TY - JOUR
T1 - Best practices for Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) research
T2 - A practical guide to coding and processing EAR data
AU - Kaplan, Deanna M.
AU - Rentscher, Kelly E.
AU - Lim, Maximilian
AU - Reyes, Ramon
AU - Keating, Dylan
AU - Romero, Jennifer
AU - Shah, Anisha
AU - Smith, Aaren D.
AU - York, Kylee A.
AU - Milek, Anne
AU - Tackman, Allison M.
AU - Mehl, Matthias R.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by National Institutes of Health grants R03CA137975, R21HD078778, 3R01AT004698, 5R01AT004698, R01HD069498, R01MH105379, and R01MH108641, Swiss National Science Foundation - P2ZHP1_164959. Acknowledgements Open Practice Statement
Funding Information:
We thank all past and current members of the Naturalistic Observation of Social Interactions (NOSI) Lab for their contributions to developing and refining the practices outlined in this article. In particular, we thank M. Robbins, F. gro?e Deters, and A. Carey for their contributions. We also thank our current team of EAR coders: Valeria Chavez, Darrian Corey, Julie Drake, Chris Griffith, Elieana Herrera, Skyler Kopit, Paloma Sainz, and Colin Tidwell. All materials are publicly available at the Open Science Framework?s EAR Repository (https://osf.io/n2ufd/).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, The Psychonomic Society, Inc.
PY - 2020/8/1
Y1 - 2020/8/1
N2 - Since its introduction in 2001, the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) method has become an established and broadly used tool for the naturalistic observation of daily social behavior in clinical, health, personality, and social science research. Previous treatments of the method have focused primarily on its measurement approach (relative to other ecological assessment methods), research design considerations (e.g., sampling schemes, privacy considerations), and the properties of its data (i.e., reliability, validity, and added measurement value). However, the evolved procedures and practices related to arguably one of the most critical parts of EAR research—the coding process that converts the sampled raw ambient sounds into quantitative behavioral data for statistical analysis—so far have largely been communicated informally between EAR researchers. This article documents “best practices” for processing EAR data, which have been tested and refined in our research over the years. Our aim is to provide practical information on important topics such as the development of a coding system, the training and supervision of EAR coders, EAR data preparation and database optimization, the troubleshooting of common coding challenges, and coding considerations specific to diverse populations.
AB - Since its introduction in 2001, the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) method has become an established and broadly used tool for the naturalistic observation of daily social behavior in clinical, health, personality, and social science research. Previous treatments of the method have focused primarily on its measurement approach (relative to other ecological assessment methods), research design considerations (e.g., sampling schemes, privacy considerations), and the properties of its data (i.e., reliability, validity, and added measurement value). However, the evolved procedures and practices related to arguably one of the most critical parts of EAR research—the coding process that converts the sampled raw ambient sounds into quantitative behavioral data for statistical analysis—so far have largely been communicated informally between EAR researchers. This article documents “best practices” for processing EAR data, which have been tested and refined in our research over the years. Our aim is to provide practical information on important topics such as the development of a coding system, the training and supervision of EAR coders, EAR data preparation and database optimization, the troubleshooting of common coding challenges, and coding considerations specific to diverse populations.
KW - Ambulatory assessment
KW - Behavioral observation
KW - Ecological momentary assessment
KW - Naturalistic observation
KW - Smartphone sensing
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U2 - 10.3758/s13428-019-01333-y
DO - 10.3758/s13428-019-01333-y
M3 - Article
C2 - 31898289
AN - SCOPUS:85077473253
VL - 52
SP - 1538
EP - 1551
JO - Behavior Research Methods
JF - Behavior Research Methods
SN - 1554-351X
IS - 4
ER -