tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34851282.post1519368828804727962..comments2024-01-18T00:34:37.268-08:00Comments on Incorrect Pleasures: A quote from a 2007 paper published in the Neurocase science journalLili Marlenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09303890038396510279noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34851282.post-78657992132732494952011-10-30T07:36:12.696-07:002011-10-30T07:36:12.696-07:00Yes, that's true. That paper has acknowledgeme...Yes, that's true. That paper has acknowledgements at the end of the text, as is usual among journal papers. Martin Weitz (director of Brainman doco) thanked, Karen Ammond not mentioned. I guess we've got to assume that the researchers didn't know what Karen Ammond's regular job was. <br /><br />I wonder whether they still feel grateful for being introduced to Mr Tammet. This story could be read as a cautionary tale about synaesthesia researchers lazily using self-selected study subjects for their research. This has been a major problem with synaesthesia research, and researchers are still doing studies on small samples of self-selected or partly self-selected samples of the synaesthete population, which makes their research really meaningless, because any difference between the non-synaesthete control group (who generally aren't as self-selected as the synaesthete group) and the synaesthete study subjects could be wholly due to idiosyncratic characteristics of people who take the initiative to volunteer for neuropsychology research. <br /><br />Fortunately, there is an very easy way to check if a synaesthesia study has used a sample which is skewed due to self-selection - we know that the genuine sex ratio in synaesthetes is pretty much even, (thanks to the work of some UK synaesthesia researchers who aren't lazy dogs), but self-selected synaesthete groups are predominantly female, so if the synaesthete subjects described in a study paper are mostly female, and there is no assurance that the group was not self-selected, then the best thing to do with the study paper is screw it up and pop it in the bin. Sadly this will result in the disposal of research of some of the most eminent names in synaesthesia research today.Lili Marlenehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09303890038396510279noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34851282.post-77175915257831967782011-10-30T04:04:30.696-07:002011-10-30T04:04:30.696-07:00Baron-Cohen et al's paper "Savant memory ...Baron-Cohen et al's paper "Savant memory in a man with colour form-number synaesthesia and asperger syndrome" has a similar comment:<br /><br />"We are grateful to Martin Weitz for introducing us to DT..."<br /><br />Mr AnonAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com