SONA

What is SONA?

SONA is an online participant recruitment system. It is primarily used at Brown as a "credit pool", or a means of recruiting students who need to complete psychology studies for course credit. It can also be used to recruit subjects for paid studies, although the "paid pool" is considerably smaller than the "credit pool."

How do I create a researcher account on SONA?

If you are a lab core member, send an email to Dr. Leslie Welch (Leslie_Welch@brown.edu) indicating your lab affiliation and position, and requesting a researcher account. Alternatively, you can ask the lab manager to request an account on your behalf.

If you are an undergraduate research assistant, ask the lab manager to request an account on your behalf.

How do I create and manage a "credit pool" study?

Dr. Welch sends all researchers an email every semester with very detailed instructions on how to request a for-credit research study. Note that you are NOT permitted to create a for-credit research study; Dr. Welch manages these for us. If you have not received this email, it is likely because you are newly arrived; you can get on this mailing list by emailing Dr. Welch.

Though you can request as many research hours as you'd like, Dr. Welch will probably assign you fewer hours than requested. This is because there is an excess of researchers who want participants and a deficit of participants who need research hours. Please request only the hours you believe you'll need! Requesting more is cheating the system and wreaks havoc on the volume of participant sign-ups for everyone.

Note the following limitations on credit pool studies:

Your study will be assigned a name such as "Pueblo" or "Utah". Do not change the study name! This ensures that participants sign up for studies without prior knowledge of lab or task demands, which in turn ensures that the participant recruitment process is impartial and fair for all researchers.
Do not provide an abstract or study description for the reasons stated above.

How do I create a "paid pool" study?

Once you have a researcher account, you may add "paid pool" studies simply by clicking on "Add New Study" in the navigation toolbar. Please take care to give your paid study a title and description that is vague enough that participants will not be primed prior to entering the lab!

How do I manage participant sign-up times?

If you do not already have access to the lab's testing room Google Calendars, please contact the lab manager to gain access. Please mark reserved time slots in the calendar, and take care not to post overlapping time slots with other researchers' time slots! As the lab grows larger and takes on more research projects, it is likely that researchers will have to communicate openly and frequently with one another to avoid scheduling mishaps.

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