How-To's and General Lab Information

Quick Links for this page:

• Reserving Rooms in the Behavioral Lab
• Payment amount guidelines (& pay receipt form)
• Funding your studies - Advances and Reimbursements
• How to post a study in Sona - our participant pools (& pre-screen questions)
  • Handy IP Address lookup website
• Studies in Mass (SIM)
• Set up your laptop to get off-campus access to journals and Stanford-only materials
• Lab software - Qualtrics, MediaLab, DirectRT, Inquisit, e-Prime
• Qualtrics Measures & Attention Libraries - dowload libraries instructions
• Websites that offer large amounts of social data
• Pilot Studies
• Lottery Studies
• Get your conference posters printed through HERE
• Websites that help calculate statistical Power: HERE.

Reserving Rooms at the Behavioral Lab

 If you would like to run subjects in the lab on your own, you only need to reserve some time following the link on the left of the page called "Reserve Lab Rooms" and follow the instructions on that page. Note: contact the Lab directly if you need one of the RAs to run subjects for you.

Guidelines for Payment Amounts to Participants

In-Lab Studies

Make sure that participants sign a pay-receipt at the end of the study.

Online Studies

Make sure you include a question at the end of your study for participants to list their email address to send the gift card.

Funding Your Studies (ie., paying participants)

Download: Pay-Receipts Form

Advances

If you are working with a faculty member, you can have your study funded by them. To get access to their Faculty Funds, you will have to file an ADVANCE through their faculty assistant (FA) or through us at the Lab.

After submitting the advance, you will receive the funds either through check mailed to you or wired directly into your checking account (You will need to provide the finance office with a blank/void check if ou want the funds deposited directly to your account.)

This process usually takes about two weeks, so be prepared to wait about 10 business days before the funds reach your hands. If you think you want to run a study in a month, its best to put in an advance for the money ahead of time.

Filling out an advance with plenty of time is specifically important if you plan to have the Lab run your study. The Lab does not have access to petty cash, and so cannot give you the correct denominations of bills. (eg., you are paying $7 per participant, you will need a $5 and two $1's. You need to get that change made at your bank before you bring it to us in the lab.)

So, if you ask an RA to run a study, and you have not filled out an advance, you have two options.

One, fill out an advance and wait the two weeks until funds arrive in your account. Or, provide the RA with cash from your personal checking account. Obviously, neither of these options is ideal. So, you want to make sure you are planning ahead and filling out advances at least two weeks ahead of time if you are thinking about running a study.

Reimbursement

After paying participants from an Advance, you will have a stack of "pay-receipts" which are used to reimburse the money.

Take these pay-receipts to the Faculty Assistant or a Research Assistant you worked with for the advance. They can process the reimbursement for you.

If you have left-over cash from running the study, you will need to provide a personal check along with the pay-receipts to the FA or RA to reimburse the advance in total. Deposit the cash into your personal bank account and write your check from there. Make the check payable to "Stanford University" and put the name of the study in the memo line.

• If you have paid participants out of your personal money, you can file for a reimbursement for the cost of the study in the same way. Bring the pay-receipts to your sponsoring faculty member's FA or the Lab to have it processed. Again, you will have to wait about two weeks for reimbursement.

Sona Systems - Our Participant Pools

Download: Pre-Screen restriction questions

Posting a Study in Sona

(Note: The Behavioral Lab sends out weekly email announcements to our subject pools announcing the studies that are currently active for which participants can sign up. This is to ensure that our participants are not hassled by frequent emails about new studies, and also that we have new participants signing up on a regular basis.)

1. Log-in to your Sona-Systems Account

2. At the top of the home screen click Add New Study

• Select the type of study you would like to administer Online or Standard (in lab)

3. Fill out fields under Basic Information (* means field is optional)

• Study Name
• Either Brief Abstract or Study Description
  • Include the purpose of the study and/or the procedure.
  • Specify the amount and nature of compensation (lottery study or individual payments).
  • Recommendation: Post the payment information in the Brief Abstract line because this will be most visible to participants as they brows through their available studies.
• *Eligibility Requirements ; visible to participants
• Duration
• Credits; each study should be worth 1 credit (very important!)
• *Preparation; visible to participants—helpful if you want them to read something or bring materials with them for a study
• Researcher; must select at least one researcher
• IRB Approval Code; enter protocol number. If exempt, type exempt in parentheses next to protocol number.
• IRB Approval Expiration; if exempt just select the latest date (ex. Dec. 31, 2015)
• Approved, check yes
• Active Study, check yes
• Private Commentssection at the bottom of the page
  • Here, please briefly list information about your study so that someone looking can get a basic idea of how you ran things and can contact you for further information if need-be:
    • Brief Abstract
    • When it was run (date range)
    • Basic IVs (list)
    • Basic DVs (list)
    • If deception was used (yes/no)
    • What primes were used (list)
    • If you debriefed participants on the study (yes/no)

4. The Advanced Settings section is self explanatory. Just remember if this is an online study to include the URL in this section.

5. Select Add this Study

Setting Prescreen (demographic) Restrictions for your Study

• Click on your Study
• Under Prescreen Restrictions click View/Modify Restrictions (in blue)
• Select the prescreen question(s) you would like to restrict
• Click Set Restrictions
• Select the answers that your desired participant would have chosen
• Click save changes

Creating Timeslots

• Click View/Administer Timeslots
• Add a Timeslot or Add Multiple Timeslots

View Pool Demographics

• On the home screen click Prescreen Results
• Select the prescreen question of interest
• Click View Response Data

Studies in Mass (SIM)

What is SIM?

SIM is a mass study session organized by the Behavioral Lab. Approximately 140 Stanford students (rarely staff) who are registered in our student Sona-Systems online participant pool. It is a convenient way to collect data, and minimizes the usual administrative costs of data collection. It is a great way to get some quick data on a short study idea.

When is SIM?

It is typically conducted twice a quarter. SIM deadlines and announcements about upcoming SIMs are sent by email.

How much does it cost?

The Behavioral Lab pays for SIM, so it is free for researchers.

What do I need to do to conduct research in SIM?

First, fill out the Request for Lab Help form online, specifiying that you want to participate in SIM.

Second, create your survey in Qualtrics and share your survey with the Behavioral Lab's account by the date requested in the SIM annoucement email. (search for GSB Behavioral Lab)

Questionnaires must not exceed 5 minutes in length. SIM is only for survey-type experiments. We are unable to accommodate studies that ask participants to eat, drink, smell, make something, etc in SIM.

If you prefer a paper-and-pencil questionnaire to be administered instead of on computer, you must supply to the Lab 140 collated and stapled copies of your questionnaire. These are due the same date that the Qualtrics surveys are due.

Lab Software

Qualtrics (a quick guide...)

Qualtrics is our web-based survey tool that is extremely versatile and can be used to administer questionnaires either online or in-lab. You can also incorporate pictures, audio, and video clips into the survey.

Here are a few quick tips to help in Qualtrics survey creation.

Survey Flow (Creating Different Conditions)

When creating a survey, the first think you probably want to do is create a block that contains the consent form. By creating a block that contains the consent form, it will be much easier to control the flow of the survey. So, after creating the "consent form block", click survey flow at the top of the screen. Then click "add a new element here." To randomly present blocks (conditions) after the consent form, click randomization and drag the randomization tool below the "consent form block." Then you can click and drag all conditions under the main block and choose to "randomly present 1 of the following elements." This works well for creating multiple conditions, but it is also another way to randomize questions throughout the survey.

Look and Feel

Sometimes, you may not want to use the traditional GSB Qualtrics template. If you want to change the appearance of the survey, click "Look Feel" at the top of the page. Then from the look and feel library tab, choose Qualtrics. You will have the option to choose from a number of different templates.

Repeat Headers

When creating multiple questions that contain a common Likert scale, you can repeat headers at the middle of the page, the bottom of the page, or both. Once you have clicked on the question, click the purple tool bar to the left. Then click "more advanced options." Then click "preview and label." Next, you can choose the tab repeat headers where you will have the following options: none, top, bottom, both.

Randomization

To randomize question within a page, click the purple tool bar next to the question and choose "randomization." You can choose from the basic randomization tools or you can set up advanced randomization.

HTML Codes

You can find a document with helpful Qualtrics HTML codes at this link.

Sona verification in Qualtrics

In order to ensure that participants who take our online studies are registered in our Sona pool then follow these steps:

• Within Qualtrics click on “Survey Options”
• Check the box that says “HTTP Referer Verification”
• Enter the Sona website url for the national pool (http://sgsb2.sona-systems.com) or the url for the student pool (http://sgsb.sona-systems.com) depending on where you’re posting the study

MediaLab and DirectRT

MediaLab is a versitile software package by Empirisoft that is avialable on all Lab computers. Here is a link that describes MediaLab in more detail: http://www.empirisoft.com/medialab.aspx

If you want to learn more about how to use MediaLab, you can set up an appointment with the Lab, and/or you can use Empirisoft's online user's guide: http://www.empirisoft.com/medialab/help/index.html?medialab_overview.htm

DirectRT is Empirisoft's reaction time software that we have on all Lab computers. Learn more about DirectRT here:
http://www.empirisoft.com/directrt.aspx

If you want to learn more about how to use DirectRT, you can set up an appointment with the Lab, and/or you can use Empirisoft's online user's guide: http://www.empirisoft.com/directrt/help/_helpcontents.htm

What is the difference between MediaLab and DirectRT?
Follow this link: http://support.empirisoft.com/showthread.php?t=15

Inquisit

Inquisit, by Millisecond, is a web-based reaction-time program. We have an online account with them. To learn more about Inquisit, go to: http://www.millisecond.com/

e-Prime

As of 2011 this is new software for the lab. You are free to use it on the lab machines. To learn more about e-Prime to see if it is for your purposes, go to: http://www.pstnet.com/eprime.cfm

Qualtrics Measures and Attention Libraries

Inserting questions, surveys and graphics from the library

download this document here

There are a number of pre-written surveys in the Qualtrics Library which you can import into your own survey, therefore saving time by eliminating the need to type in the questions yourself.

To browse questions and surveys in the Qualtrics Library

• First, sign into qualtrics using your log-in information. On the top, you will see a line of blue tabs. Click on the tab that says “Library” on the right.
• If you want to read surveys or questions, there are two libraries from which you can choose. The first is the “Survey Libraries” and the second is the “Question Libraries”. The difference between the “Survey” and the “Question” is that the former generally contains multiple questions that look at one area of interest (what most researchers would use, e.g. the PANAS), whereas the latter generally contains individual, loose questions (e.g.  Enter a date).
• If you want to browse and use other surveys, such as ones which you or other researchers have created (that are not in the Qualtrics Library) previously, please see below.
• If you are looking for graphics, such as smileys to put into your own survey, then you can browse the “Graphics Libraries”.

To insert pre-written questions or surveys from the library into your survey

• Go to the line of blue tabs on your home page and click on “Create Surveys”.
• Create your survey by entering in the name of your survey.
• Once it is created, you will see a box that says “Default Question Block”.
• Click on the purple circle that says “Copy Questions From…”
• Ther e, you can choose from 5 libraries (GSB Behavioral Lab, Qualtrics Library, B-Lab – Participant Attention, B-Lab – Psych Measures, My Surveys). If you click on each of the headings, it will automatically direct you into questionnaires, surveys or individual questions that are listed under that heading.
• Copying/importing questions
• You can copy one question, multiple questions or entire surveys.
1. To copy the entire survey, click on the blue button on the right that says “Import Entire Survey”. If you want to delete one or more questions from the survey, place your mouse on the question and you will see a red circle to the right of the question. Click on that to delete the question.
2. To copy one question, simply click on/highlight the question you want on the left of the page. Then click on “Add 1 Question”. Sometimes you have to copy an entire block of questions, though. In this case, if you only want certain questions from the block, then you can first highlight the question block on the left, click on the blue button “Add 1 Question”. Qualtrics will automatically direct you back to your own survey. Highlight the question(s) from the block that you do not want by clicking on the item. You will see a blue tab next to the item. Click on it, and select “Remove statement”.
3. To copy multiple questions, just click on/highlight the other questions you want. Simply reclick a highlighted question to undo what you don’t want.
• If you want to find a survey or questions which you browsed (above), then click on the heading “Qualtrics Library”.
• If you want to copy questions or entire surveys from what you have previously constructed, click on the heading “My Surveys” for browsing and retrieval.
• To delete an entire block, go up to the upper right hand corner of the block. Click on “Block Options”, and from the drop-down menu, choose “Delete Block”.

To insert graphics

• If yo u want to important graphics into a question, then click on the response choice item where you want to add a picture.
• The blue button will appear. Click on it, and from the drop-down menu, choose “Insert Graphic”. There are different libraries from which you can choose your picture.
• If you want, you can also upload a new graphic by clicking on “Upload a New Graphic” on the right upper corner.

Free Large Social Datasets

These are some databases that offer very large social datasets for Free. If you need to improve your statistics skills, or looking for a different paper to write, check these out. (Thanks Gabe!)

http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/ssvd/index.jsp

http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/NACDA/

Up since 1962...enormous repository of secondary data in the social science. Use your SUNet ID and a fake password to log on when downloading data. They keep track of the schools that use the site, but don't have your actual sunet id info. You must be on the Stanford servers or proxy-servers (on or off campus) to access this database.

http://chartsbin.com/

Public Opinion Data - since the late 1940's
http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/
might not be as user-friendly, so if you need help with this, contact SSDS and they'll be happy to help

Go here for help with either of these two databases, contact SSDS through this link...
http://www.stanford.edu/group/ssds/cgi-bin/drupal/content/contact-us-1

Pilot Studies

Here are some rules of thumb for running pilot studies:

• A “pilot” study is not officially research, it’s purpose is simply to test and finalize an instrument or research procedure before running a full study
• Pilot studies do not have to submitted to the IRB as protocols because they are not considered research.
• However, if you want to use the data you get from your pilot study, then you have to submit a protocol.
• Because it is not officially research:
• You can’t publish the data, or use it for any reason other than informing what you will do in your full, official study
• You do not have to have an information sheet or consent form
• You do not have to abide by any payment method, you can pay any amount you like, in any way you like, or not pay at all
• Because it’s purpose is simply to finalize an instrument or the research procedure:
• You can only use the absolute minimum number of participants you need to verify that the instrument or procedure works (but not to validate it)
• This means that if you are running an in-lab study where participants are doing something physical, like a dyad study, being videotaped, etc., the ‘rule of thumb’ is to use LESS THAN 10 people, or 10 dyads
• If the study is online, such as a questionnaire, again, use only the minimum number needed to see if your procedure works but not to validate the measure. The numbers of online participants may be a bit higher, simply because there tends to be multiple conditions in online studies, but not much higher. There is no ‘rule of thumb’ here, though I think we would want to keep it under 20-30 participants. Fewer if it is a simple 2x2, for example.

Lottery Studies

Here is some information regarding how to ensure that lottery studies are in compliance with the IRB and CA state law.

• Your IRB protocol must have approved a lottery method as payment in order for the study to offer a lottery
• If it does not, then you have to modify your protocol in order to offer the lottery
• The consent form or information sheet for a study must say that the payment method is a lottery
• The consent form or information sheet also does NOT NEED to specify the odds OR the payment amount
• Therefore, the odds do not need to be listed in Sona when posting the study
• Though, obviously, it’s good to list the payment amount in Sona in order to recruit participants
• These rules apply to both Exempt and Expedited protocols