DCAWD.com

Hello everyone!

First of all I apologize if I'm posting this in the wrong place on the forum, I'm a newcomer here.

My name is Ben Chernoff and I'm a researcher in the Kravitz Lab at the George Washington University here in D.C. We are studying the way the brain changes as experts in different domains such as cars, planes, chess, etc. acquire their expertise. The subject of plasticity, or the brain's ability to change, is a very important question in the field of neuroscience.

As car enthusiasts, DCAWD members posses a degree of expertise that most undergraduate students at our university do not have. In turn, participation in our study by DCAWD would be extremely useful in helping us study how people become experts. There are no risks associated with this study, and it will take roughly 60 minutes.

This a paid study. Participants will be compensated for the cost of their travel, plus $20 per hour

I have attached a flier for the study to this post. If you're a car enthusiast who would be willing to participate in this study, please contact me at ben.chernoff@gmail.com and if you have any questions feel free to respond to this thread or email me. Thank you all very much!!

EDIT: It was mentioned to me that I made a typo on my original post, which was true. The proper email address for me is ben.chernoff@gmail.com
I accidentally added an extra f. If you have previously emailed me and have not heard back, please re-send your email to ben.chernoff@gmail.com with only 2 f's at the end. Sorry for the trouble!

-Ben Chernoff

Ben, thanks for posting up! Unfortunately I don't have time, but maybe some other folks do.

If you don't get enough participants here, you may want to look at posting in the Mid-Atlantic section of NASIOC, they are a larger community of Subaru enthusiasts in the area. You could also look at reaching out to some of the local racing groups - SCCA Solo and SCCA RallyCross are two big ones. (I can cross post to SCCA RallyCross if you'd like).

Come on out sometime!

Hey Ben,
Thanks for posting up, sounds fascinating! Would participants need to come to GW, or is this something that could be done over the Internet? I see it's a neuroscience study, so does that involve getting hooked up to a EEG or similar? What are the date ranges for the study? Are there times that the person would need to show up?

Jason has some good ideas up there

Thanks a lot for the replies guys!

@ElZorro- I've actually gotten in touch with the SCAA DC region, but I hadn't contacted the NASIOC, so thanks for that tip!

@Sabre- Excellent questions! Participants would indeed need to come to GWU's campus, unfortunately we can't have you participate over the internet. As I mentioned though, it is a paid study, including compensation for travel. For now, the study is just behavioral, meaning you're not going to be hooked up to EEG or fMRI or other scanning technology. However, if all goes well in this initial stage we do plan to move to some more exciting research modalities.

For now the times that we would need people to be here and ready to begin the experiment are between 9 and 5 on Wednesdays and Fridays, excluding Friday April 4th. However, once June begins we will be running the experiment full time 5 days per week. However, the sooner we could recruit you guys, the better!

I could be available on a Friday afternoon sometime.
I'll give you an e-mail.

Hit zaxrex, thanks a lot for your response. I'll get back to you via email

It was mentioned to me that I made a typo on my original post, which was true. The proper email address for me is ben.chernoff@gmail.com
I accidentally added an extra f. If you have previously emailed me and have not heard back, please re-send your email to ben.chernoff@gmail.com with only 2 f's at the end. Sorry for the trouble!

GWUNeuroStudent wrote:This a paid study. Participants will be compensated for the cost of their travel, plus $20 per hour

I'd be willing to do it for travel costs alone.

@Mr Kleen thanks a lot for your response and enthusiasm! I'll send you a private message about scheduling a time

GWUNeuroStudent wrote:@Mr Kleen thanks a lot for your response and enthusiasm! I'll send you a private message about scheduling a time

Sorry, I was joking. I live in Germany now. I'd love to participate but I'm not exactly available.

Oh no hahaha, I totally missed the joke! That's alright, we understand you can't participate if you're all the way in Germany.

For everyone else looking at this thread though, we are still looking for participants! Anyone who can find an hour to take part in our experiment would be greatly appreciated. Thanks everyone!