The Great Apple Experiment: Time to Weigh In!
The week of yelling at and coddling apple slices is over at last. Now it’s time to open up the jars and have a look-see. Your job, should you choose to accept it: examine each of the apples in the photos that follow, and indicate via poll which you think looks best and which looks worse.
The order of the photos was decided by coin flips, and the photos are unaltered except to black out the writing on the slips of paper behind them, which indicate which is which. I’ll post the original pics when voting is over tomorrow night.
[EDIT: For some reason, some people can't see all the images below. Here are the links, which open in a different tab:]
I’ll close the polls at 23:59pm GMT tomorrow (30 March) and we’ll see if the results are statistically significant. We have Matt “Actually A Professional Mathematician” Parker on hand to crunch the numbers and explain how stats like this work!
Then I’ll make appropriate adjustments to the experiment, institute better controls, and give it another go. Some of the suggestions from you all and from Nikki Owens’ fans have been great, including: sterilizing the knife and cutting board, replacing mustaches with “love” and “hate” labels, and using halves instead of quarters as Owens did originally. This last one is tricky as it makes it more difficult to have a control apple, but I think I’ve figured out a good way to do it: there will be two full apples sliced in half. One apple will be control with no “love” or “hate” directed at it, and the other will get half love and half hate. In the end, if Owens is correct, the love/hate apple should have drastically different halves and the control apple’s halves should look identical. Thoughts on this?
Here are all my videos from the last week if you need to catch up:
14178
7890
5277
46 Comments
Skept-artist
03.29.2010
I recommend that when you photograph the apples next time, use even lighting so that we can see each ‘side’ of the apple in the same light.
alwright1
03.29.2010
I’m only seeing 2 apples. Should there be 3?
Kimbo Jones
03.29.2010
Where’s apple 3? Also, what Skept-artist said.
Looking forward to the next one. Thanks Rebecca.
Rebecca Watson
03.29.2010
@alwright1: Yes, there are three photos there . . . try reloading the page, maybe? They’re all showing on my screen . . .
Rebecca Watson
03.29.2010
@Kimbo Jones: Weird, you can’t see it either?
Kimbo Jones
03.29.2010
@Rebecca Watson: I see a stack of 2, one picture on top of the other and then there’s the polls right below. I’ll email you a screenshot.
Oh and I’m on a Mac using Firefox. If that’s relevant…
Rebecca Watson
03.29.2010
Okay, I’ve added direct links! No clue why one of the pics isn’t showing….
Elyse
03.29.2010
@Rebecca Watson:
I see three apples!
One
Two
Three!
Kimbo Jones
03.29.2010
@Rebecca Watson: Weird, thanks. Voted!
It might affect the results that some people are making a subjective comparison (because they can see all 3 at once) and some people are making an “objective” comparison (seeing one at a time).
Constantine
03.29.2010
I can see the apples just fine.
Also I would like to suggest that you make sure the apples are lit evenly so that the shadows don’t exaggerate any dark spots on the apples. An over head light source, I think, would work the best.
Constantine
03.29.2010
Wow I’m thick….
killyosaur
03.29.2010
@Constantine: That’s what you get for being late to the game. And not reading all the posts first.
russellsugden
03.29.2010
What exactly are you testing here?
“Whether “Love/Hate” effects rates of decay” or
“How good are people in detecting the effects of “Love/Hate” on the rate of decay of apples
And you could have added a “no observable difference” option, forcing a dichotomy is likely to lead to random guessing.
SophieHirschfeld
03.29.2010
I think your hate apple needs more force next time. I suggest the most excellent responses from the insults post from January.
You can make that apple cry! I know you can. It will have botox-infested wrinkles and an addiction to anti-aging cream when you’re done with it.
starve2act
03.29.2010
I don’t know if this has any bearing, but I’d be skeptical of eating any of those slices of apple. Maybe you used most of your available love on something else, Rebecca, but none of them looked particularly loved to me.
Aaron
03.29.2010
@russellsugden: Actually, I’m pretty sure forcing a guess is ideal; it could uncover an attractiveness that people aren’t consciously aware of. You’d then perform statistical analysis to see whether any difference in votes between the apples is significant.
But that would only tell you whether a given slice of apple is perceived as being more attractive than the others. To see if there’s a statistically significant correlation between attractiveness and application of love/hate, you’d have to repeat the experiment with several apple slices.
carvert
03.29.2010
You should add more photos of each apple so we can see different angles. Otherwise the photos might be biased towards the apples good or bad side (unless you consulted with the apples in which side they wanted shown in public).
Astrid_H
03.29.2010
I don’t know how workable this is but maybe you could put th pictures beside one another, instead of stacking them up. That way you can see them all at once and they’re on a level playing field so to speak.
Kimbo Jones
03.29.2010
Another suggestion (because I’m annoying that way): Is there a way so that people can’t see the poll results until the experiment is over so that people don’t know what others have already voted?
jtradke
03.29.2010
Has anyone mentioned the lighting yet?
Skept-artist
03.29.2010
@jtradke: Hahaha! Uh, nope.
ArgentArdor
03.29.2010
The only valuable suggestion I have to add is that the apples’ images should be randomized, in case there is some preference for people to pick first or last. This does somewhat complicate using multiple apples, but perhaps you could also randomize which apple someone is rating. So instead of having one apple rated 360 times, you could have 10 apples rated about 36 times , with each possible combination of images rated approx. 6 times. It would not need to be truly random, as long as different image orders (abc, acb, bac, bca, cab, cba) are equally assigned and the raters do not know which is which.
Psgreen
03.29.2010
The Problem with seeing the 3rd pic seems to be if you’re running AdBlock Plus in Firefox. It has a rule to block any image with the keywords “300×250″ which the 3rd image seems to have in its name.
Fix is that you can either turn off Adblock Plus for the page , or Rebecca could rename the images.
Joshua
03.29.2010
@Skept-artist: I concur. The lightning can have a pretty dramatic effect on the appearance of the slice. Ideally, the apple slices would each be placed under the same lighting/camera rig in the same orientation, to eliminate that as a source of confounding ugliness.
Skept-artist
03.29.2010
@Joshua: You are now the Master Lighter. Get thee to Londontowne with thine soul-stealing daguerreotype contraption and oil lamps! Quickly now, the rot of Satan has set upon the Watson Orchard.
IBY
03.29.2010
Honestly, I can’t tell the difference. They all look equally unsavory.
Joshua
03.29.2010
@Joshua: Speaking of which, next time try not hitting any of the apple slices with lightning. I hear that can dramatically affect their appearance.
DNAmom
03.29.2010
Is the lighting done with intent because it is the same piece of apple? To my eye there are some things about all three that are very similar. Although, after another look pic 2 has some attributes that make me doubt this.
greenishblu
03.29.2010
Done! I’ve enjoyed this, and I think I’ll do a round it myself!
Agreed that, at least on the next go-around, do not make the poll results visible until after it is closed. What if PZ Myers decides #3 is the worst of the bunch?
Joshua
03.29.2010
Judging by the comments, I’d also suggest an additional question: “Would you describe the difference between the apples as… Obvious, Significant, Not Significant, etc.” Something along those lines, at least, just as a simple clue about the effect size.
Zapski
03.29.2010
mmmmm… peanut butter and apples…..
Mark Hall
03.29.2010
@Elyse: I read that and immediately thought “I see four lights!”
Tom Foss
03.29.2010
Instead of doing one half love/half hate, why not have an apple that you don’t speak to at all? That way, you have a control for whether or not speaking in and of itself has an effect.
My hypothesis: that apple will feel neglected, become sullen, withdrawn, and socially maladjusted, then finally snap, killing all of the other apples in a fit of rage.
donalfall
03.29.2010
All are way to similar for voting objectively. I’ll leave it for the next round.
JerryM
03.29.2010
If you place the parts on your windowsill (I just love that word) like this (|) and photograph each of them from above, facing the window, there would be no shadows to skew the results.
I’m looking forward to the improved study of this very important research project.
latsot
03.29.2010
I feel sad for the hate apple
Elyse
03.29.2010
I love that you chose different lighting for the apples. It really accentuates their unique personalities. I feel like I know apple #2 better because of it.
And honestly, most mustachioed apples look the same to me. I’m not a fruitist, I’m just sayin’.
DominEditrix
03.29.2010
Call in the fruitbats. Maybe they can tell the difference in decomp, but I can’t.
Tracy King
03.29.2010
I voted for the same apple for both questions. I HAVE RUINED YOUR POLL.
Fine, I didn’t, but I wanted to. Because I am a child. I can has apple?
Clintsc9
03.29.2010
If I cannot pick that one is better or worse than the others, any pick I make would invalidate the experiment.
There is no selection for “They all look the same”, so I cannot vote.
sporefrog
03.30.2010
Maybe a full video panorama of each apple slice would eliminate any angle/shadow bias.
Rebecca Watson
03.30.2010
Lighting issues noted, but I find it weird that people keep assuming I used different lighting for each. The apples were all photographed within moments of each other on the exact same spot. I think the reason why two have a bit of shadow is because they have more severe angles.
kevinf
03.30.2010
The real problem with the experimental design is the lack of technical replicates. If there is a physical reason that one of the slices undergoes oxidative browning faster (e.g. latent bruising, localized pathogen, etc), and it is in one of the treatments, then it could be misinterpreted. Such experiments need multiple replicates within treatment and control groups.
The other idea is to use an objective sensor rather than a human poll. If the three were homogenized you could compare the color to a pantone chart, or if you are really fancy use a spectrophotometer to measure the actual degree of browning. This would be a much better quantitative measure and would eliminate photographic bias or positional effects in the survey.
Other ideas: Hate vs. lemon juice!
I tried the same experiment on my neighbor’s kids and it sort of worked. One of them runs away when I come outside.
anonentity
03.30.2010
Notice how the shadows of all three apples are going off in different directions? This can only mean the apple photos were shot on a soundstage with controlled lighting and not the MOON!!!!!!
WAKE UP SHEEPLE!!!!
Also, number three apple has a ziggy zag line which looks like the back of Homer Simpson’s head.
Coincidence?
UNLIKELY!!!! When one considers that there was an episode of The Simpsons where Homer went into outer space WITH?????? BUZZ Aldrin!!!!
Since The Simpsons is a farce AND Homer Simpson and Buzz Aldrin were on a show together AND the apples have a Homer Simpson zig zag, this can only mean THESE APPLES HAVE NEVER BEEN TO THE MOON!!!!1!1101011!!!!
PretzelsAndBeer
03.30.2010
Any one of those apple pieces would work great in a slingshot made from a cut bicycle inner tube.
dgandhi
03.30.2010
To solve the lighting problem I suggest a lightbox, they are cheap and easy to make :
http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/how-to-diy-10-macro-photo-studio.html
Also, you will probably get better results from the polls if the results (and comments on voting) are not displayed until the voting is closed. We could be seeing popular votes becoming more popular on the basis of their existing popularity, instead of getting a good sample of opinions.
There are no trackbacks to display at this time.