Notice: The lab is currently not open for in-person studies due to the COVID-19 pandemic. If you are interested in running this type of study, please contact lab director Justin Sydnor for accommodations.
As a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison BRITE Lab, you must follow the following guidelines governing lab use:
- Keep your computer lab room and multipurpose research room clean! Please dispose of your own trash and pack up any items you brought with you. Return the keyboard and mouse for each computer to their normal position, close any programs on the computers and delete any temporary files, push in all chairs, collect all pens/papers, and make sure the main door to the lab suite is closed when leaving.
- Moving desks or computer terminals is strictly prohibited in the computer lab. The computer lab is set up as a network and any re-locating of equipment may interfere with network performance. As such, please leave all equipment in their original positions. Tampering with lab equipment is also strictly prohibited. Moving of desks in the multipurpose research room can be arranged to accommodate study needs; please contact us for more details.
- The lab has a Calendar that is maintained by the Lab Manager. The calendar will allow you to view currently scheduled experiments in the lab, as well as determine when the lab is available to schedule your own experiments.
- Prior to booking your experimental sessions in SONA, please notify the Lab Manager of the dates and times you would like to reserve the Lab. The Lab Manager will then update the calendar to reflect up-to-date information for other researchers’ use.
- The lab will use SONA Systems as a participant recruiting tool. Students are recruited from across campus. You must receive SONA training (contact the Lab Manager) and follow some important rules in order to use the lab:
- All studies run in the lab must have prior IRB approval. IRB approval codes must be listed for each study in SONA Systems before the Lab Manager will approve the study. Researchers must also provide the lab with a copy of their IRB time-stamped consent form (or a copy of their consent form exemption) prior to running the study.
- If you are holding an extra credit session, it will be your responsibility to provide a list of attendees to the professors of the classes for which credit will be granted.
- If you are running an incentivized (paid) session, you must pay a $5 show up fee to anyone who comes but is turned away due to space limitations, and you must pay a $5 show up fee to all participants if you have scheduled a session (But not cancelled it) and they have shown up but you can’t run the session at that time.
- The type of experiment (flat fee payment or variable payment) and the average expected earnings for the experiment will be posted on the sign-up page in SONA. BRITE studies will follow the below minimum payment schedule (as of 1/12/2018):
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- Average payout calculation for variable payments: total cost of the session/# of subjects in that experiment = $ per person. For example, for a 60 min. experiment with a variable payment type, some individuals may receive less than $15 and some may receive more, but the average payment for that experiment should be at least $15/person. The individual(s) who receive less than average must not be compensated by less than $5, which can be thought of as a minimum “show-up fee”.
- If you need to cancel an experiment you must do so 24 hours in advance and be sure to alert your participants. It is your responsibility to both schedule sessions on SONA, assure you have participants, assure that you have scheduled lab time, and pay all participants who show up.
- As a researcher in the lab, you will be issued keycard access to the lab suite (Rooms 2114-2117 in Nancy Nicholas Hall). Request access by emailing the Lab Manager.
- Building hours for Nancy Nicholas Hall are from 7:45AM-8PM Monday-Friday. If you will be running sessions outside of these days/times, notify the Lab Manager ASAP so that we can request the building doors be unlocked. This request can sometimes take a few days to go through; please keep this in mind as you plan your sessions.