Student Participation in Research
Approved Projects for Winter 2013
These are the approved experiments that Psychology 101 and other eligible psychology students may participate in for credit. Participation in any experiment that is not listed here will not count for credit. To sign up for any project, please see the sign-up sheet on the psychology department bulletin board (across the hall from Pettengill 357). Not all experiments will be available at all times. If there is no sign-up sheet for a particular experiment, or if all appointments for an experiment are full, please find a different experiment to participate in. For questions about any experiment, please contact the experimenter. For questions about participation credit, please contact your instructor.
1. You only get credit for participating in approved experiments. With few exceptions, all experiments are sponsored by the psychology department. You will only receive participation credit for the experiments listed on this website. Check here for updates.
2. Each experiment has a fixed amount of credit assigned to it based on the average length of time that it will take you to participate. If an experiment is worth 0.5 credits, you will get 0.5 credits whether it takes you 25 minutes or 35 minutes to complete it. Be sure to check the amount of credits when you sign up for the experiment.
3. To sign up for an experiment, check out the bulletin board in the psychology department across from Brian Pfohl’s office (Pettengill 357). Please be respectful of the experimenter’s time and make sure that you keep your appointment! If you are unable to keep your appointment, please notify the experimenter as soon as possible.
4. Upon completion of the experiment, you will receive a paper receipt of your participation listing the experiment number and the amount of credit you have earned. SAVE THIS RECEIPT! Although it is the experimenter’s responsibility to report your participation to the department, this receipt is the only proof that you have of your participation.
(If you are a student running a research project, please check out the guidelines and application page for information about adding your experiment to this list.)
Experiment #1: Executive Functioning and Neurotransmitters
| Location: | 327 |
| Duration: | 120 minutes |
| Credits: | 2.0 |
| Experimenter: | Larisa Collins |
| E-mail: | lcollins |
| Phone Number: | (415) 272-7899 |
The purpose of this research is to study the relationship between executive functioning, aerobic exercise and levels of a neurotransmitter protein that are found in everyone�s urine. This study consists of a single laboratory session that is expected to last two hours. The study features noninvasive urine collection, self-report questionnaires asking about everyday experiences, pencil-and-paper tasks involving visual puzzles, a computer task, and a Step Test.
Restrictions: Men and women who are right-handed and fully fluent in English can participate. Exclusion criteria include current diagnosis of psychiatric illness or history of psychiatric treatment within the last six months, any history of significant neurological illness or brain injury, marijuana use in the last week, current diagnosis of diabetes or overactive bladder syndrome, or a current urinary tract infection. For women, please choose a date for participation when you likely will NOT have your period. You may NOT participate in this if you participated in Experiment 6 last semester.
Experiment #2: Emotion and Neurotransmitters
| Location: | Pettengill Room 327 |
| Duration: | 105 minutes |
| Credits: | 1.75 |
| Experimenter: | Lauren Demers |
| E-mail: | Ldemers |
| Phone Number: | (301)642-0983 |
The purpose of this research is to study the relationship between emotion processing and levels of two neurotransmitter proteins that are found in everyone’s urine. This study consists of a single laboratory session that is expected to last an hour and 45 minutes. The study features noninvasive urine collection, self-report questionnaires pertaining to your everyday experiences, pencil-and-paper tasks involving word definitions and visually-displayed puzzles, and computer tasks involving judging emotional content in faces and voices.
Restrictions: Men and women who are right-handed and fully fluent in English can participate. Exclusion criteria include current diagnosis of psychiatric illness or history of psychiatric treatment within the last six months, any history of significant neurological illness or brain injury, marijuana use in the last week, current diagnosis of diabetes or overactive bladder syndrome, or a current urinary tract infection. For women, please choose a date for participation when you likely will NOT have your period. Additionally, if you participated in experiment #3 last semester, you may not participate in this experiment.
Experiment #3: Personality & Media
| Location: | Pgill 371 |
| Duration: | 30 minutes |
| Credits: | 0.5 |
| Experimenter: | Stephanie Boyle |
| E-mail: | sboyle |
| Phone Number: | (347) 721-6068 |
This experiment looks at how different personality types respond to different media. Participants will complete a short writing task, be shown some form of media and answer a series of follow-up questions.
Restrictions: No restrictions.
Experiment #4: Relating Oxytocin Levels to Cognitive and Emotional Processing
| Location: | Pgill 327 |
| Duration: | 90 minutes |
| Credits: | 1.5 |
| Experimenter: | Laura Max |
| E-mail: | lmax |
| Phone Number: | (301) 651-7202 |
The purpose of this study is to learn about the relationship between the chemical hormone oxytocin and patterns of cognitive and emotional processing. Oxytocin is released in both men and women in response to human contact and is thought to be involved in bonding, trust, attachment formation, and social functioning. Your participation in the study involves responding to a series of questionnaires concerning your emotions and mood, completing a few computerized and pencil-and-paper tasks to measure how you process information, and providing a saliva sample to measure oxytocin levels.
Restrictions: You may not participate in this experiment if you completed this study last semester (Experiment #9) Men and women who are right-handed and fully fluent in English can participate. Exclusion criteria include a history of significant brain injury or neurological illness, and color-vision deficiency.
Experiment #5: Contributors to Decision Making in Adults
| Location: | Pettengill 327 (next to big computer classroom) |
| Duration: | 60 minutes |
| Credits: | 1.0 |
| Experimenter: | Alexandra Abry |
| E-mail: | aabry |
| Phone Number: | 617-816-0200 |
The purpose of the study is to examine factors that contribute to financial decision making in adults. Your participation in this study will require you to complete a series of questionnaires related to demographics (e.g., age, gender), medical/psychiatric history, current and past alcohol and substance use history, as well as behavior, beliefs, and preferences. Your participation should take 60 minutes. Your data will be anonymous.
Restrictions: Eligibility requirements include no history of diagnosed psychiatric (e.g., ADHD, depression, bipolar disorder), neurological (e.g., multiple sclerosis, past traumatic brain injury), or severe medical illness (e.g., cancer), or any history of diagnosis or treatment for an alcohol or substance use disorder. Please do not sign up for the study if you have used marijuana in the last week.
Experiment #6: Personality Dimensions and Attention to Emotion
| Location: | Pettengill Room 327 |
| Duration: | 30 minutes |
| Credits: | 0.5 |
| Experimenter: | Lindsey Gwynne |
| E-mail: | Lgwynne |
| Phone Number: | 978-505-3805 |
A student in the Program in Neuroscience at Bates College is conducting this research. The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between patterns of attention, eating behaviors, and various personality traits. This study consists of a single laboratory session that is expected to last approximately 30 minutes. During this session, you will be asked to fill out several questionnaires while seated at a table. These scales ask you to reflect on your day-to-day habits and behaviors. After completing the questionnaires, you will be asked to complete a computer task. This task will have you responding to words as they are presented on the monitor. Following the computer task, you will be given a simple cognitive measure that can be done at a table. At the end of the experiment, you will be given a debriefing form so that you can understand more of the intent of the study, and you will be able to ask any questions you might have of the researcher.
Restrictions: Color blind individuals, individuals who have a medical history that affects their attentional or memory systems (past injury with loss of consciousness, past or present diagnosis of ADHD, recent use of marijuana or other illicit substances). You may not participate in this study if you participated in Experiment #18 last fall.
Experiment #7: Decision-Making after a Task
| Location: | Pettengill G04 |
| Duration: | 60 minutes |
| Credits: | 1.0 |
| Experimenter: | Olivia Coleman |
| E-mail: | ocoleman |
| Phone Number: | 9145890184 |
This study is designed to look at the body’s natural response to a task. Participants will complete a task, reports on the task, and then complete a decision-making task. The reports will focus on demographics as well as reports on moods and emotional state.
Restrictions: You may not participate in this experiment if you completed experiment #25 in the fall. Anyone who has experienced a recent traumatic injury, has a history of circulatory problems, heart problems, or hyper- or hypotension cannot participate in this study. Please do not participate if you use nicotine products regularly. Participants cannot have exercised for 30 minutes prior to experiment. Please make sure not to eat dinner prior to participation.
Experiment #8: Responding to Faces
| Location: | Pettengill #329 (Part A) – Pettengill 374 (Part B) |
| Duration: | 60 minutes, split across two 30 min sessions |
| Credits: | 1.0 |
| Experimenter: | Alexandra Abry |
| E-mail: | aabry |
| Phone Number: | 617-816-0200 |
This study is designed to evaluate how individual differences influence how people respond to faces. The experiment will be split into two separate 30 minute part (Part A and Part B) that will require you to fill out questionnaires regarding your opinions and feelings in various situations, and to engage in a task that requires you to look at faces. The data collected in this experiment will be anonymous. Please do not sign up if you do not plan to participate in both sessions!
Restrictions: For PART B you may not sign up to participate at the same time as a friend or known acquaintance. If one of your friends is also participating in this study, please ensure that you and your friend are not signed up for the same time slot. You may sign up to participate at the same time as a fellow classmate, but ONLY if you do not know that classmate. Additionally, participants are not allowed to use cell phones during the experiment.
Experiment #9: Daughters’ and Parents’ Attitudes
| Location: | Data collection is complete for this project. |
| Duration: | 20 minutes |
| Credits: | 0.5 |
| Experimenter: | Steph Sprague |
| E-mail: | sspragu2 |
| Phone Number: | 978-618-2188 |
This project seeks to examine the relationship between mothers’ and fathers’ attitudes and their daughters’ attitudes. Participants will complete an online questionnaire, and will then be prompted to provide their parents’ email addresses to send an automatically generated email containing a link to a parent’s survey.
Restrictions: Participants must be first-year, female students.
Experiment #10: Imagination and emotional involvement
| Location: | Online: Data collection is complete for this experiment |
| Duration: | 10 minutes |
| Credits: | 0.25 |
| Experimenter: | Tina Pruyn |
| E-mail: | tpruyn |
| Phone Number: | (207) 272-5655 |
This is an experiment measuring the effects of imagination depending on the level of emotional involvement of differing theoretical scenarios. Some of the participants will randomly be randomly placed into the “mild emotional involvement” scenario (e.g. imagining coffee with a coworker) and some will be randomly placed in the “intense emotional involvement” scenario (e.g. imagining an actor engaging in sexual acts with someone who is not their significant other).
Restrictions: No restrictions
Experiment #11: Auditory Perception
| Location: | P’gill 366 |
| Duration: | 20 minutes |
| Credits: | 0.5 |
| Experimenter: | Molly Bruzzese |
| E-mail: | mbruzzes |
| Phone Number: | 860-614-9043 |
This experiment examines an auditory illusion.
Restrictions: Must have normal or corrected to normal hearing
Experiment #12: Judgments of Facial Beauty
| Location: | Pettengill 327 |
| Duration: | 15 minutes |
| Credits: | 0.25 |
| Experimenter: | Nancy Koven |
| E-mail: | nkoven |
| Phone Number: | 786-6426 |
This task requires you to look at black-and-white faces of strangers and make a judgment of the person’s facial attractiveness.
Restrictions: Males only.
Experiment #13: Global / Local Task
| Location: | P’gill 366 |
| Duration: | 10 minutes |
| Credits: | 0.25 |
| Experimenter: | Jeff Lathrop |
| E-mail: | jlathrop |
| Phone Number: | 207-272-6509 |
In this experiment you will look at a computer screen and will respond to visually presented numbers.
Restrictions: Must have normal or corrected to normal vision.
Experiment #14: Attentional capture
| Location: | P’gill 366 |
| Duration: | 30 minutes |
| Credits: | 0.5 |
| Experimenter: | Max Arnell |
| E-mail: | barnell |
| Phone Number: | 973-868-6291 (text or call to cancel) |
In this experiment you will see words flash on the computer and you will be asked to respond to this information as quickly and accurately as possible.
Restrictions: Must have normal or corrected to normal vision and hearing. Must also have normal color vision.
Experiment #15: Letter Recognition
| Location: | P’gill 366 |
| Duration: | 50 minutes |
| Credits: | 1.0 |
| Experimenter: | Simone Schriger |
| E-mail: | sschrige |
| Phone Number: | 310-986-4652 |
In this experiment you will see letters and odd shaped symbols appear on a computer screen and will be asked to identify what was shown.
Restrictions: Must have normal or corrected to normal vision.
Experiment #16: Attention to Faces
| Location: | P’gill 366 |
| Duration: | 50 minutes |
| Credits: | 1.0 |
| Experimenter: | Quinne Moran |
| E-mail: | rmoran |
| Phone Number: | 304-543-1460 (please call or text to cancel) |
In this experiment you will be looking at a computer monitor and responding to rapidly presented faces.
Restrictions: Must have normal or corrected to normal vision.
Experiment #17: Writing styles and cognition
| Location: | Pgill 363 |
| Duration: | 25 minutes |
| Credits: | 0.5 |
| Experimenter: | Helen Boucher |
| E-mail: | hboucher |
| Phone Number: | x6395 |
Participants will complete a brief writing exercise and several cognitive tasks.
Restrictions: Must be a native English speaker, and must not have participated in Study #2 in fall 2012
Experiment #18: Judgments about People
| Location: | Pgill 374 |
| Duration: | 20 minutes |
| Credits: | 0.5 |
| Experimenter: | Liza Dorison |
| E-mail: | Ldorison |
| Phone Number: | 413-441-0905 |
You will watch a short clip and be asked to make a judgment.
Restrictions: Students who participated in Experiment #4 in Fall 2012 cannot take this experiment.
Experiment #19: Goal directed eyewitness testimony
| Location: | PGILL 374 |
| Duration: | 20 minutes |
| Credits: | 0.5 |
| Experimenter: | Elise Levesque |
| E-mail: | elevesqu |
| Phone Number: | 8603352445 |
This experiment involves eyewitness testimony after watching a hypothetical crime scene video. It seeks to examine the interaction between interviewers and eyewitnesses as they discuss and attempt to re-create the events of this staged crime scene. Participants in this study have the potential to win up to a $10 reward for their successful participation.
Restrictions: That you do not know the other participant signed up for your time slot any better than casual acquaintances.
Experiment #20: Sorting It Out: A Study of Categorization
| Location: | Pettengill 371 |
| Duration: | 15 minutes |
| Credits: | 0.25 |
| Experimenter: | Simone Schriger |
| E-mail: | sschrige |
| Phone Number: | 310-986-4652 |
In this study, you will be asked to respond to words on a computer screen.
Restrictions: Normal or corrected vision; English proficient
Experiment #21: Eyewitness Investigative Procedures and Effects on Accuracy
| Location: | Pgill 374 |
| Duration: | 30 minutes |
| Credits: | 0.5 |
| Experimenter: | Alyson Goldstein |
| E-mail: | agoldst4 |
| Phone Number: | 610-306-9926 |
Sign up here: http://www.slyreply.com/app/sheets/oc0sa44egutj/
As a participant in this study, you will be randomized to be either an eyewitness or an interviewer in a mock crime. The eyewitness will watch the crime and the interviewer will question them afterwards. Both participants will answer questions based on their experience.
Restrictions: TWO people per 30 minute time slot and you cannot be an acquaintance of the person you sign up for
Experiment #22: Third-Party Perspectives on Eyewitness-Investigator Interactions
| Location: | Pettingill 317 |
| Duration: | 20 minutes |
| Credits: | 0.5 |
| Experimenter: | Sheena Malik |
| E-mail: | smalik3 |
| Phone Number: | 734-358-4046 |
In this experiment, you will be listening to a brief audio recording of a conversation between an eyewitness and an investigator and then asked to fill out a short questionnaire based on what you heard.
Restrictions: None
Experiment #23: The Behavioral Economic and Neuroeconomic Analysis of Alcohol Consumption and Hyperbolic Discounting.
| Location: | Pgill 257 |
| Duration: | 45 minutes |
| Credits: | 0.75 |
| Experimenter: | Courtney Lemenze |
| E-mail: | clemenze |
| Phone Number: | 201-323-0753 |
Discounting can be easily defined as our desire for rewards sooner rather than later. This experiment looks to study how alcohol consumption effects an individual’s discounting. Participants are asked to complete four different questionnaires: a demographic questionnaire, a monetary tradeoff questionnaire, the Barratt Impulsivity questionnaire and the AUDIT alcohol questionnaire. The monetary trade off questionnaire consists of 48 decisions of a sooner-small payment and a later-large payment. Through answering all questionnaires the researcher will be able to look into alcohol’s effect on the individual’s discounting.
Restrictions: None
Experiment #24: Restaurant Preferences Study
| Location: | Pgill 371 |
| Duration: | 45 minutes |
| Credits: | 0.75 |
| Experimenter: | Julie Naidu |
| E-mail: | jnaidu |
| Phone Number: | 724-309-7370 |
I am conducting research to determine what information about restaurants governs students’ decisions to go to specific ones. I am particularly interested in how students retain information about others experiences and how they base their decisions to go to the restaurants on these reviews. Participants will take part in an e-prime based experiment to test for these research topics.
Restrictions:
Experiment #25: Stigma and Mental Health
| Location: | Data collection is complete for this project. |
| Duration: | 15 minutes |
| Credits: | 0.25 |
| Experimenter: | Nate Rickler |
| E-mail: | nrickler |
| Phone Number: | 401 743 7463 |
The following is a survey designed to investigate levels of stigma pertaining to mental health treatment on a small college campus. All answers will remain ANONYMOUS
Restrictions: no restrictions
Experiment #26: Reading and Study Habits
| Location: | PGill 321 |
| Duration: | 20 minutes |
| Credits: | 0.5 |
| Experimenter: | Sarah Wason |
| E-mail: | swason |
| Phone Number: | 603-812-6179 |
Sign up here: http://signupschedule.com/swason
The purpose of this experiment is to investigate differences in how people study. Participants will be asked to complete a personality questionnaire, several reading tasks, and a brief study habits questionnaire.
Restrictions: Must have normal or corrected to normal vision.
Experiment #27: Examining Perry
| Location: | |
| Duration: | 10 minutes |
| Credits: | 0.25 |
| Experimenter: | Chris Boyd |
| E-mail: | cboyd |
| Phone Number: | 901-502-1650 |
Participants will view a brief video, and following be asked to answer questions about what they have seen.
Restrictions:
Experiment #28: Risk in College Students
| Location: | Online survey. Data collection is complete |
| Duration: | 15 minutes |
| Credits: | 0.25 |
| Experimenter: | Virginia Flatow |
| E-mail: | vflatow |
| Phone Number: | 9178819649 |
This experiment is a brief online survey investigating the way college students make decisions.
Restrictions:
Experiment #29: Selective Attention
| Location: | P’gill 366 |
| Duration: | 25 minutes |
| Credits: | 0.5 |
| Experimenter: | Jessica Heiges |
| E-mail: | jheiges |
| Phone Number: | 415-497-8441 |
In this experiment you will listen to a brief tape over headphones and will then participate in a computer-based task. During this time you will be asked to wear a heart rate monitor. You will be shown how to put on the monitor and will be left in private to put this on.
Restrictions: I understand that I must have normal or corrected to normal hearing to participate.
Experiment #30: Beatles and Cognition
| Location: | Pgill 366 |
| Duration: | 25 minutes |
| Credits: | 0.5 |
| Experimenter: | Bernard Arnell |
| E-mail: | barnell |
| Phone Number: | 9738686291 |
Participants will respond to prompts on a computer screen while listening to music.
Restrictions: All participants must have normal or corrected to normal vision and hearing.