Psychology Research Pool

Each new semester, all students must create an account in Research Pool by the third Friday of the semester. Click here for instruction on creating an account: Creating an account.

Login to Research Pool: http://towson.sona-systems.com

 

View a video of how to use the Research Pool here.


Information for Introductory Psychology Students

All students in Introductory Psychology (PSYC 101 or PSYC 102) at Towson University must earn 6 research credits during the semester. The deadline for earning credits and/or handing in reports is the last day of classes this semester.  No credits can be earned and no research or colloquium reports will be accepted during finals week.

Regardless of instructor, this requirement will count for 6% of the final grade in PSYC 101/102.

The 6 research credits may be obtained by completing any combination of the following activities: (1) participating in psychology studies (each credit is equivalent to 30 minutes); (2) reading and summarizing two approved journal articles according to the guidelines specified; (3) attending and summarizing one approved research presentation or colloquium; and (4) participating in a mock counseling session. Each of these credit opportunities is described in more detail on the Research Pool website, which is available by clicking on the “Need help using this website” link on http://towson.sona-systems.com

 

All information about the Research Pool, including specific instructions and forms for attending research presentations and summarizing journal articles, is found below:

 

Alternative Research Opportunities:

Research Report: Students may earn 3 credits for each written Research Report. Please follow the detailed instructions in the link below for completing the Research Reports. Instructions/Cover Page

Colloquium Report: Students may earn 3 credits for each written Research Report. Credit is based on attending and writing about this approved psychology related research presentation. Two research pool credits will be awarded for attending the colloquium and one additional credit will be awarded for completing a colloquium report. Students will only receive credit for being actively engaged in the presentation (i.e., no use of cell phones or other electronic devices, must be on time and stay for the entire session). Please follow the detailed instructions to complete the Colloquium Report. Instructions/Cover Page

This document shows you how to use the Research Pool website: Student Guide.

This video shows you how to use the Research Pool website: youtube video.

Questions?

 

Information for All Other Students

Students are encouraged to participate in research studies conducted by psychology department faculty and students. Some instructors are willing to give extra credit for participation--contact your instructor for details. To sign-up for research studies you will need to create a "Research Pool" account. This short handout shows you how to create an account:  Creating an account.

This document shows you how to use the research pool website: Student Guide.

This video shows you how to use the Research Pool website: youtube video.

Questions? 

 

Information for Researchers

Psychology faculty, graduate students, and students conducting independent research (including honor's theses) may use the Research Pool to recruit participants for their studies. Undergraduate students conducting research for class projects (e.g., Psyc 314) are not usually allowed to use the Research Pool. Exceptions may be granted by petitioning the Research pool Administrator.

Researchers and PI's may contact the Research Pool Administrator for documentation about how to use the Research Pool website (email: ).

The Research Pool is a limited resource. Therefore, the Psychology Department has adopted the following policies (exceptions may be granted by petitioning the Research Pool administrator):

All Studies

Before you start signing up participants, please email the research pool administrator with an estimate of how many participants you will need for your study and how many credits each participant will earn. The research pool administrator may limit the number of credits awarded for a study so that there are sufficient credits for all ongoing studies. 

Each credit is equivalent to approximately 1/2-hour of research participation. For example, a study that takes 1/2-hour to complete is worth 1 credit, a study that takes 1 hour to complete is worth 2 credits, and so on. If you are doing a study that takes less than 15 minutes for participants to complete, you should attempt to combine your study with another brief study and sign up participants for 30-minute sessions. The Research Pool Administrator will help facilitate this process.

Online Studies

Given that samples for online studies may be obtained through other outlets, the researchpool is usually limited to studies that are conducted in-person. If you are doing an online study that does not necessarily require the use of Towson students as participants, you should consider the following options before requesting that your study be posted on Researchpool:

  • Online participants may be recruited by posting a link to your study on one of the following sites: Psychological Research on the Net or Social Psychology Network or other similar sites.
  • Many researchers have had success using snowball sampling. That is, they send the survey to everyone they know and ask their contacts to pass it along to others.
  • Links to online studies may be posted on social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter or on Craigslist (a fee applies for the latter).
  • Specialized populations may be accessed by contacting national organizations or support groups.
  • Another option is Amazon’s Mechanical Turk; this option requires a small payment to each participant (usually less than $1).

If none of these options work for your study, you could investigate whether a computer lab is available where you could run your participants in-person rather than online. CLA computer labs are listed here.

Requests to add online studies to the researchpool can be made at any time in the semester by emailing . Unless there is clear justification for adding the online study to the researchpool (i.e., the study cannot be completed via other outlets), the researchpool coordinator will generally wait until midway through the semester to respond to such requests. At that time, the coordinator will examine the current level of demand for research credits in relation to the projected supply of credits. If there is a surplus of credits, then the coordinator will allow online studies to be added to the researchpool although the coordinator may impose limits as he/she deems appropriate.

Brief Studies (< 15 minutes)

If you are doing a study that takes less than 15 minutes for participants to complete, you should attempt to combine your study with another brief study and sign up participants for 30 minute sessions. The research pool administrator will help facilitate this process.

Information for Instructors

Please use your instructor account to view the research credits accumulated by your students. To access your account, login and choose the course you would like to view. We ask that you please do not accept consent forms or credit slips from students as proof of credit for studies in the research pool. If a student participated in a study, their credits will be kept automatically and can be viewed at any time by the students, their instructors, the researchers, etc.

Instructors may contact the Research Pool Administrator for documentation and/or assistance about how to use the Research Pool website.