Research
The overarching goal of Dr. Meredith Rocchi's program of research is to explore the role of effective interpersonal communication in promoting positive outcomes
Stream 1
Health Behaviour Promotion
This stream examines how effective interpersonal communication can serve as a means to motivate others to change their health behaviours. For example, we have demonstrated that effective communication may lead to increased participation, higher engagement, and improved performance in sport and physical activity. Further, we have also found that training coaches, health professionals, or physical activity providers to be more effective communicators could help motivate adults, athletes, and patients to make positive health behavioural changes.
Stream 2
Data Literacy Education
Research in this stream explores how data literacy skills are acquired and the role of post-secondary education in developing these skills. Through this stream of research, we aim to increase student motivation for data literacy, reduce anxiety towards statistics, and improve the quality of teaching in methods courses. This will be achieved through developing, implementing, and evaluating interventions aimed at improving instructor interpersonal communication.
Stream 3
Behaviour Measurement
This stream of research is focused on the creation, validation, and testing of effective tools for measuring human behaviour. These include tools for measuring self-reported and observed verbal and non-verbal behaviours, as well as attitudes and emotions. Additionally, we explore how to improve the quality of data collected through traditional means by reducing insufficient effort responding, identifying more efficient ways to measure behaviour, and reducing reliance on self-report where possible.
