For my UREAP, I investigated the relationship between anxiety and cognitive decline in older adults, with assistance from my supervisor Dr. Claudia Gonzalez. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 in March, we had to make some changes to the initial research plan so that the project adhered to the COVID-19 guidelines. The changes included moving all experimental procedures online in order to ensure social distancing. The first weeks consisted of finding an online platform that could be used for experimental testing. After reviewing and testing different platforms, we chose the online platform Gorilla(https://gorilla.sc/).Gorilla is an online platform that allows researchers to design experiments and collect behavioral data remotely and in a secure environment. After learning how to use Gorilla I designed two different reaction time tasks that can be used to collect behavioral responses from potential participants. I also designed and built a Demographic’s questionnaire and implemented anxiety and mood questionnaires such as the DASS –and STAI questionnaires, which we originally intended to use face to face. I found the platform easy to use, intuitive and engaging and it provided me with the rare opportunity of designing my own tasks. Building the experimental behavioral tasks required trouble shooting, guidance from my supervisor and other researchers from the Gorilla online community and practice. During this time, I also completed several literature reviews on the relationship between anxiety and cognitive decline in older adults, which would all link into a larger literature review. The reviews where separated into smaller sections so that I could practice and receive more frequent feedback on my writing skills. This is something that I am interested in learning since it will prove useful for my future plans as a graduate student. Linking the reviews also provided a deeper understanding of the relationship between cognitive
3decline and anxiety in older adults. In addition, my other goal was to get familiar with research methods used by other researchers to examine the links between anxiety and cognition. I therefore implemented this knowledge into designing my experiment.
