The COTIPP Lab is often conducting projects to establish normative values on self-report questionnaires, cognitive assessments, and other computerized assessments used in our research. Normative values are a way to compare individual performance to group averages. We collect data from hundreds of individuals so we can see how an average person performs on the assessment, and we can see if there are any differences based on age, gender, education level, and other metrics. Then we compare these results with the scores of our participants in our mental health studies. This allows us to determine whether someone is performing as expected, based on their age, gender, etc., or if they are over- or under-performing. This also allows us to see whether the changes that a participant has on the assessment over time is significant and might show recovery or improvement.
The COTIPP Lab has collected normative data at the Minnesota State Fair Driven to Discover building in 2017, 2018, and 2019, and plans to do so again in 2021. The COTIPP Lab has also conducted three studies with the University of Minnesota Undergraduate Research Experience Program, in which students can participate for Research Experience Points.