Continuing the previous Basic Experimental Methods Training that held on December, 7-10, 2020, Mind, Brain and Behavior Laboratory (MBB Lab) Faculty of Psychology UGM held an Advanced Experimental Training on Monday, December, 21. This event occurred for 4 days, until Thursday, December 24, 2020.
The event started with opening speech from Dr. Nida Ul Hasanat, M.Si, Vice Dean of Academic, and Student Affairs followed by opening speech from Rahmat Hidayat, S.Psi., M.Sc., Ph.D., The Head of Doctor of Psychological Science Program.
This event is a collaboration program between MBB Laboratory and Doctor of Psychological Science Program. It is also part of Doctor of Psychological Science Program curriculum. “This event is expected to escalate the motivation and increase the variety of material for the students” said Rahmat Hidayat, S.Psi., M.Sc., Ph.D.
Furthermore, Galang Lufityanto, M.Psi, Ph.D., Head of MBB Laboratory also deliver a short speech. He also inform about the event schedule. Aside from material by the speakers, every session will also accompanied by discussion session as well as evaluation on the last day.
The number of participants who register are 123, with the majority of people who work in education field (Private and Public Univerisity), mostly from DKI Jakarta, Yogyakarta, followed with Bandung, Surabaya and several cities in Sumatera like Palembang, Padang and Riau. The other dominated cities are Banjarmasin and Makassar.
Each speakers will explain about experimental research they have conduct, start from theoritical background, method, process of the experiment, level of manipulations and the result.
Day 1
The first day was opened with material about Best Practice Research on Social Perception presented by Haidar Buldan Thontowi, S.Psi., M.A. Followed by the presentation of Best Practices for Molecular Cellular Level Research by Dra. Sri Kusrohmaniah, M.Si., Ph.D. She delivered about her dissertation titled The Effect of Environmental Enrichment and Gender on Hippocampal Volume in Rat.
The third session, discuss about research on mental process level, titled Resistance towards The Hollow Mask Illusion as a Feature for Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorder by Supra Wimbarti, M.Sc., Ph.D and Willy Kristianto Yappi, S.Psi., M .Si. This study aims to provide output for early detection of schizophrenia. This research was based on the phenomenon about the lacking numbers of psychologists and psychiatrists that not evenly spread in Indonesia. So early detection is expected to become useful tool before deciding to go to a psychologist or psychiatrist.
The end of the first day’s session was closed with discussion on Best Practice Level of Behavior delivered by Dr. Avin Fadilla Helmi, M.Si. In this session, she also invited one of the alumni, Rani Almalita to explain about her research, The Effect of Success Postings on Assessing Deservingness and Envy on Social Networking Sites. This research her master thesis under the guidance of Avin, using an experimental method.
Day 2
The first topic on the second day of the raining was Latest Topics in Social Experiment Research. The first session opened with presentation about intrapersonal research, by Cleoputri Al Yusainy, Ph.D., one of the lecturers as well as Head of Psychology Undergraduate Study Program at Brawijaya University. In her presentation, she conveyed about sego depletion research she conduct, collaborating with the UGM research team in 2016.
In addition, Cleoputri also provide several experimental studies involving the measurement of reaction time using computerized behavioral experiment program. According to herd, it is important for researchers to do collaboration. “We are, in psychology Brawijaya provide the labs to do experimental collaboration” she added.
The second material, intrapersonal experiments, was delivered by Zafira Rahmania Nur Shabrina, S.Psi., M.Sc. She presented his thesis research about Poverty and Social Emotions: The Effect of Shame on Divergent Thinking. This experiment was carried out by involving actors in the manipulation.
Galang Lufityanto, M.Psi., Ph.D., provide experimental topic about intragroup relations, with an experiment Does Collaboration Promote Cheating? One of collaborative research with his undergraduate students under his supervision.
The second day’s session was closed with discussion about Stereotype Content Model & Patient-physician Intergroup Relations, a study that involving cultural elements between doctors and patients by Yopina Galih Pertiwi, S.Psi., M.A., Ph.D. This is also her dissertation when she studied the United States.
Day 3
The third day was opened with material about Memory by Sri Kusrohmaniah, Ph.D and Zulkifli Khakim, S.Psi. The title of the research is The Effect of Affection Distraction Measured through Physiological Activity (Galvanic Skin Response & Electroenchepalography) on Declarative Memory in the Context of E-Learing.
In second session, Dr.Eng. Titis Wijayanto, S.T., M.Des. Present the research about visual attention in transportation safety. Titis, who is also Head of the UGM Ergonomics Laboratory, shared a study involving measurements using an eye tracker to measure participant’s attention in sleep deprived and non-sleep deprived conditions.
The material about emotions and creativity was delivered by Galang Lufityanto, M.Psi., Ph.D. explaining one of his supervised studies that aim to explain the effect of emotional valence & emotional arousal on creativity.
The last session raised a topic about creative problem solving by Satwika Rahapsari, S.Psi, M.A., R-DMT. The final goal of the research that she initiated aims to determine the impact of childhood experiences of violence on the circuit pathway in the amygdala and PFC parts of the brain, part of the brain that has a role in problem solving.
Day 4
The last day of the training was filled with presentations about the latest research topics in neuro-biopsychology.
The first material was about neurodevelopmental disorder, titled Development of Face Recognition Software to Differentiate Autism Spectrum Disorder from Typical Adolescents. This research is an experimental studies conducted by Supra Wimbarti, M.Sc., Ph.D and Willy Kristianto Yappi, S.Psi., M.Si. The output is a tool for early detection of the autism spectrum in adolescents.
The second discussion was about brain lateralization that delivered by Galang Lufityanto, M.Psi., Ph.D. He explained about his collaborative research with the School of Medicine, NYU, United States, titled The Utilization of Transcarnial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) to Modulate Intention to Cheat in Healthy Population. This study is an experiment using tDCS that provides electrical stimulation to certain area of the brain. The study aim is to explore about the brain area that activated when someone cheats. This is also related to the lateralization of the brain, where the right and left hemispheres have a specific role in the behavior processing.
Furthermore, the last material was delivered by Dra. Sri Kusrohmaniah, M.Si., Ph.D. and Ratri Nurwanti, S.Psi., M.Psi., Psychologist, lecturer in Psychology Study Program, Universitas Brawijaya. The research presented called Stress and Cognitive Control: The Effect of Stress on the Response-Conflict Task, where researchers give stress induction participants in order to determine the influence of emotions on cognitive control.
In addition to the previous materials delivered by the panelists, the last session of the training was closed with evaluation, where participants asked to submit experimental design draft that later on will be reviewed and discussed together with Galang Lufityanto, M.Psi., Ph.D. He hope that participants can learn from one another and be able to be more critical about the design. “Being critical and always asking curious is one of the mental set that experimental researchers must have. This is in accordance with Prof. Dicky’s message in basic experimental training” said Galang.
Through this training, it is expected that participants will be more critical, because experimental research ideas can come from everyday events. Furthermore, Galang added “MBB Laboratory is very open to collaborating in the future”.