Assessment, Statistics, and Research

    Assessment Instrument:   Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) The EAR is a scientific instrument for recording short snippets of ambient sounds (e.g., 30 sec every 12.5 min). Participants activate an app or wear a device while the recorder creates audio files. Inventor: The EAR was developed by psychological scientist Matthais Mehl. DATA : The raw data are acoustic files. Data Analyses: Researchers can listen to the data or read a transcript to search for targeted data. For example, a researcher could search for evidence of humility or anger. Researchers could use a coding strategy to identify multiple target sounds, words, or phrases. The data could be analyzed for social environmental data using the Social Environment Coding of Sound Inventory (SECSI; Mehl & Pennebaker, 2003). Researchers can submit the data for qualitative or quantitative text analysis. Examples of participant EAR data (See Tackman & Mehl, 2003.) 1. Location of the person (e.g.,