Make sure you go through all of the steps in BeforeYouStartWorkingInTheLab before you start running behavioral studies
General principles
On the day of testing
- Always ensure testing rooms are booked beforehand, through the Virtual EMS system. We usually tend to run our studies in room B71C in CB3, but, depending on availability, we may sometimes be in other testing rooms in B71.
- Arrive at your booked testing room early, giving yourself sufficient time to setup and test the study laptop.
- Have all of the informed consent and other paperwork ready before the participant arrives
- Prep materials that will be used in the study
SONA
The study should now be able to log into SONA at the following address: https://unl.sona-systems.com/Default.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2f
Once the student logs in, they will enter that they are logging in as a researcher. From here, the student will be able to create their scheduled times to run studies.
Note: make sure to include scheduled times on the Lab Google Calendar AND the Virtual EMS system.
TechSetUp
Both of our testing laptops run a distribution of Linux. They have been set up to be optimal for data collection, and so have some slightly unusual steps involved in experimental setup. In addition, each study has slightly different steps involved in their setup. The task instructions for each separate study will include a tech setup sheet, which will detail the specific settings required for that study.
Following/Filling in the log form
Once the participant has arrived fill the log form accordingly, recording the number of the participant, date, time, whether paid or for credit, and the running total of paid or credit participants.
Handling sensitive data
- All forms (consent, demographics, questionnaires, surverys, receipt forms etc) must be handled with care as they may contain sensitive data about participants
- At the end of each day that an RA has conducted study sessions, they should turn in all of the forms completed that day to the lab manager/postdoc/Dr. Johnson (depending on whoever is around). They will then check to make sure all of the forms had been correctly filled and are all there, before storing them in a holding folder. At this point, the "Forms given to Rafay" column in the log form should be checked.