appeal to
them, they are welcome to obtain the required
research hours through other means, such as
writing a research paper. Still, he emphasized
how participating in the study can be a learn-
ing experience in itself.
"The idea, from a learning point of view in
both introductory psychology and introduc-
tory communication studies, is to try and get
students familiar with how research is done,"
Huesmann said. "You can learn by reading or
by participating in research."
Volunteers also comprise a large majority
of the participation pool. Since the volunteers
aren't compensated with fulfilling a course
requirement, they are most often rewarded
monetarily.
"You work for an hour, you get $10 or so,"
Huesmann said. "You should be compensated
for devoting your time. My bigger concern is
subjects who agreed to participate without
being paid might have some ulterior motive. I
feel more comfortable when subjects have been
paid for participation."
During LSA senior Adam Mael's freshman
and sophomore years, he participated in psy-
chology studies as often as he could to get extra
spending money, since he didn't have a paying
job at the time.
In his freshman year, Mael wanted to go to
a concert at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor, but
didn't have the money to attend. To solve the
problem, Mael went to one study each week
for a month and saved the money he earned in
order to attend the concert.
Of the variety of studies he's participated in,
the two that most stand out to him pertained to
sleeping and interpersonal relationships with
strangers.
'For some of these sleep studies, it's basi-
cally paying you to take a nap, which is great,"
Mael said.
The second study had Mael sit in a room and
write an essay about the conflict in the Middle
East in five minutes. The essay was to be grad-
ed by a student in another room also participat-
ing in the study.
Mael didn't know who this student was, and
once he received his essay back, he was shocked
to see remarks written all over the paper saying
that it was the worst thing the reader had ever
read and that it was a "piece of trash."
Shortly after looking over the comments
Mael was hooked up to a machine and asked to
think about that person for five minutes. At the
end of study, Mael was informed that there was
not actually another person in the room. The
remarks he read weren't true and were only
recorded to see how he'd react. Naturally, Mael
was relieved to hear this.
For Collins who has volunteered as a subject
since she was an undergraduate - participating
in studies is about helping out the researchers.
"Being a researcher myself, I know how
important it is and how it can be really difficult
to find volunteers," she said. "It's good money,
but that's not why I do it. It's also an interesting
experience, and it helps them out."
In one of the studies, Collins had a bronchos-
copy - a medical analysis of the lungs - per-
formed on her. She was on mild sedatives for
the three-hour procedure and received $400
dollars.
"The procedure wasn't uncomfortable
because they numb you throughout it, and I got
to watch them go down into my lung," she said.
"Even though I was drugged and a little loopy
recognized its most recent
inductees in its official induction
ceremony in New York City on
Monday. Among the five inductees
were Alice Cooper, Tom Waits
and Neil Diamond.
the first bottle made exclusively
from PET, a plastic composed
solely of recycled plant materials,
on Tuesday. The bottle is 100 per-
cent recyclable, and its materials
include pine bark and corn husks.
Former nurse William Melchert- Prosecutors alleged in a recent
Dinkel was convicted Tuesday report that 74-year-old Italian Pre-
of assisting two individuals in mier Silvio Berlusconi engaged in
committing suicide by providing sexual acts on 13 different occa-
instructions in an online chatroom sions in 2010 with an underage
on how to kill themselves. He will prostitute. Berlusconi's trial is
be sentenced on May 4. scheduled for April 6.
The effects of last Friday's
9.0-magnitude earthquake and
subsequent tsunami continue to
plague Japan, as explosions at
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power
Station on Tuesday have spread
fear of radiation exposure.
0 1 2 3T _ 4 5 6 i 7 8 9 10
quotes of the week from the archives
"If this is because we're misbehaving and God is New name, same major
pissed, I would check the mirror, Glenn."
WHOOPI GOLDBERG, HOST OF "THE VIEW," on radio personality
Glenn Beck's suggestion that God's anger prompted the recent earth-
quake in Japan.
"To say we need to act quickly, as fast as possible,
but not to provide answers to those fundamental
questions is not really helping, it is just beating the
air.
VITALY CHURKIN, RUSSIA'S U.N. REPRESENTATIVE, on how a no-fly
zone would be applied in Libya and who would enforce it. ILLUSTRATION BY KATIE EBERTS
The silver screen can be a mobilizing medium - consider the recently
released Justin Bieber documentary, "Never Say Never." What other artistic
the rules project can so ardently stir the gushing sentiments of millions for the pint-
sized pop star? (There have been over $70 million in box office returns, if you want
to quantify those sentiments). Back in 2005, film activated passions of a different
No. 304: No. 305: No. 306: kind when the University changed the previously-titled film program, "Program
If you're still talking Your Facebook Alcohol poisoning in Film and Video Studies," to its current name, "Screen Arts and Culture." The
switch prompted and faculty to circulate a petition to protest the change ("Dep't
about Charlie profile picture gets you a UHS name change angers film students,"10/21/2005).
Sheen, you're not should have you in note to excuse you Detractors of the new title labelled it as ambiguous - suggesting other names
winning. it somewhere. from class. Happy like "Department of Motion Picture Studies" and "Department of Film, Video and
Television" - while supporters bemoaned "Film and Video Studies" as too narrow.
St. Patrick's Day! Open the LSA Course Guide to see which side won.
by the numbers
cOURTESYOF REUTERS
thousand people estimated to be killed thousand people ordered to stay indoors to million households left without running
from last week's earthquake and tsunami avoid potential radiation exposure from an water after the natural disasters.
in northeast Japan. exploded reactor.
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