Participating in Psychological Experiments


As part of the course requirement for Introductory Psychology, all students are asked to participate in three psychological experiments during a given semester. In addition to helping faculty with their research, we consider experimental participation to be a valuable learning experience that both contributes to and supplements many of the ideas discussed in class. That is, throughout the four different subsections of this year-long course, each faculty member will be discussing different psychological experiments that have been conducted in the previous literature in order to test a given hypothesis about behavior. By being a subject in an actual experiment, students can get a feel for what these experiments are like; what some of the typical methodological procedures are for investigating different types of behavior; and how the experimental method in general can be used to test a given hypothesis about behavior. The latter should be made apparent to you during the debriefing session that occurs either immediately after an experiment, or in a letter that will be sent to you later in the semester. In addition, the results of these experiments are often integrated into class lectures so that their particular relevance is further clarified. In sum, then, there are a variety of goals we hope to achieve with this course requirement but in general, experiment participation is intended to supplement and elaborate upon certain concepts discussed in class. Many colleges, including Bryn Mawr, try to accomplish these goals through a laboratory session that meets once or twice a week throughout the semester - a session where Introductory students conduct their own mini-experiments just as is done in a chemistry or biology lab. Although this is probably a better way to introduce students to psychological research, our Introductory course at Haverford is much too large to do this on a practical level and so instead, we ask students to participate in psychological experiments that are currently being conducted by faculty members. Given that each experiment is typically around an hour in duration and you have an entire semester to complete this requirement, this should not pose an unreasonable demand on your time.

There are a few potential concerns you may have which we would like to alleviate. First the purpose of these experiments is not to analyze your internal psyche or make inferences about you as an individual. Instead, the intent is to investigate how certain factors influence different types of cognitive processes (such as perception, memory, attention, problem-solving, or any other type of thinking process) in a large group of students all experiencing the same phenomenon. In other words, we are not interested in your data as an individual but only as part of a larger group. In fact, when analyzing the data, we collapse over all students in a given condition of the experiment and simply look at the overall mean. In addition, your data is maintained under strict confidentiality. Although student research assistants are hired to collect data during an experimental session, they do not analyze the results of the experiment or have access to the data after an experimental session is over. Instead, your data is immediately given to the faculty member conducting the study and he or she does not share this with anyone else. Secondly, you should be aware that you are free to leave at any time during an experimental session. That is, if you find an experiment to be in any way offensive or potentially threatening, then you are free to simply get up and leave, without any penalty being imposed upon you. Lastly, you may find that student assistants are somewhat vague in their description of an experiment before you actually participate in the study itself. This is intentional. While student recruiters should give you some idea about what you'll be doing in the experiment, we don't tell you the underlying purpose of the experiment before you participate. The reason is that this could influence the results of the study a priori and lead students to behave in a fashion that is not truly representative of the phenomenon of interest.

If you still have concerns about participating in an experiment, you are encouraged to speak to the faculty member in charge of the class when the concern arises. An alternative assignment will be made available to students who are unwilling to participate in experiments. The assignment will typically be a 10-12 page paper addressing issues of experimental procedure and methodology used in psychology experiments to answer questions about behavior. See the professor for further details.

A final comment about experimental etiquette. Once you have signed up for a given experiment, you are responsible for showing up at the designated time. If you need to cancel your appointment for any reason, then please call the experimenter well in advance (at the phone number indicated on the sign-up sheet) and let him or her know that you won't be attending. This is common courtesy - it is very rude to waste the experimenter's time and effort in setting up a testing session, and you yourself would not appreciate being "stood up". Hence, if you cannot make an experiment, then please call the experimenter and say so. If you fail to do this, then we will debit you such that you will have to participate in an additional experiment beyond the three that are required.

We hope this general information will allay any concerns or answer any questions you may have about participating in psychological experiments. Most students, in fact, find this experience to be an enjoyable one and if nothing else, a source of learning that provides greater insight into psychological behavior. If you do have any additional concerns you would like to discuss, then please contact the chair of the Psychology Department, Wendy Sternberg, at extension 1237 (or email wsternbe) and she will be happy to meet with you.

Back to syllabus