Who would study psychology unless they had some issues?!
Chapter 299 - 297: Data Contamination in Experiments

Chapter 299: Chapter 297: Data Contamination in Experiments

The experiment is moving to the next step.

The computer screen goes black, ceasing to refresh images.

Nan Zhubin gives real-time guidance: "Next, there will be several different music or recordings playing through your headphones. Please respond to these sounds as naturally as possible..."

...

About twenty minutes pass in the blink of an eye.

The male student walks out of the room, looking a bit dazed. After taking a deep breath, he greets Teacher Xiao Zhao, whom he’s relatively familiar with, and then bids farewell.

Teacher Xiao Zhao watches the dazed expression of the male student and falls into contemplation.

As soon as Nan Zhubin also leaves the room, Teacher Xiao Zhao suddenly asks, "Mr. Nan, is what you’re having the students do the same as what you showed me last night? Why are their reactions... so intense?"

Her tone is full of curiosity, along with a kind of yearning.

To get Teacher Xiao Zhao to cooperate with the project, Nan Zhubin had also let her experience the experimental process herself the previous night.

But compared to the expression of the male student who just left, Teacher Xiao Zhao felt that her own experiment experience was much more bland.

It was just some emotion-triggering images, so why did that student show an expression of—euphoria?

Teacher Xiao Zhao even felt a bit envious.

Nan Zhubin nodded as a matter of fact: "Of course, it’s the same."

"As for why their reactions are so intense... maybe it’s because their usual study life is just too oppressive."

Nan Zhubin ventured a possible guess, but he thought it might be the answer: "In their usual studies, to maximize learning efficiency, they are neither in a prolonged positive emotional state nor in a prolonged negative emotional state—they remain in a relatively flat emotional state."

"So in this kind of emotion induction experiment, when they are constantly stimulated by different emotions, they experience something akin to the thrill of a roller coaster, unexpectedly leading to relaxation and even stress relief."

Nan Zhubin shrugged: "Of course, this unexpected effect isn’t possible for everyone. Our purpose isn’t healing, but data collection."

Teacher Xiao Zhao nodded thoughtfully and then looked at Nan Zhubin, appearing as if she had more to say but stopped.

However, Nan Zhubin noticed something else: "Wait, you just said, ’Why are their reactions so intense,’ right?"

Teacher Xiao Zhao came to realize: "Right, Teacher Chong just finished too. He asked me to call him when you were done."

...

After all, it was the first time for the junior fellow to handle a project, and this was the first student participant he was in contact with in this project.

As the senior fellow, Chonghui was still a bit worried.

Therefore, he paused after the data collection from the first participant, intending to check his junior fellow’s experimental operation to see if there were any problems. If there was any improper operation, it could be corrected quickly, avoiding the situation where all the collected data would be unusable due to errors.

The successful and high-quality advancement of the project is far more important than hurried progress.

Upon hearing a knock on the door, Chonghui came out of the room.

"Has the junior done many experiments before?"

He fiddled with Nan Zhubin’s instruments as he asked.

Nan Zhubin checked his memory and replied: "Not many."

Indeed, during his research at Jiang University, after Lin Lulin discovered Nan Zhubin’s talent for consultation, he had always arranged for him to do consultations rather than experiments.

Perhaps at that time, he was even thinking of having Huang Xin write a paper with Nan Zhubin as co-author.

Speaking of which, I don’t know how Lin Lulin is doing lately, whether he’s still on a liquid diet—maybe it’s time to visit?

In summary, the data collection part that has been modified from the emotion induction experiment is indeed closer to basic experiments rather than psychological consultation.

It’s not a field where Nan Zhubin is particularly skilled.

Hearing this, Chonghui perked up, but also slightly relaxed at the same time.

"Then I’ll take a look at your operation..."

As he spoke, Chonghui opened the recording device, fully focused, prepared to pause at any moment if needed.

Then, after one complete playback.

Chonghui glanced up at Nan Zhubin.

And out of caution in the experiment, he watched it again.

"Is there any problem?" Nan Zhubin asked.

"No problem..." Chonghui quickly finished the second viewing.

He thought for a moment and decided it was a good thing.

"Your operation is quite proficient... though the part where you deliver guidance personally is a bit dragged out; since we aren’t conducting a strict experiment, displaying the guidance directly on the screen could be more efficient," Chonghui thought, "but that’s not a significant issue."

"The subsequent student arrangements can be a bit more compact, let’s collect the data more quickly."

Nan Zhubin nodded.

Chonghui also nodded slightly, but his thoughts drifted off.

The process of the project went a bit unexpectedly smoothly.

During his time in Beidu, Chonghui had also led new group members as a junior guide, but back then, facing pairs of clear eyes, Chonghui only felt a headache. Those junior fellows and sisters were clueless, making him basically their babysitter.

Yet at this moment, facing Nan Zhubin, whom he didn’t need to teach anything, Chonghui inexplicably felt a bit uneasy.

It seemed as if he was a bit redundant.

Even wanted to find something to talk about.

"Hmm... for today, let’s proceed with capturing data through recordings," Chonghui thought hard and felt he found a point to remind, "but later tonight, let’s consolidate and check it."

"?"

Chonghui nodded inwardly.

This junior fellow belongs to the talent category, which isn’t something he can compete with; but there are some research experiences accumulated over time that he can teach, and talent alone is hard to compensate for that. Teaching now might mean he won’t be needed to assist in a year or two.

Facing Nan Zhubin’s puzzled look, Chonghui said: "We’re currently establishing a database, but the data we collect might contain a lot of interference data. Recording these without filtering might lead to contamination."

Chonghui explained with familiarity: "For instance, some students who inherently have a more repressed mentality might exhibit ’pleasure’ when seeing painful images; some students who enjoy R18 games might show ’excitement’ in response to bloody images, etc. These non-mainstream responses should be appropriately excluded."

Chonghui continued: "After we go back, we can first..."

"In that case, when I encounter inconsistent expressions, I can directly mark them," Nan Zhubin replied naturally.

"... first compare this batch of data with Beidu’s main database to exclude those with significant deviations... wait a second."

Chonghui blinked, realizing something wasn’t quite right.

"You said ’mark’ them, how will you mark them?"

Upon hearing this question.

Nan Zhubin answered it matter-of-factly: "I know precisely what kind of emotions these emotion induction materials are supposed to elicit."

Just like how one might instantly understand what a question in a psychological assessment scale aims to measure, understanding the purpose of presented materials is a basic competence for a psychology student.

"When I notice the emotions exhibited by the participant students don’t align with the emotions meant to be induced, I immediately mark them, and later, they just won’t be entered into the database."

Chonghui looked at Nan Zhubin and fell into silence for a moment.