Conducting Experiments

for Class Projects

To conduct your own study, you’ll need to use the subject pool software. Below is a list of preliminary steps that you’ll need to accomplish. In the next section, you’ll be given instructions on the technical aspects of posting and managing your research account.

Preparing to Post Your Research Project

  • Develop a title for your study.
  • This will be posted on the subject pool website as a way to advertise your study to potential participants.Be creative, but do not lie. The title should indicate something about the purpose of the study, but it does not have to be as technical and straightforward as it would be on a professional paper or presentation.
  • Write a short description for your project.
  • This will be posted on the research participant pool website to give students a way to find out more details about your study.You should provide information to potential subjects about the procedure of your study. That is, briefly describe the types of things that participants will do in your study.
  • Decide the length of your study, and in turn, the number of credits participants will be awarded for participating.
  • Participants are awarded credit in 30-minute (or 0.5) credit increments. If your study is over 30-minutes, participants have earned 1-hour (or 1) credit.
  • Find a location for your study.
  • You are allowed to use any of the labs on the second floor of Lynch. Classes are scheduled for those rooms, and so you should check to see that the rooms are available at that time by looking on the course schedule for the current semester or contacting the Registrar office. If you plan to use one of the regular classrooms (e.g., Lynch 190 or 189), you should contact the Registrar’s office. If you plan to use the media/technology in the smart classrooms, you will need to contact Media Services to request that the technology is turned on at the right time. You are asked to provide plenty of notice before scheduling (at least, one week). Media Services is available for technical help until about 8PM.

  • Complete the informed consent form by writing a description of the procedures, listing the risks involved in the study, and assigning any restrictions.
  • To meet ethical guidelines, you must describe all procedures/tasks that the participants will engage in during the study. It is not necessary that you provide the details about the purpose of the study and the different conditions, but participants must be fully informed about what they will do in the study.
  • You should provide any description about any risks involved. This is a good place to inform potential participants about any tasks that may be upsetting (e.g., a sad movie), disturbing (e.g., disgusting pictures), or stressful (e.g., an impromptu speech).
  • If you need to place restrictions in your study (e.g., males only), you can do this on the consent form, but also on the subject pool software.
  • Prepare a debriefing.
  • Regardless of whether deception was used or not, participants should be fully explained the purpose of the experiment. Once the study is complete, you should fully answer any and all questions raised by the participants.

Using The Subject Pool Software

  1. Log onto your account by following the following steps:
  • Log onto the system at
  • Enter your username and default password.

USERNAME:

PASSWORD:

  • Once you log on, you will have to acknowledge the Human Subject Policy. To do this, simply read the policy and acknowledge reading it by clicking “Yes” at the bottom of the page. You will not have to do this again. This will only need to be done once, so if your instructor may have completed this step or if you’re not the first to log on to the account, this will not apply to you.

  1. Create a study by following the steps below:
  • Click “Add New Study.” The radio button is by default set at the “Standard Study” option. Select “Continue” at the bottom of the page.
  • You then are required to enter (a) a name for your study, (b) a brief description that will appear on the list of studies the students will see (optional), (c) a more detailed description (optional), (d) eligibility requirements (e.g., “males only”), (e) the duration of the study (in minutes), (f) the number of credits (entered in .5 fractions), (g) whether you want the study to be activated. Once you have selected all your options, you will hit “Add This Study” at the bottom of the page.
  • The bottom of this page has several “advanced settings.” You can require a prerequisite for the study (e.g., volunteers would be required to complete an online survey before participating). You can disqualify students who have participated in particular studies (e.g., if you are running two similar studies and do not want to the information or practice from one study to influence performance in the other study). You can restrict participants to a particular class. For example, you may want to only allow volunteers from the freshman, but not the senior level courses to participate. You also have the option to set when a student can sign-up or cancel. You can set the option about whether you want an email when someone has signed-up or cancelled a study.
  • You will need to contact the administrator once you have a study added (ext. 6107; ). The system is set-up so that the administrator will have to approve the study. Students will not be able to see the study until you have approval. Once you have approval, you can look under “My Studies” and see that you have approval. You will still have the option to change study information anytime after approval by clicking “My Studies.” To do this, click the name/title of your study, and click “Change Study Information” at the bottom of the page.
  • Researchers will need to post times and locations after they have created a study. You can do this a couple of ways—you can add one timeslot at a time or you can add multiple timeslots at one time. You can add timeslots (i.e., post times and locations) only after the administrator has approved your study.
  1. Add Session (Posting Time and Location):
  • Click “My Studies” and select your study by clicking on it.
  • To post times and locations, you should select “View/Administer Timeslots.”
  • To post a session, select “Add a Timeslot.”
  • On this page, you will select the date, time, # of participants /slots available (e.g., if you can only run one-participant at a time, then enter 1, but if you can run 30 participants at a time, enter 30, etc.), and the location (the system will not allow you to sign-up a room that is already selected by a researcher at that time or place).
  • Once you have selected your options, click “Add.”
  1. The final responsibility of the researcher will be to administer credits to the volunteers who participated in your study.
  • Please, keep up with this. It is a good idea to get into a habit to give credit to participants immediately after the session. You owe it to yourparticipants to promptly give them credit, as they were willing to volunteer for your study. Beyond our responsibility, it may be that instructors require students to have their credits completed by a certain time. So, do not wait until the end of the semester to administer credits.
  • Click “My Studies.”
  • Select (at the top of the page) “View Your Uncredited Timeslots.” Here you will view the list of your studies, the date/time of the session, and the participant. You can sort by the “Study “or the “Date” for your convenience.
  • To administer credits, select—individually—“Grant Credit” for every volunteer in a particular timeslot/study. This is probably the best option when you have multiple studies or multiple sessions in which some participants were “no-shows.” Alternatively, if all volunteers earned credit, you can simply select “Mark all ‘Grant Credit’”.
  • Once you have selected the individual participants OR selected to grant credit to all participants, select “Grant Credits” button at the bottom of the page.

Consent To Participate in a Research Study

Title of Study:

Length of Study (# Credits in 0.5 increments):Hrs. ( #credits)

Description of Study:

Potential Risks:

Restrictions:

No one under 18 is allowed to participate in this study.

Signed Consent:

Please place an “X” or a check in the boxes as they apply and then sign below:

I understand the description of the study.

I understand the tasks that I will complete during the experiment.

I understand that I can quit at any time without penalty.

I also understand that the experimenter will explain the purpose of the study and answer any questions following the study.

I consent to participate.

Signature of the Participant