Guide to childlanglab

Onboarding

Purpose

A self-guided onboarding to help you get started in the lab. We’re so glad you are here!

Procedure

Prerequisites
  1. Make sure you have completed these requirements (you probably have, but check with lab manager & Katie on email to confirm)
  2. Request to join the papafragou-schuler-labs google group
Step 1: Learn to use Slack
  1. Ask the lab manager by email (and cc Katie) to add you to the slack channel (if you don’t have it already!)
  2. Join the following channels: #lab-general, #lab-social, #lab-submissions, #lab-help, #lab-database, #ra-worklog, #ra-workschedule
  3. Join any additional channels as needed (#exp-*, #grant-*, or #ra-supervisors)
  4. Practice using the #lab-general channel (for lab-wide announcements): Introducing yourself to the lab! Tell us who you are, where you are from, and what your role is with the lab.
  5. Practice using the #lab-social channel (for non-work things): Share something fun like a picture of your dog, a recent life event you are proud of, your favorite meme, etc!
  6. Practice using the #lab-help channel (for questions and support): Say something like “Hi all! I’m working X to Y time today. I have about N hours to work on other tasks. Let me know if you need help with anything today!”
  7. You can also send private chats to any lab member (though please use channels over dms as often as you can, so we can search for answers after you graduate!). Practice using private messages by sending a brief one to Katie about why you are excited to start working in the lab.
Step 2: Learn to use Todoist
  1. Ask the lab manager to add you to our todoist project (if you don’t have it already!)
  2. Login to todoist; if you don’t see the Childlanglab team, check the notificiation to accept the invite (bell icon)
  3. Learn to use the RA Tasks list:
    • In the lab inbox column, create a task “YourFirstName complete lab onboarding”. Assign the task to yourself and drag it to your column.
    • In your column, create a task “Read lab handbook” and assign it to yourself. Add a link to the lab handbook in the description: lab handbook
    • Add a task to the lab manager’s column and assign it to them: “Add YourFirstName to IRBs”
  4. Learn to use the Bugs & Feature request list:
    • We use this to track bugs in our database or other software or to request new features
    • Add a bug: if you noticed a typo anywhere in the guide, add that! If not, just “YOURNAME test adding bug”
Step 3: Learn to use the childlanglab Google Calendar
  1. Login to the lab’s google calendar
  2. Add your birthday to the Birthdays calendar (as an all-day event that recurs every year!)
  3. Check the RA Work Schedule to see who is working next week
  4. Confirm that the lab’s whiteboard is up to date with today’s events!
Step 4: Learn how to Review literature for a project
  1. Use Google Scholar to search for a paper by Lila Gleitman from the year you were born (or another year you like)
  2. Then, paste the APA citation and abstract into the Lila Gleitman Collection (Training) google doc, inside the Lit Reviews folder in the lab’s Google Drive.
  3. Make the citation in bold and the abstract in plain text. You can get the citation from the quotes button under a paper on Google Scholar. Use the APA version of the citation. If you need to screenshot instead, you could also do that and paste it in
  4. Finally, add the citation to the lab’s bibliography manager (Zotero). Login to Zotero from Google Chrome and go to the Web Library: https://www.zotero.org/childlanglab/library. Click on the group library childlanglab in the sidebar and then click the magic wand to enter a URL to add to the library.
Step 5: Learn how to do a Preregistration
  1. Create an account on AsPredicted.org
  2. Click the I am just trying things out checkbox
  3. Click the Create button
  4. Add Katie (Kathryn Schuler) and the lab manager as Participating Authors
  5. Fill out the nine questions — just insert any text into the boxes, it’s just for practice.
  6. Make sure the name (#9) is informative (e.g. “YourName’s test prereg”)
  7. Click Preview
  8. Preview your submission and click Submit
  9. Approve the submission (via the email you get)
Step 6: Learn how to edit the lab website
  1. Go to the childlanglab Google Drive
  2. Go to the Lab Website folder
  3. Go to the Child Language Lab site (purple icon)
  4. Go to the People page
  5. Scroll down to the relevant section (Grad Students, Research Assitants, etc)
  6. Add your photo, name and description (in the same format as the other students in your category)
  7. Click Publish in the top right corner
  8. See more on the [editnig-la]
Step 7: Learn how to edit the guide (this)
  1. Login using the lab’s github credentials
  2. Do the markdown tutorial, so you know how to edit markdown pages
  3. Read the “update an existing page” section of editing the guide
  4. Edit this page to include your name and today’s date at the bottom of the list in the FAQs
Step 8: Learn to use the lab database
  1. Ask Katie to add you to retool
  2. Install Google Authenticator (for 2-factor authentication)
  3. On the Experiments page, click Add new
  4. Choose the name “[YOUR NAME]’s training experiment
  5. Choose the group “training-project”
  6. Enter a description
  7. Select 0 “Training” for IRB protocol
  8. Select your choice of options from “recruiting from”
  9. Click Save changes
  10. Go to your experiment
  11. Click on the versions tab
  12. Click Add new versions
  13. Enter a name (your choice)
  14. Select jspsych as the framework
  15. Enter https://pennchildlanglab.github.io/penguin-lexical-decision/index.html as the data collection link
  16. Enter a description (your choice)
  17. Click the run button to run the experiment!
  18. View the data tab to see your data
Step 8: Learn how we Protect our participants

Hooray! You’ve finished the lab self-guided orientation! Proud of you!

FAQs