Research Pool (SONA)

Instruction Videos

Instructions

Research Requirement Instructions [pdf]
Alternative Assignment Instructions [pdf]

Accessing the online system

Login at: http://sjsu.sona-systems.com/

All Psych 1 students are required to participate in psychology research experiments for a total of 4 hours. The 4 hours must be completed by the December 9, 2024 deadline in order to receive credit for the course.

This research experience is not only required by the department as part of the Psychology 1 curriculum, but if, you participate willingly, you will learn a great deal about how psychology works. Who knows, you may like what you see and become a Psychology researcher!

Guidelines

• You have a total of 4 hours to complete. At least 2 hours must be completed with in person lab studies. You may complete the remaining 2 hours with online studies or in person studies.
• You need to have at least 1 hour completed by October 1st, 2024. If not completed by that time, you will receive an email noting your need to begin participation in the research pool.
• You can participate in each experiment only once.
• If you cannot show up at your appointment, whether it be on Zoom or in person, please inform your researcher! A 24-hour advance notice is required. Any student who does not provide 24-hour notice will need to make up the missed hours with the Alternative Assignment.
• Show up on time. Be respectful to the researchers. Follow all directions and guidelines.
• Some studies may vary in their emphasis on how much effort should be placed in their experiments. Meaning they can give you a fraction of the credit that you expected to receive. For instance, although the study was slated as being one hour in credit, because you didn’t take the study seriously, they could decide to only give you .5 hour credit. The minimum that can be awarded is .25 hour credit.
• Points awarded will be commensurate with the effort expended by participants in studies
• You will be awarded only a fraction of the total credit hours associated with the study:
  • Should you elect not to continue your participation in a study.
  • In the event that your completion of a study was done in an unreasonably short period of time (e.g. 5 minutes for a 60 minutes online survey).
• Research participation will be treated as a course assignment worth 6% of the final course grade. To obtain the full 6%, you will need to complete 4 hours of research participation (1.5% per hour). 
• If you elect to not participate in research, you can consider the alternative assignment option for full or partial credit for your research hours. Please see the distributed handouts on alternative assignment for details on the requirements.
• All research hours and alternative assignments must be completed by December 9, 2024.
• Do not wait until the last couple of weeks to complete this assignment! Create your SONA account within the first few weeks of the semester and log-on frequently; appointments may be hard to come by!

Frequently Asked Questions

• Can I do a combination of Research Studies and the Alternative Assignment?
  • Yes!
• Are all the studies held on campus?
  • It depends on the study. Some studies may be online while others may be in person.
• How long are the studies?
  • The credit hours will be listed on the studies page in SONA. The research study credit hours are provided in 15 minute increments. Hence, there are studies that give you 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 1.5 hours, etcetera to complete. Studies typically last 30 minutes to 1 hour.
• What kinds of studies are available?
  • The research pool is open to all professors and students conducting psychological research. Thus, experiments represent various fields in psychology from social attitudes to human factors.

Other Resources

Policy for Protection of Human Research Subjects [SJSU] [pdf]
Office for Human Research Protections

Questions

Research Pool Coordinator: 
Abril Baez
sjsuspc@gmail.com