YOUR INVOLVEMENT IN PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH:

A GUIDE TO COMPLETING THE RESEARCH EXPOSURE REQUIREMENT FOR PSY 100, 215, & 216

FALL 2012

As part of PSY 100, 215, and 216, you are asked to complete a research exposure requirement. This requirement, which accounts for a certain percentage of your final course grade, is intended to introduce you to the wide variety of research being conducted in the Department of Psychology at the University of Kentucky. We hope that you will become acquainted with professors, graduate students, and other advanced students who are actively contributing new findings to the field of psychology. We also hope that you will learn something about how psychological research is conducted.

To complete your research exposure requirement, you will need to participate in at least one of the following activities:

(1) contribute data by serving as a research participant in one or more ongoing research projects

(2) read and answer questions about recently completed research articles published by UK faculty and students

If you are in PSY 100, you will be asked to complete six hours of research exposure. PSY 215 and 216 students must complete 4 hours. If you are taking two of these courses at the same time, you must meet the requirement for both courses. For example, if you are taking PSY 215 and PSY 216 in the same semester, you have 8 required hours of research exposure for that semester.

PSY 100 students can earn 1 hour for participating in a “screening” session that involves filling out psychological questionnaires (the screening is not available for PSY 215 and 216 students). If there are enough experiments available, you may complete your other hours by volunteering as a participant in experiments. However, if there is a shortage of experiments, or if your schedule makes it difficult for you to attend experimental sessions, or if you are uncomfortable with the prospect of participating in research, you should complete some or all of your hours by reading and answering questions about recently completed research articles.

HOW TO EARN CREDITS AS A RESEARCH PARTICIPANT

In order to earn research credits, you MUST have a reliable and working email address and access to the Internet. It is very important that you use your university account (i.e. the address that ends with uky.edu), as students in the past have often experienced problems trying to register using non-UK email accounts. If you have trouble setting up a university account, you can go to any computer lab on campus and ask the consultant who works there to help you set it up.

All issues dealing with the research exposure requirement involve the Department of Psychology’s research credit website called SONA. The site is accessed by typing in http://uky.sona-systems.com/.

1. IMPORTANT: Registration--you should do this within the next few days. Research credit cannot be assigned to you until you have registered with the SONA system. This is true for the screening session, regular experiments, AND the summaries of research articles. Therefore, even if you intend to fulfill your requirement entirely by doing research summaries, YOU MUST STILL REGISTER WITH SONA.

We cannot award any research participation credits, including the screening credit, until you have registered. Therefore, we have an incentive for prompt registration: Students who do not register by noon on Friday, October 5, at noon, will receive a ONE-HOUR NO-SHOW PENALTY (No Shows will be described later).

To register, go to http://uky.sona-systems.com/ and click on “request an account here”, fill out the form provided. Your User ID is the part of your UK email address before the @ symbol.

- It is important that when you fill out the form that you use all 9 digits of your student ID number.

A password and logon ID will be sent to your email account within several minutes from the Webmaster (i.e., the Subject Pool TA). If you do not receive this email, an error may have occurred, so try to register again or contact the Subject Pool TA immediately to correct the problem.

NOTE: If you have junk mail (spam) filters configured for your email, please configure the filters to accept email from uky-admin@sona-systems.net, as emails from the system will often be sent from that address

2. Logging In. Once registered, it is required that you log-on to the site to make sure everything is working properly.

3. Screening session. For PSY 100 students, there will be an opportunity near the beginning of the semester to earn 1 research exposure credit by filling out psychological questionnaires (the "screening"). For the Fall semester, 2012, we are testing an online screening procedure that requires going to the SONA website to complete the screening. Your instructor will provide more instructions. Based on your responses to the screening questionnaires, you may be eligible for studies that require an invitation from the experimenter. If you are eligible, the experimenter will contact you and invite you to participate in that particular study. Therefore, it is advantageous to do the screening because it makes you potentially eligible for more studies. This does not apply to PSY 215 and 216 students.

4. Signing Up For Experiments. NOTE: There may be few experiments listed at the beginning of the semester. More will be become available as the semester progresses.

a) On the SONA website, there will be a list of experiments to sign up for accompanied by brief descriptions of the experiments and any requirements to participate (some experiments, for example, involve only male or female participants). Please read the description carefully. The descriptions will also indicate the amount of time the experiment will take. The duration of the experiment will determine the number of hours of credit that you will be awarded for participating. This number may range from one-half hour of credit to six hours. (Each 25 minutes of participation equals ½ hour of credit.) Fill out the information requested.

b) Once you have signed up for an experiment, you will receive a confirmation email that tells you the time, location, and contact information for the experiment. Please note that if you sign up for an on-line experiment the confirmation email will simply tell you that you are signed up.

IMPORTANT: Do not delete this email or any other you receive that is research related.

c) If you forget your password, there is an option (on the log-in page) to have it sent to you.

d) You can only sign up for each experiment ONE time, unless SONA states otherwise.

e) The experiments are posted on SONA by many different researchers and include many different days and times. Your Instructor, TA, and the Subject Pool TA have no control over what studies are posted, the times they are available, or who is eligible for any study.

f) If you sign up for an on-line study, you can usually do the experiment whenever you want.

g) You can earn a maximum of 3 research participation hours from online studies. The rest of your hours must be from in-person studies.

h) Credit is allocated in .5 hour increments. Sessions of up to 25 minutes earn you .5 research credit; sessions lasting between 26 and 50 minutes earn you 1 credit. The general rule is that you are given 10 minutes of time to travel to your next class. Thus 1.5 hours of research credit translates into 1 hour and 20 minutes of actual experimental time. The one exception to this “minus 10 minutes” rule is for .5 credit hour experiments; these should not exceed 25 minutes.

i) Make sure you go to the experiment at the correct time and location. If you sign up for an on-line experiment you will be directed to the on-line link.

j) Arrive at the scheduled experiments a few minutes ahead of time. Many experiments are conducted in groups, and it is critical that all members of a group are available to begin the session at the same time. Being even one minute late may disqualify you from participating! Please note that if you sign up for an on-line experiment you simply need to go to the on-line link and complete the experiment.

k) After you participate in an experiment, the experimenter will enter your participation credit on the SONA system within a few days. You can check on SONA to make sure your credit was posted. If it has not been posted after a few days, contact the experimenter to ask if there is a problem. In case of a disagreement about whether you completed the study, it would be wise to save a copy of your consent form. The experimenter will give you this during the experiment.

l) Notify experimenters at least 24 hours in advance if you must miss an experiment. Do not forget to take down the experimenter’s name and number at the time you sign up or when they call you over the phone; if you do not have this information, no one will be able to find it for you later. Be sure to leave the name of your experiment, experimenter, and your appointment time in your message. You must notify the experimenter at least 24 hours in advance of the scheduled experiment to avoid a ‘no show’ penalty.

A No-Show penalty decreases the total number of credits that you can earn. For example, if you miss a one-hour experiment, then you can only earn a maximum of five, rather than six, hours. If you miss a two-hour experiment, the maximum credits that you can earn gets cut to four. It is important that you understand that you cannot 'make up' for no-shows by participating in extra experiments. Once you have acquired a one-hour no-show, you will not receive more than 5 credits, even if you sign up for and participate in six (or even more) one-hour experiments. Thus, it is in your best interest to show up for any experiment you sign up for, or notify the experimenter at least 24 hours in advance if you are unable to attend a session. If you have a “last-minute” emergency that occurs within 24 hours of the experiment, then you must provide the experimenter with documentation of the legal or medical emergency that necessitated your absence. You should save copies of any emails you send to experimenters canceling your participation, so that you have proof of the 24-hour advance notice requirement in the event of any dispute regarding no-show penalties.

You should be aware that not all experimenters choose to issue no-shows. However, that is not something you should count on. If it matters to you in deciding which experiments to participate in, you should contact experimenters prior to signing up for studies to determine their no-show policy.

Important note: Other departments on campus have their own SONA systems. For PSY courses, you can only use the Psychology department's SONA system. If you are taking a course in another department (such as Communications) that also uses a SONA system, you cannot use Communications experiments to get credit for your PSY class. You will have separate login info for each SONA system that you participate in.

HOW TO EARN CREDIT BY READING RESEARCH ARTICLES

One hour of research credit is awarded for each set of questions answered (one set of questions per article). You should anticipate spending approximately 25 to 50 minutes reading and answering questions about each article you choose. If you are having trouble finding experiments in which to participate by midterm or later, we strongly encourage you to fulfill your remaining research exposure requirement by reading research articles. As described earlier, YOU MUST REGISTER ON SONA IN ORDER TO RECEIVE CREDIT FOR SUMMARIES OF RESEARCH ARTICLES.

INSTRUCTIONS

1) Get the list of eligible articles from the Department of Psychology website: http://web.as.uky.edu/psychsubjectpool/

2) Choose an article for each credit hour that you intend to complete using this method.

3) Read the article with the following in mind:

a) You will write a 1-2 page summary of the article. This summary must be typed (1” margins) and double spaced. As with all writing requirements, students are expected to perform this work independently and adhere to university regulations regarding plagiarism.

b) Your summary should answer at least 4 of the following questions:

What was the purpose of the research?

What was the hypothesis?

What were the independent and dependent variables?

Who were the participants?

How was the hypothesis tested?

What were the experimental results?

Describe the impact of the results on society.

What do you think of the research?

Relate the research to anything that you have learned in lecture or lab.

c) After you have finished your summary, turn it in to your TA. You must have your name, section number, phone number, and student ID number on the summary in order to receive credit. Your TA will then give the Subject Pool Coordinator this information to be recorded.

d) Your Intro Psych TA will read your summary and give you ONE credit hour if it meets the criteria above (i.e. 1-2 typed and double-spaced pages, answering the questions as appropriate)

e) The deadline for submitting article summaries is Tuesday of the 2nd-to-the-last week of classes (two weeks before finals week). This gives the TA time to grade them.

f) Remember, you must be registered with the SONA system in order to get credit for the article summaries.

If you have any questions about completing the Research Exposure Requirement, contact the Subject Pool TA:

Name: Jessica Stagner

Email: jpaigeco03@hotmail.com

Office hours: Wednesdays 11:00 - 12:00 and by appointment

Office: 111I Kastle Hall

IMPORTANT DATES AND DEADLINES:

Tuesday, August 28

Students can start to participate in experiments

Friday, October 5, Noon

Deadline for registration in SONA without penalty. After this date students can still register for SONA but will receive a one-hour No Show penalty.

Tuesday, November 27, 5pm

Last day to hand in alternative research credit to your TA

Tuesday, December 4, 5pm

Last day to participate in experiments

Friday, December 7, 5pm

Deadline for handling all research credit issues

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1) I sent an email to the Webmaster/Subject Pool Coordinator and I have not gotten a reply!

You should hear back from the TA within two working days of sending any email. If you do not, send the email again and make sure you have the correct email address. Also, please make sure you re-send all information from the last email along with the new one; it will make it easier to answer the questions that you may have.

2) My password is not working.

Passwords are case sensitive, “B” is not the same as “b”.

3) I have forgotten my password. What do I do?

Use the “forgot.password” option on the front page of the SONA web site.

4) I have forgotten my logon AND my password?

Email the Subject Pool TA from the correct email address with your FULL name, Student ID#, and Section # and type “forgot logon AND password” in the email’s subject/title.

5) I am having difficulty registering online. What should I do?

Email the Subject Pool TA with your FULL name, Student ID# and correct email address. The TA will manually register your account and you will receive an email from the Subject Pool TA. You will have to sign in and complete the rest of the information. This has to be done immediately or the account will be erased.

6) I registered online and it’s been a day and I have not received an email confirming my registration. What do I do?

Make sure you are checking the email account that you used to register. This could also be due to the email being entered incorrectly. You will have to log in and correct it.

7) I participated in an experiment but I still haven’t received credit for it? What do I do?

Keep in mind the crediting process may take several days. If it has been over a week, please get in touch with the experimenter immediately.

8) I just registered but when I log in I don’t see the 1 credit I earned for participation in the screening (or any other experiment).

The credits you earn will not be “waiting for you.” It will only be applied AFTER you have registered (which is why you do not see it immediately).

9) I registered a long time ago and I still don’t see the 1 credit I earned for participation in the screening!

Email the Subject Pool TA with your full name and student ID number; some information may have been entered incorrectly during the screening process.

10) I can’t seem to find an experiment that fits my busy schedule, what do I do?

There will be new experiments listed from time to time; however, if you are unable to find any you can choose to write the summary article, which will be turned in to your TA

11) Can I fulfill the remaining 5 credit hours by writing summaries for the articles?

Yes.

12) Can I fulfill ALL 6 credit hours by writing summaries for the articles?

Yes, BUT you still have to be registered in SONA in order for the credit to be applied.

13) Will I get credit for the experiments that I get called for?

Yes, you will get credit for callback experiments as long as you have already registered online and the experiments are conducted by the Department of Psychology.

14) I was penalized for an experiment, what does this mean?

This can happen when a student signs up for an experiment or makes an appointment with an experimenter and does not show up. To avoid being penalized, please contact the experimenter the experimenter 24 hours in advance and inform them that you will not be there. If it is an online sign up, you can cancel your appointment without being penalized a day in advance.

15) I was penalized for an experiment, BUT I did take part in it! What should I do?

Contact the experimenter and ask him or her to verify that you participated in the experiment. If this does not resolve the problem, contact the Subject Pool TA.