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Scientific research is so critical to our understanding of ourselves and our world, and STEM Camp is pleased to support these initiatives! As part of that commitment to community and STEM learning and work, STEM Camp has partnered with the Development of Social and Emotional Communication Lab (DSEC Lab) at Queen’s University in Ontario, to assist them with their research study.
The DSEC Lab is a psychology research group at Queen’s University. Their goal is to understand how children and adolescents develop emotional communication skills. Specifically, they are interested in how youth learn to use nonverbal cues, like facial expressions and tone of voice, to understand others’ emotional signals and express their own emotions.
They are also interested in understanding how these skills relate to youth’s social functioning and psychological well-being across development. This information can help provide support to youth who may be struggling with these emotional skills.
Currently, the DSEC Lab is conducting two studies, DETECT-A and LISTEN – read on for more information on each, including whether you’re eligible to participate, what participation means, and what benefits exist for participation. If you have questions, email dseclab@queensu.ca or visit the DSEC Lab website.
DETECT-A is an in-person study in Kingston, Ontario, which looks at how teenagers’ attention to social and emotional nonverbal cues in faces/voices shifts with age or puberty. This study will help to better understand how adolescents’ attention to social and emotional information changes across development.
The DETECT-A study is completed in-person at Queen’s University, and invites adolescents between the ages of 12-15 and their friends to participate.
The DESC Lab is interested in understanding youth’s attention to emotional faces and voices from different people in their life, including their friends and caregivers. To do so, they will ask participants to complete an attention task and series of questionnaires. Youth are asked to invite a friend and bring along one of their parents/caregivers, who are asked to provide emotional stimuli for the attention game. The study takes approximately 1 hour and participants are compensated $10 for participating (with $5 for the friend).
To learn more about DETECT-A or to sign-up to participate, click here.
LISTEN is an online study which seeks to better understand how youth perceive and interpret other teens’ responses to conflict situations. Through the results of this study, the DESC Lab hopes to inform interventions that help youth deal with peer provocation effectively.
Youth aged 11-14 are invited to participate in LISTEN.
During this online (that is, entirely virtual – you can do it from home!) study, participants will listen to recordings of other teenagers’ voices responding to hypothetical conflict situations. They will also listen to a story about the conflict situations and tell us what they think about the characters’ intentions. Lastly, participants are asked questions about themselves to understand whether some of their own social experiences and behaviours play a role in their interpretation of the recordings. This study takes approximately 45 minutes to complete and can be done at any time that is convenient (online). Headphones and a computer with access to the Internet are required. Participants receive a $10 electronic gift card for their time.
To learn more about LISTEN or to sign-up to participate, click here.