Guidelines for Student Researchers
Dr. Angela Allen, Subject Pool Coordinator
This document covers procedures for running studies, specifics regarding SONA, specifics about awarding credit to subjects, a list of room availability, and a template for recording subject participation.
NEW: we have a QR code for the SONA sign-in page that is handy for any posters you might put up to alert participants to your study. Hopefully interested students will scan and sign up right then and there. It’s at the end of this document.
1) You must have departmental and IRB approval before running subjects. All experimenters must have completed the NIH human subject online certification (but only once!). You must be registered in SONA as a researcher in order to set up your studies and collect data. If you haven’t been registered as a researcher before, email or visit Dr. Allen to make this happen (Dr. Camac and Dr. Powell can do this also).
2) Please see the handout with the list of available rooms before scheduling your sessions (attached).
3) We use an on-line system (SONA) to manage experiments. On SONA, you can set up a new study, list a description, set up timeslots, etc whenever you like. You need to email Dr. Allen for the initial approval of the study. If you have already set up timeslots, the subjects can sign up right away; otherwise they can only do so once you’ve added the timeslots. Remember that subjects won’t see timeslots that aren’t available (because they’re full or because the sign up deadline has passed).
Be sure you have an IRB number listed for the study before asking for approval.
Subjects will sign up online. When each session ends, you will need to go online and grant students credit as soon as possible because they get anxious if credit isn’t forthcoming by the end of the work day. In addition, you will keep a paper record of participants as a back-up (see last page).
4) Prepare for each session by assembling a sufficient number of:
a) Informed Consent forms
b) Debriefing forms (unless oral debriefing)
c) Any written materials you may be using for the study (scantrons, instructions, etc)
5) Keep your materials in the cabinet in the student lounge (especially important if this is a group study). The lock’s combination is: _MAP7__. The cabinet also contains signs (see below). In addition, make sure that all group members have copies of materials stored on their Z drives or on jump drives.
6) Before each session, put a sign outside the door of the room where you are holding your study. (For example, “Welcome to the Surfer Study”). You should also put a sign saying “Experiment in Progress” on the door after the session starts.
7) If you are doing your study after 4 p.m., make sure the door is left unlocked by posting a “do not lock” sign.
8) Be early to your session!! However, it’s a good idea to wait 5 minutes past the start time if anyone is still missing. If at all possible, schedule at least two of you for each session, in case one of you is late or sick. If the experimenter does not show up, the students who show up get full credit.
9) Informed consents: Make sure you go over these with the students and tell them that IF they want to participate they can sign. Keep these separate from the data to protect anonymity. Put them in a separate envelope marked INFORMED CONSENTS. You can turn that in to your instructor when your study is finished.
10) Make sure the participants understand that they will receive full credit just for showing up to the study, and that signing the informed consent does not mean they have to finish the study. Their obligation is to show up and listen to a description of the study’s procedure.
11) Make sure that you are consistent in your behavior and presentation from subject to subject. Write out a script that all group members will follow. Be as kind as you can, and make sure you thank the students for their participation. Be professional—don’t eat or chat or fiddle with your phone during the study. Remember the debriefing!
12) If participants do more than one task, make sure that you keep their results together. Make sure that you organize your data so that you know what conditions people were in. (You can mark codes on things, like S1, S2, O1, etc.).
Using SONA
Logging In
http://roanoke.sona-systems.com ßlogin page link
Researcher accounts are created by the subject pool coordinator, currently Dr. Allen () but Dr. Camac and Dr. Powell can also handle this. If you don’t have an account, email with a request to be added as a researcher. An account will be created and you will receive email that lists your username and a temporary password. If you forget your password, you can create a new one; if you forget your username you’ll have to email Dr. Allen.
When you log in, you will see a page that lists a variety of options, including My Studies, All Studies, Add New Study, and My Profile. Choose My Studies link if you want to work with created studies.
Setting up a study:
Go to “Add New Study” and complete necessary fields. Many fields will be irrelevant.
Your study needs a name and a description and an IRB number. The brief abstract is not necessary but will appear with the name when the students are viewing available studies (they have to click on a study’s name to read the full description) so put any restrictions or “sells” here (“The Surfer Study: People under 30 only! You can look at pictures of sharks”). Make the study name and abstract upbeat and fun. The description should include the things the subjects need to do to complete the study (i.e., “subjects will watch a video and complete a questionnaire” “subjects will be asked to rate visual stimuli”).
If you are excluding some potential subjects (say, you only want female subjects), be very clear about this in the title and description, also mention in the brief abstract, i.e. “Your Brain On Music (women only)”.
Choose the shortest deadline for signing up that you can deal with. Don’t just choose the default of 24 hours.
Choose “active” if you want the study to go online as soon as it’s approved and timeslots are added. Choose “inactive” if you think you’ll want to tweak it or run it by other people before putting it online.
When you are finished, there is an option for requesting approval. Choose this if your setup is finished (you’re not going back to tweak it), or if you want some feedback.
Timeslots (also referred to as Sessions) are the times you choose to run your studies. When setting up a timeslot, you will specify a date, time, location, and maximum number of participants.
It’s worth noting that subjects will only see timeslots that are available. If the timeslot is full, or if the deadline for signup has passed, the timeslot will not be visible to them (i.e., if your Surfer Study has empty timeslots for Monday but you left the deadline at the default of 24 hours, a subject checking for available studies on Sunday night will NOT see those empty timeslots). You can set up timeslots when you create the study, or go back later.
If you try to add a timeslot that has already been selected for another study that occurs in the same location, you will get an alert message and the timeslot won’t be added. You’ll need to choose another time or location. If you add a timeslot that will take place outside of normal hours (for example, at 1:00am), the system will provide a warning but will allow it to be scheduled.
Note: The system is NOT currently set up to block timeslots in which classes occur. You need to consult the handout on Research Room Availability to ensure that you do not schedule a study during a class meeting.
Viewing the Participant List
To view the list of participants who have signed up for your study, first select the study and timeslot you wish to see. Then click the Modify button. The list of participants, along with their email addresses, will be listed. There is also a link to a printer-friendly list of participants.
Communication with Participants
When a student signs up for your study or cancels a sign-up, the system will automatically send him or her an email. A reminder email will be sent the day before the study. The system is also set so that the researchers will be sent an email when someone signs up or cancels. In addition, you will get a list of sign-ups for each study session the day before.
If you wish to contact participants in a particular timeslot for any reason, you may click on the Contact link that will appear next to each participant’s name (or ID code) to contact an individual participant via email. If you want to contact all participants (say, to tell them of a room change), you can click the Contact All Participants choice at the bottom of the Modify Timeslot page for that timeslot. You will be taken to a page where you can fill out a message that the system will send to the selected participants. The message is auto-filled with some basic information about the study, so participants are aware of which study you are referring to. You may remove this information if desired. You may choose to receive a copy of the email that you send.
Please be professional in interactions (whether in person or email) with subjects, even the occasional whiny, clueless, defensive or belligerent ones. You’re representing the Psychology department!
Granting or Revoking Credit
At the completion of a session, you should promptly deal with the participants, in the system, to ensure proper credit grants.
To grant or revoke credit for a timeslot, first find the desired study and timeslot. Then click the Modify button.
You will see a list of participants. If the participant showed up for the study, click the Credit Granted button next to their name. If the participant did not appear for the timeslot, you may choose to mark their no-show as excused or unexcused. Generally if the would-be participant made a good-faith effort to contact you ahead of time or they have a solid reason for not coming, they are excused. Use your judgment.
Did someone show up for the study without having signed up ahead of time? No problem! Click on “modify” for the timeslot in question. There is a manual signup option at the bottom of the page. Remember to go back and give credit after manually signing the person up! (Note: this only works if the person is registered on SONA. If he or she has not, tell him to register on SONA and then contact you for credit).
If desired, enter any comments about the session in the Comments section (generally, this is used to indicate the reason for denying credit). Participants will see anything you enter in the Comments section for their sign-up, and these comments will be included in the email sent to participants when a credit grant or revocation occurs.
Click on the Update Sign-Ups button at the bottom of the list of sign-ups to save your changes.
You must also record student participation records on a Psychology Study Record form, which should be turned in promptly to Dr. Angela Allen as a back-up to the online record. Forms are available online and in the materials cabinet. A copy is attached.
Questions? Please contact Dr. Angela Allen at .
Research Room Availability
Spring 2017
Room / Capacity / General Availability501 / up to 10 participants
has a projector / M,F All day
T,TH except 12-1
W except 11:30-3:20
301 / up to 30 participants
has projector / M/W/F after 4:00
T/TH All Day
502 / up to 25 participants
has projector / M/W/F after 4:00
T/TH after 4:30
515 / up to 25 participants
has projector / M/W after 5:30
T/TH 4:30
F after 3:20
527 / up to 12 participants
has projector / M/W/F after 2:15
T/TH after 2:45
513/514 (computer lab) / Up to 12 participants / M except 2:00-5:30
T/TH except 1:10-4:30
W/F all day
523 (back hall) / Up to 2 participants
1 computer based / all blocks
524 (back hall) / Up to 2 participants
1 computer based; use only for EEG studies / all blocks
525 (back hall) / Up to 2 participants / All blocks
Psychology Study Record
Study Name:______
To be turned into Dr. Allen after credit (or no-show) has been recorded online
Participant Name / *Credit / Date* If credit is awarded, write the number of credits earned (e.g. ½ or 1). If the participant was an excused no-show, write Exc. If the person didn’t show up and was not excused, write NS.
QR code for SONA signup.