Mark & Anne Meeting April 22

Another meeting that addressed problems I've been having getting moving with some of these projects. Most of my problems stem from not being exactly sure how to tackle these things. It all seems obvious once we've discussed it, though! Sigh.

1). Ontario Problem Gambling Studentship
Feel like I've got a pretty good start on this. Transcripts ordered (not without difficulty!), letters of reference requested, etc.

The proposal is started, but is still in hacked-together format. I wrote up the affective devaluation stuff (to be posted on the wiki in due course) but now need to rethink the whole thing, develop an outline and go from there.

Discussed adding in some self-regulation stuff. I know very little about it just now, but sounds like it's a pretty good fit for this proposal. Mark has sent me some information from the SSHRC grant to have a look at.

Here is a skeleton outline of the proposal:
Attention/disordered attention are important in problem gambling.
This could help us treat problem gambling in two ways:
1). Improve self-control via self-regulation
2). Reduce the salience of gambling-related cues via inhibitory devaluation.


To do:
- read stuff on self-regulation
- decide if it's useful for this proposal
- draft proposal outline
- write up draft
- Ask Robyn Fraser re: letter of registration from the uni

2). Stonehenge
ARGH still no luck. Couldn't do last Friday. Ben has promised this Friday. Fingers crossed.

Agreed that if Friday is not a go, Mark and I will start looking at alternative ways to get me in there.

3). SD Review
Have been doing reading for this but feeling like I don't know where to start. Mark sensibly pointed out that I might think about starting at the beginning.

New plan: draft outline and find papers/evidence that fill in sections of that outline. Much more sensible.

Ben postponed yesterday's meeting till tomorrow. My goal at that meeting is get him to agree to a REALISTIC timeline for this, so we have something to work towards and it doesn't fall by the wayside. Also, I plan to pick his brain re: his use of erotic stimuli as a model for the attentional effects of SD cues in the normal population. Sounds like Angele will be in on this one too, but in the meantime at least I can find out about how Ben's been using this.

And that about covers it. Meeting tomorrow to go over experiment ideas. Asma and I plan to work together to get as much as possible done in both our areas. Also, Journal Club started and was really awesome. Nice to toss some ideas around and get Alex's input particularly.