Meaning no disrespect, your questionnaire sounds an awful lot like market research.  If that is the case, it seems more fair to be honest with people who are donating their time.  I may fill it out under those terms, but not under the guise of academic research if the end goal is profit.

It really may be, it's just questions like these from the questionnaire:

"Q12. I use the search button on kanji.koohii.com to jump back and forth
between kanji while studying.
(1 = disagree completely) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7 = agree completely)

Q13. I click on hyperlinks in the stories in kanji.koohii.com to jump back
and forth between kanji.
(1 = disagree completely) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7 = agree completely)

Q14. I would find it useful on kanji.koohii.com if every story component
(shown in italics) was always a hyperlink so I could quickly jump from
a complex kanji story to its simpler parts.
(1 = disagree completely) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7 = agree completely)"

People do develop software as part of academic pursuits, and I happily participate in market research (especially for Japanese materials), but my concern remains the same: integrity.

Last edited by tuuli (2008 February 26, 9:07 pm)

Hi folks,

Thanks so very much to people who have replied so far. This is academic research, for the record, and here are some of my humble publications to date. Search google and you can find them.

NOTE: I would ask you not to read my publications before answering the questionnaire, however, as it might bias your results.

"A Mobile Kanji Learning System for the Apple iPod Platform"
"Story-based CALL for Japanese kanji characters: A study on student learning motivation"
"A Mobile Kanji Learning System for the Apple iPod Platform"
"An Audio-Based Approach to Mobile Learning of Japanese Kanji Characters"

Any feedback on my publications or research would be welcome; my e-mail address can be found in the questionnaire link I posted earlier (I avoid posting it here in the forum directly because I am already drowning in spam e-mails).

The reason I am making this questionnaire is that in academic research, you need data of any kind. Unfortunately I didn't know about this website until after I'd started my research. But after finding this community about half a year ago I realized this website is probably the greatest gold-mine for researchers such as myself wanting to understand, analyze, support, augment, and maybe, eventually, even improve the Heisig method.

There is surprisingly little research on the Heisig method or computer systems supporting it. I hope my research and others can provide some empirical data that could lead to greater future adoption and acceptance of Heisig-style learning. At the very least, published research papers directly concerning Heisig-style learning at least lend some credibility to this style of kanji study activity, which may make it easier for future researchers, teachers, or even students to argue for adoption these methods.

Regarding the question about integrity, the explicit purpose of this questionnaire is indeed research for a peer-reviewed academic research paper publication that is due on Friday (hence the deadline...) That said, I cannot guarantee that the results of this questionnaire, after being published as a research paper, will or will not be used for any purpose (e.g. marketing or product development) by anyone reading the article. However this is true of any published information; the reader is free to do what he wishes with it.

I hope this clears up the issue.

Thanks again!

I have the same original reservations as tuuli.

I also agree with his last post (above) : if you're looking at the RtK method for what it is, that's the field of mnemonics, memory, impression of images in the mind etc.

I posted something along that long ago here On "imaginative memory" and mnemonics with a link to a document on Mental Imagery