Proposal

I was in a unique position to work on completing my Master’s dissertation while at the same time, preparing a proposal for a doctoral thesis to be presented once I have achieved my Masters degree. My Master’s degree is in the field of decision making. My theoretical framework is that of the somatic marker theory by Antonio Damasio. I am looking at a low-risk, non-economic decision-making scenario and investigating if I can apply the precepts of the somatic marker theory (which involved a high-risk, economic scenario) using psychophysiological measurements. The title of my Masters study is

Using psychophysiological measures to explore the presence of somatic markers in decision making in an online information-seeking environment.

In addition to thwe above, I worked on a proposal that I hope to be able to submit for a doctorate onve I have passed my Masters degree. We were given comprehensive guidelines on proposal writing and  proposal presentation throughout the year. The progress of my proposal is interesting. My initial topic had to be rejected as I unfortunately (or rather – fortunately) discovered a group of researchers who had undertaken research on the same topic and using similar methods. This was unfortunate as I had already put a lot of thought (and copious amounts of reading) into the topic. On the other hand, this was a fortunate development as:

  1. It occurred near the beginning of the research process.
  2. It cemented for me the value of doing a thorough literature search
  3. It indicated to me that I was on the right track with both my ideas and my methodology
  4. I found my eventual research topic using chess as the context, much more exciting and logistically feasible.

I then developed a new (but related) topic with a new title…

Exploring event-related potential patterns in a Chess environment

Throughout the year, we were instructed on various aspects of the research writing process from obtaining literature, through to critical reading and academic writing. Critical reading encompassed not only article-reading but also other media such as video, lectures, songs and images (the latter two being part of our bootcamp week). These are listed below…