Center for Behavioral Decision Research

CBDR : Information for Researchers : Experiment Scheduling Page Information

Getting Access

Start posting your experiments

Checking IDs

FAQs of using the scheduling page

Getting Access

The experiment scheduling website is a service provided by the CBDR for all researchers at Carnegie Mellon. The site has been used to advertise and schedule experimental sessions by researchers from many departments at CMU since the fall of 2000.

If you would like to post sessions on the site, please e-mail with the subject "Scheduling Site Access Request" and the following information to cbdr-lab@andrew.cmu.edu:

► Name

► Andrew ID

► Title (research assistant, graduate student, professor, etc)

► Department

► Primary Investigator / associated faculty / faculty advisor

► Phone number

The CBDR lab director will then reply with the password needed to log-in to the experiment scheduling site as an administrator. There a few detailed requests we have of researchers using the site:

► Post sessions using your school e-mail address, not anonymous accounts from services like gmail or yahoo. This is important so that participants can verify the identities of the people running the experiment.

► If you know other experimenters that are interested in using this site, please show them these instructions. Please do not give out the password.

► Please help maintain the site by reporting things that seem like bugs or by suggesting potential improvements

Reserving time using the Yahoo calendar

Please contact the lab manager at cbdr-lab@andrew.cmu.edu if you need to know the url for the Yahoo calendar used to reserve time in the lab. Once you have received the url, visit the specified website and login with the information you received from the lab manager. To create an experimental session or post an event, use the name of the experiment as the event's title and indicate which room(s) you will need and who will be running the experiment. All experimenters should also be listed under "tasks" with their phone number, email address, and affiliation so that others will know to contact you.

The lab is a shared resource and depends on researchers sharing cooperatively. Researchers that reserve excessive blocks of time in the lab, reserve the lab too far in advance, or reserve times that they don't use may have their reservations cancelled and may be banned from using the lab.

Start Posting Your Experiments

To post an experimental session on the scheduling web site <http://cbdr.cmu.edu/experiments/> you've got to add the appropriate things in each of the 4 boxes at the top of the web page, after you have logged in to the administrator mode (check to see if they're not already in the system first)

People	►	Yourself, make sure to choose 'Experimenter'
Locations	►	The room you plan on running your experiments
Experiment Types	►	The name of your experiment. Enter all the information that participants will see about the experiment's length, payment, location, description, etc
Sessions	►	Schedule and post sessions of your experiment so that participants can begin signing up.

Checking IDs

It is important that experimenters verify the identities of all participants in their experiments by checking a photo ID for each participant. Experimenters should make sure that the name on the ID exactly matches the name that the participant used to register for the experimental session (and that there's nothing suspicious, like using middle names or nicknames in the registration), and that the photo on the ID matches the face of the participant.

A failure check IDs can mean that the same participant is participating in your experiments more than once. The scheduling web site keeps track of participants by name and email address (a name can only have one email address associated with it, and vice versa). The only way to verify that the names people are using to register is to make sure that the names match the people who participate.

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If the name on the registration does not exactly match the name on the identification, you should expel that individual and not allow them to participate.

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If you wish, you may check whether anyone with any version of that participant's name has registered for or participated in your experiment. To do this, go to the Master Participant List (or find out more about the MPL at <http://cbdr.cmu.edu/mpl>) and search using the name and your experiment. There, you may add a note to the participant's record so that other researchers can look out for them.

Frequently Asked Questions about the Scheduling Page

Who is signed up for my experiment?

You can check on who has registered for each of your sessions. Log-in to the website using the administrator password. Then find your experiment listing and click "View/Edit Sessions." Clicking "Edit" for any session will show you a list of the participants that are currently registered.

How do I find information about a session that has passed and is no longer displayed?

All functions that are available for upcoming sessions are also possible for past sessions, you just have to display them. Log-in to the website using the administrator password. At the top of the large section titled "Experiments List" you will see a set of drop-down boxes with the descriptions "Display Experiments From:" and "To:" by changing this range of dates, and then clicking "Refresh" you can see any experiment that has ever been in the system. Be cautious of displaying too large a range of dates as the number of sessions displayed may be overwhelming.

Who can sign up for my experiment?

The CBDR experiment scheduling site is open to all potential participants. Students from all area schools as well as members of the general community are regular participants. The system does keep track of and prevent registration by a participant for the same experiment more than once. It is also possible, when you create an experiment, to specify which previous experiments would make a participant ineligible to participate in the new one. The system tracks users by e-mail address and name. All participants should be over 18 years old unless arrangements are made to get consent from their guardians. Researchers are free to state additional restrictions for any experiment in the description, but enforcing these restrictions is at this time the responsibility of the experimenter. Participants can sign up for a session as long as it is visible on the website.

What do I do about people who don't show up?

No-shows are an inherent problem of experiments with volunteer participants for pay. The website helps to improve show-up rates by automatically sending a reminder e-mail to each registrant (see related question). Experimenters are encouraged to go back to edit the experimental session and indicate which participants were no-shows. When they do so, the participant is notified by email that they failed to show up and that three such no-shows will result in their banning from the use of the web site. A participant whose name and email have been tagged with no-shows three times will be banned from registering for any experiment again.

How can I let a participant that cancels sign up again?

The website will not let a participant sign up again unless they are removed from the registration for the session they canceled or did not show up to. If you wish to let them register again, log-in to the website using the administrator password. Then find your experiment listing and click "View/Edit Sessions." Clicking "Edit" for any session will show you a list of the participants that are currently registered. Click "Remove" next to the participant in question. Enter the password for your experiment, and click "Remove." You will then have the option to send them a stock e-mail. You can use the stock e-mail, write your own e-mail through the website at that time, or cancel and send your own e-mail normally.

When I try to schedule an experiment, I can't find myself in the experimenter list.

Either you are not in the system at all, or you are in the system, but you are not categorized as an experimenter. Log-in to the website using the administrator password. Find the "People" section at the top of the page and click the "Display People List" box. This will load the entire list of participants and experimenters (which is why it is normally not displayed). If you are not in this list, click "New" and add yourself. Make sure to select the "Experimenter" radio button at the bottom and click "OK." If you are already in the list, select your name, and click "Edit." Then make sure that "Experimenter" is selected and click "OK"

How do the automatic reminder e-mails work?

The website sends automatic reminder e-mails to every registered participant and the experimenter at 6am the morning before the session is scheduled. Participants e-mails are in the bcc: field to protect their anonymity, but the experimenter's e-mail is listed in the to: field. If participants register after 6am the day before the session, they do not receive a reminder. If no participants are registered for a session by 6am the day before, no reminder will be sent out, even to the experimenter. Bounced e-mails come back to the CBDR lab manager who tries to maintain an accurate set of e-mails in the system.