Running online behavioral or cognitive experiments can be a complex task, with many hurdles to overcome. One of those hurdles is sourcing suitable participants for your studies. This is where the SONA Participant Pool comes in handy.
The initial step is to familiarise oneself with the platform's interfaces and functionality. Register as a researcher through www.cognition.run and set up a study. Later, select SONA as your participant pool while building your experiment and setting up the scheduling tasks.
The SONA Help Page is a treasure trove of resources for both beginner and advanced researchers alike. Here, you can find user guides, video tutorials, troubleshooting articles, and FAQ sections about running experiments, including remote studies.
When in need of assistance, jspsych forums and the SONA System Community on Facebook are invaluable resources. Researchers worldwide are ready and willing to help with related queries about the cognitive tasks, participant recruitment issues, or the more technical aspects of running experiments.
Several online platforms offer formal courses about conducting psychological research. Websites like Coursera or Udemy often feature classes detailing how to conduct online experiments using resources such as SONA and www.cognition.run.
Diving into advanced topics can provide more insights into utilizing the full potential of SONA. Organising longitudinal studies, adaptive experiments, or dicey scheduling scenarios are exciting topics one can explore to fully leverage the SONA participant pool. Resources like the official SONA Systems blog or other academic journals often have deep-dive articles on such subjects.
Connecting with other researchers who use the SONA participant pool can provide a wealth of knowledge and support. This can be done through social media, online forums, or at academic conferences to gain insights from the collective experience and expertise of the community.
Running online experiments can be a challenging task, but with the right resources like the SONA Participant Pool and continuous learning, you can overcome these challenges and conduct successful behavioral and cognitive experiments.