I have administered an experiment measuring engagement and frustration during a task. In one condition (Condition 1), task engagement is related to biological makers (i.e. heart rate, electrodermal activity, body temperature, etc... ), while in Condition 2 there is no relationship. Similarly, the opposite trend is true in regards to frustration where it pairs with biomarkers in Condition 2 and not Condition 1. I am unsure how to interpret this finding as this is the first study I have used biomarkers in. Any advice or help would be much appreciated.
The lack of agreement is not at all unusual. In about 1970, give or take, colleagues like Bryce Hartman at USAFSAM and Bob Mackie at HFR noted that human responses to stressors must be assessed in a tri-partite manner: psychophysiological measures, non-parametric assessments of subjective responses, and measures of cognitive and/or psychomotor performance. The set of results from each measurement domain is likely to tell a slightly different story about how the human is responding.
Perhaps an explanation can be found in the differences in the two conditions. For instance, if Condition 1 is primarily priming task engagement but not frustration for some reason, the biomarkers appear only to link to engagement. Similarly, if Condition 2 is primarily priming frustration but not engagement, the markers appear only to link to frustration.
What is the independent variable (I.e. what is the difference between condition 1 and condition 2)?
Of course. We have participants work on a task for 15-minutes. For condition 1, we tell participants that the average person completes the task in 15-minutes. The task then takes exactly 15-minutes. For condition 2, we tell participants that the average person takes 5-minutes to complete the task, and the task still takes exactly 15-minutes.
The independent variable is the actual time it takes to complete the task (15 minutes), the dependent variables are the manipulations (15 minutes and 5 minutes).
Emmanuel - The independent variable is condition (5- or 15-minute) and the dependent variables include variables like engagement, frustration, heart rate, skin response, etc... based on condition.
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