
Understanding Observational Biases
All studies have observational biases introduced by imperfect survey methods or true observational limitations. One way to better understand the impact of observational bias is by using synthetic surveys, where both the input ("true") and output ("observed") population parameters, such as age, binary fraction, and mass distribution, are known. I built a detailed, observationally-anchored population synthesis model to simulate and observe spectroscopic surveys of star-forming regions with different properties to try to understand whether some observed anomalous star-forming region properties could be caused by observational biases.