At the Stanford Psychology Lab, I got an opportunity to work with the renowned Personality and Psychopathology theorist- Dr. Leonard Horowitz and a superb researcher, Dr. Fabian Ramseyer, from University of Bern.  

The data was collected from 180 university level students to assess Nonverbal synchrony and affect in dyadic interactions.  The goal of the research was to solidify the phenomenon of 'Synchrony.'  

Abstract from their publication:

"In an experiment on dyadic social interaction, we invited participants to verbal interactions in cooperative, competitive, and ‘fun task’ conditions. We focused on the link between interactants’ affectivity and their nonverbal synchrony, and explored which further variables contributed to affectivity: interactants’ personality traits, sex, and the prescribed interaction tasks. Nonverbal synchrony was quantified by the coordination of interactants’ body movement, using an automated video-analysis algorithm (motion energy analysis). Traits were assessed with standard questionnaires of personality, attachment, interactional style, psychopathology, and interpersonal reactivity. We included 168 previously unacquainted individuals who were randomly allocated to same-sex dyads (84 females, 84 males, mean age 27.8 years). Dyads discussed four topics of general interest drawn from an urn of eight topics, and finally engaged in a fun interaction. Each interaction lasted 5 min. In between interactions, participants repeatedly assessed their affect. Using hierarchical linear modeling, we found moderate to strong effect sizes for synchrony to occur, especially in competitive and fun task conditions. Positive affect was associated positively with synchrony, negative affect was associated negatively. As for causal direction, data supported the interpretation that synchrony entailed affect rather than vice versa. The link between nonverbal synchrony and affect was strongest in female dyads. The findings extend previous reports of synchrony and mimicry associated with emotion in relationships and suggest a possible mechanism of the synchrony-affect correlation."

My role as a research assistant was:

1. Recruited participants, scheduled sessions, introduced the session, prepared lab room for data collection, and programed the allied body metric equipment.

2. Conducted structured interviews, observed sessions, recorded notes and synthesized findings. Used body metric devices to record physical data.

3. Analyzed data from qualitative and quantitative methods to assess the phenomenon of non-verbal Synchrony. Statistical tools: Motion Energy Analysis, JMP & SPSS.

4. Research paper published by authors in ‘Frontiers of Psychology’ Nonverbal synchrony and affect in dyadic interactions.

Stanford: Research assisstant

Here's how cool Motion Energy Analysis looks like after processing!
My role:

I assisted Dr. Ramseyer with the complete lifecycle of research.  It was a blessing to learn the research cycle from the experts in the field!  I helped to recruit participants, interview and collect data. The intriguing part was to analyze the video sessions that synthesized the body movements.  In the video, each participant's body was divided in 4-5 preset segments.  These segments were then isolated, matched, and compared with segments of the paired participant.  This posture by posture analysis was conducted for all 180 participants for their 15 minute biometrically equipped interviews.  It was pretty time consuming to make separate sections of the body and assess their alignment, inclination, for each of the individual subjects.  But I learned a lot in this process!  I observed keenly how the nonverbal behavior reflects as a consequence of the cognitive interaction between the individuals.  It's pretty fascinating to see how people unconsciously match their bodies if there is 'synchrony' in the conversation.  So if you feel connected with someone, watch if they match your actions and gestures!  The video says it all!   

This is where I was introduced to the profession of Human Factors, Yea!!  While meticulously analyzing the video recordings with the help of Motion Energy Analysis, I came across literature and the fMRI lab work that was published on topics of human performance being affected by machine stimuli.  Consequently, I read books and other interesting journal articles and decided to make the move!  But first I helped to finish the data analysis.