Pre-Conference Workshop
Overview
The pre-conference workshop entitled “Naturalistic methods beyond neuroimaging: Capturing behavior in the wild” will take place on Wednesday, April 23, 2025 from 1:00 PM to 5:30PM at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Chicago – Magnificent Mile.
Presentations:
- Social network analysis
Miriam Schywk, Columbia University - Screenomics for passive sensing of smartphone use
Brooke Ammerman, University of Notre Dame - Geolocation data collection and analysis
Aaron Heller, University of Miami
The use of naturalistic approaches to study social and affective neuroscience have recently taken our community by storm. To date, this has predominantly manifested as recording neuroimaging data during “naturalistic” paradigms in the lab (e.g., viewing naturalistic stimuli, during conversations, etc.), yet many of the social and affective phenomena of interest to the community occur outside the lab “in the wild”, and comparatively little emphasis has been placed on recording naturalistic aspects of behavior to analyze in conjunction with in-lab imaging data. Building on rising enthusiasm for naturalistic methods, this pre-conference aims to introduce attendees to emerging methods for studying naturalistic social and affective phenomena in real-world contexts.
The pre-conference offers three sessions that each highlight a key emerging approach:
- Social network analysis
- Screenomics for passive sensing of smartphone use
- Geolocation data collection and analysis.
Each session will offer a primer with an overview of the approach, showcasing unique insights that can be gained from each method along with practical challenges and considerations for implementation. The goal is to provide a roadmap for attendees interested in learning and exploring these methods to capture the complexity of social and affective phenomena as they naturally occur outside of the lab.
Attendees will:
- be introduced to methods for capturing naturalistic real-world behavior,
- gain insight into the practical applications of each method,
- partake in discussions about how to integrate these methods into their own research.
This pre-conference is designed as an accessible overview and primer rather than a hands-on session, making it approachable for participants at all levels without prior knowledge. Trainees and seasoned researchers alike are encouraged to join.
Space is limited, register early.