10+ Best Research Methods

PART 1: Rationale, Purpose, and Hypothesis

 Research Methods

What does the title say? What do you imagine the paper will be about, just from reading the title?

Research Methods. The title “The Sound of Intellect: Speech Reveals a Thoughtful Mind, Increasing a Job Candidate’s Appeal” predicts how an employee’s voice, rather than the semantic content of their language, is the most important factor in interpreting the contents of their ideas. I believe this paper will evaluate how a person’s intelligence can be communicated most effectively via a signal closely associated with genuine thinking (Research Methods).

What is the overall question that this study tries to answer?

A person’s voice serves as a conduit for expressing complex ideas, beliefs, and knowledge via the use of semantic and paralinguistic clues present in the language. Therefore, the overall question that this study seeks to answer is whether a signal that is closely related to a person’s continuous mental experience influences judgments of that person’s cognitive ability, especially their potential for reasoning and intelligence.

What were the findings that led the authors to do the study reported in this paper?

Several studies, like those conducted by Hall and Schmid Mast (2007) and Kruger et al. (2005), demonstrated that a person’s voice, rather than the semantic content of their language, is essential for comprehending the contents of their ideas. In part because of paralinguistic clues in speech, such as intonation, cadence, and amplitude, observers who hear communicators’ genuine thoughts and emotions are more accurate guesses than observers who read the exact words in a written text. There is little evidence that adding visual cues to verbal information increases accuracy, which implies that visual information may be redundant with speech or, at the very least, less helpful for mental-capacity inferences. Research Methods

What was the purpose of the paper?

Because humans are seen as more intelligent than animals and machines, they are more likely to be employed. Dehumanization takes many forms, but one of the most subtle is the failure to acknowledge another’s ability for thought, reasoning, and logic. It is feasible to forecast the humanizing effects of speech by anticipating that a person’s address would show their intellectual ability (Research Methods). Therefore, the primary goal of this Research Method was to demonstrate that a person’s speech, in addition to conveying the unique ideas and beliefs of that person, transmits the individual’s underlying ability for thinking (his or her capacity for reasoning, thoughtfulness, and intellect).

What is new or different about this paper compared to similar studies?

In contrast to other previously conducted studies, this research brings a new version of human interpretation by examining the role of a person’s voice in expressing intelligence in an area where assessments of a person’s mental abilities are both prevalent and critical: hiring and firing choices.

What was the hypothesis/were the hypotheses? That is, what question(s) are the authors trying to answer with this experiment?

The hypotheses that this study was majorly determined to evaluate were:

• When allowed to hear another person talk, observers are more accurate in their predictions about that individual’s thoughts and emotions than when given the identical stuff to read.
• When an otherwise dumb machine is given a human voice, spectators are more likely to anthropomorphize the device, believing it to have a mind capable of thinking and emotion rather than a mindless machine.
• People’s trait-based perceptions of a person are altered when paralinguistic features of that person’s voice, for instance, pitch level, are observed.

PART 2: Research Methods, Experiments, and Results

What method did they use to test the hypotheses or answer the question(s) you noted above?

This study incorporated series of experiments most relevant to the hypotheses where participation in 20-minute research on how individuals make employment judgments were sought from MBA students in the study. Candidates first identified the organization they would most want to work for and then brainstormed a one-minute presentation to persuade this company to recruit them. The potential employer was given both a written and a spoken presentation from each applicant. After that, the applicants answered a quick survey question.

Diagram Analysis of Research Methods

Figure 1

Research Methods. Figure 1 was a depiction of experiment one that tested the evaluators’ judgments of job applicants’ intelligence, overall perceptions, and the hiring likelihood of the candidates in the x-axis. While the y- axis shows the z scored evaluation outcomes for the video, audio, and transcript conditions. This graph depicted the evaluators’ standardized ratings of the job candidates’ intellect, their general impressions of the candidates, and their likelihood of hiring the candidates. These findings in this figure suggests that an applicant’s voice communicated intelligence, leading to a favorable impression and increased hypothetical interest in employing the candidate (Research Methods). These findings support the hypothetical theory that natural paralinguistic clues in voice might reflect a person’s mental capacity.

Figure 3

Figure 3 was a depiction of experiment two which showed intellect, general impression, and hiring likelihood in the x-axis and employer’s z- scored evaluation for writing, audio, and transcript conditions in the y-axis. Results were for this figure were conducted separately for the video, audio, and transcript conditions (Research Methods). Error bars represent ±1 SEM. Even though the semantic information in experiment one and two were same, this figure predicted the ability to think to be more easily given verbally than written. The writing condition findings do not show that a brilliant writer cannot overcome text-only limits; they show that the M.B.A. students in Experiment 1 did not anticipate or spontaneously overcome these limitations.

Figure 5

Research Methods. Figure 5 compares employer’s z- score evaluation in writing, male and female speakers against intellect, general impression, and hiring likelihood in the x-axis. This figure was a mediation model testing the effect of experimental conditions on the reported likelihood of hiring a job candidate, as mediated by the perceived intellect of the candidate and general impressions of the candidate. Despite no gender effects in Experiments 1 and 2, experiment three allocated assessors to different gender conditions. So that gender impacts while keeping the semantic content same could be tested. Research Methods

Research Methods

Figure 7

Figure 7 evaluates a professional recruiter’s z- score on audio and transcript on the main axis against intellect, general impression, and hiring likelihood in the x-axis. The final experiment has practical ramifications for persons who want to show others their smart mind (Research Methods). The candidate’s voice impacted both novice assessors and expert recruiters. While text-based communication methods like email may be convenient for connecting with prospective employers, our research shows that wordless communication has an unanticipated inferential cost. A person’s voice appears to carry intelligence.

PART: Conclusion

What is the answer to the overall question of the study?

The overall answer in this study is that although initially, most employers believed that words written by a person’s hands are the same as those he purported to say, the words that come out of a person’s lips indicate the presence of a conscious mind more effectively than the words typed by a person’s mouth.

How do the results of the paper change what we knew before these studies were done?

By exploring the function of a person’s voice in communicating intelligence in an area where judgments of a person’s mental talents are both prominent and crucial, the results contributes a novel version of human interpretation to the table, in contrast to other previously done studies. Options in terms of hiring and firing

How do the results compare to similar studies? Do the results agree with or contradict other studies? If they contradict other studies, do the authors give potential reasons why?

Just like other studies such as Hall and Schmid Mast (2007), this article found out that employers who listened to job presentations were consistently more interested in hiring the applicants, according to five trials.

Do you think the authors’ interpretations of their own results are appropriate, based on your reading of the figures (the actual data)? Why or why not?

I believe that the author’s interpretation of their own results are appropriate because results confirmed the initially approved theory that employers who read similar job pitches were always less interested in hiring the prospects. The tone of a person’s voice conveys the substance of their thoughts and the ability to think in the manner of a human being.

What other experiments would be useful to further understand the data presented?

From the evaluation of results, this study is more than adequate because the study employed the prospects of global research ethical considerations. To further understand this study’s presented data, tabular presentations and charts could be the best option