A Comprehensive Guide to Setting up an Experiment with the SONA Participant Pool
Running online behavioral and cognitive experiments can quickly become complicated, particularly if you're not used to the procedures and tools involved. With platforms like SONA and programming libraries like jsPsych, running remote studies has become far more accessible. Still, the path to successful online experiments is not without its hurdles.
In this tutorial, we will guide you through a step-by-step process of setting up your first experiment with the SONA Participant Pool.
Step 1: Understanding the SONA Participant Pool
SONA is an online platform that provides psychological researchers with a pre-built participant pool for studies. It takes some time and effort to get your experiment up and running with SONA. Still, the platform's robustness and wide-reaching participant network make the initial investment well worth it.
Step 2: Designing Your Cognitive or Behavioral Study
Before you can begin designing your experiment or cognitive tasks in SONA, you need to define your research question clearly. The tools found at www.cognition.run can provide a useful starting point for this stage of experiment planning.
Step 3: Creating the Experiment
Creating your experiment within the SONA system involves providing information about the experiment, defining the participant eligibility criteria, and laying out the experiment structure itself. This will often involve linking to external resources that host your experiment, such as jsPsych tasks for behavioral or cognitive experiments.
Step 4: Running The Experiment
Once your experiment is set up, you can begin recruiting participants from SONA's participant pool. You can monitor the collecting data in real-time and adjust your approach as necessary.
Step 5: Interpreting the Data
After the experiment is complete, it's time to analyze the data. Remember to maintain your ethical obligations in data handling and respect participant privacy and anonymity in your findings.
Next Steps
Practicing with SONA and running pilot studies are helpful ways to familiarize yourself with the process. Don't be discouraged if your first experiment isn't perfect - research is a process of refinement and learning.
Where to Find More Information
The SONA help page offers a wealth of knowledge for researchers learning to use the system. It's an invaluable resource for those interested in setting up and running online psychological research.
Summing Up
While challenging, conducting online behavioral and cognitive experiments offer unique and exciting research opportunities. With the right guidance and resources, like SONA and jsPsych, you are well on your way to running successful online experiments.