Week 9: Final Analysis and Starting the Research Paper

Hi everyone, welcome back! This week marked a shift from model development into analysis and documentation. With most of the experimentation now complete, I started focusing on understanding the results and beginning the research paper.

Much of this week was devoted to comparisons of model performance. I examined the performance of the more advanced models compared to the baseline models of the previous weeks, as well as looked at the comparison of the results with those of previous studies. This helped put the results into context and made it easier to realize whether the approaches I was using were actually producing any meaningful improvements.

I also took time to analyze the effect of the various preprocessing and feature engineering options on the results. Because the pipeline was created to evaluate various settings and multiple configurations, I was able to compare how changes in feature selection, handling of missing values, and transcript embeddings influenced model performance. In some cases, small changes in how the data was represented led to noticeable differences in results, which reinforced how important these early design decisions are.

Another major area of focus this week was to interpret the findings more closely. Instead of simply gazing at measurements, I began to think about what the results really signify in the context of opinion change and deliberation. As an example, I thought about which aspects appear to have the most predictive value and how the various modeling procedures respond to the arrangement of the data. This aspect of the process was more qualitative, but it was useful to connect the technical results back to the initial research question.

Alongside the analysis, I began drafting and writing the research paper. I started organizing the overall structure, outlining key sections, and drafting parts of the methodology and results. The goal was to clearly depict and explain both the modeling process and the reasoning behind different design choices.

Overall, this week was about moving from experimentation to explanation. As the final week approaches, the focus has now shifted toward understanding what the results show and how to communicate them effectively. With the main analysis now underway, the next step will be to continue writing and refining the paper. See you next week!