NUS 1000 SE: Not Your Usual Data Gathering Survey

By Professor Michael Chee

NUS 1000 SE Uses Three Major Streams of Data Collection: how do these work?

Every year, we fill in several surveys about topics ranging from purchasing experience to innovation culture. The information derived from these requires considerable user input and often, the feedback we get is not directly helpful.  The single time point nature of these surveys could affect responses through a phenomenon called demand characteristics, where responders alter their behavior based on their perception of the research’s purpose..

NUS 1000 SE takes a different approach based on the idea that we all want better health, but we’d prefer not to expend too much effort providing the data needed to offer good, customized advice.

Understanding sleep and physical activity patterns using a trusted consumer wearable device. Through this device and its app, much information about your sleep and physical activity will be revealed to you. You can also use the tools provided to improve your sleep and physical activity. We’ll offer additional materials explaining why accurate measurement is so critical and how we’ve validated these methods specifically in Singapore.

NUS 1000SE uses Ecological Momentary Assessment to gain insights into behavior by asking a few different questions each day and repeated over weeks. The method itself is not new but the question we pose have been evaluated in NUS students to yield useful information.

Workers often complain there isn’t enough to get things done. Journalling / keeping a log of time use can yield insights into how we use our time. By understanding work patterns, identifying time-wasting activities and improving focus we will have more time to do things we find fulfilling. The time-use module in our smartphone based Z4IP app has evolved over years and has benefited from field testing in NUS students and a limited number of staff.

One of the most robust features of ageing is slowing down. This affects activities as diverse as walking and thinking through a list of things to do. In the laboratory, we assess speed of processing through a variety of tasks that require a participant to focus on performing as quickly as they can. Understanding how factors like not obtaining sufficient sleep or drinking alcoholic beverages affect processing speed benefits from repeated measurements under different conditions. With conventional testing, performance improves with practice making the results of repeated testing challenging to interpret.

How we use our smartphones daily provides a ready-made, practice effect free platform from which to test motor speed. However, sophisticated methods are needed to make reliable inferences because the differing demands required of our brains and motor systems when performing different actions on the phone – for example: typing, scrolling, browsing, have on motor speed.

On the surface, NUS 1000 SE might not seem particularly complex—but that’s precisely its strength. The study offers advanced tools that allow us to gain deep insights about ourselves and each other, all while going about daily life wearing the provided ring and responding periodically to brief questions.