Recruiting

Many of our studies recruit participants via SONA, whereby students get course credit for participating in studies. Instructions on how to get a study on SONA can be found here. If you have any questions consult with the lab manager.

Other studies may recruit via other means, such as posters or social media. All recruitment methods and materials (including specific wording and visuals) must be approved by the REB prior to being posted publicly.

Screening

Most studies have inclusion/exclusion criteria that define and limit who can participate in the study. For this reason, it is typical that you will interact with potential participants prior to scheduling them for a study session, to ensure that they meet the criteria. An important thing to recognize is that, at the time of screening, participants have not provided informed consent for us to store and use their data. For this reason, screening questions should (a) ask only the minimum information necessary to determine study eligibility, and (b) not involve our storing information covered by privacy legislation (e.g., disease conditions; medications someone is using). In general our screening questions are designed to do this (e.g., asking "are you on any medications that affect your cognition or mood?" but not what medications specifically), and if someone answers in a way that may suggest they are not eligible, you follow up via phone or other method to get clarifying information. Email is acceptable for this, but email is not inherently secure — so potential participants should be informed that it is not a secure medium, and given the option to provide information via telephone.

Booking a Participant

When using SONA, you will post time slots and people will sign up for them. Ensure when making time slots available that these times are also available for the lab room that you will be using. This is done via the NCIL Room Booking space on Basecamp. Please respect other lab users and don't blanket-book lots of time slots if other people also need to use the room. We can discuss such arrangements at Nuts & Bolts meetings as necessary.

For non-SONA participants, typically you would find out when a participant is available and then book a slot in the lab based on when the testing room is available. For people coming from outside of Dal, it's important to provide clear directions as to how to get to the building and where you will meet them. This should be part of your Research Protocol.

Remember: it is lab policy that there should always be two lab members present in the lab when a participant is there. So when you book a participant, be sure that you have a volunteer or other helper to be there as well, or confirm that another lab member will be working in the lab at that time.