The main page of this website and all subpages underneath the “Participants” section have a sidebar where upcoming studies are listed. The sidebar is updated daily.
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The lab's Carrot and Stick policy rewards those with good participation records in order to decrease the rate of no-shows in lab studies.
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The lab has both a twitter page and a facebook page. Our twitter account is used to alert participants of unfilled timeslots for current studies and is updated when appropriate. Our facebook page is used to involve participants, researchers, and others interested in the lab in conversations about lab publications as well as broader topics such as psychology and business.
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Every Tuesday and Friday active participants are e-mailed with a list of upcoming studies for the current or following week, respectively. This list is generated by timeslots posted on SONA. E-mails are sent out before noon on these days; if you wish to be included in the e-mail you must put timeslots on SONA prior to the message being sent out. Note: blast e-mails are sent out on these days only in order to not overwhelm or annoy members of the participant pool. The lab will not accept any requests to send out blast messages for individual studies.
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The lab periodically schedules tabling sessions at different locations in the buildings of Columbia University or CU affiliates. During these sessions students are invited to speak directly with members of the BRL and create accounts on our SONA database.
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1. All flyers must have the IRB approval stamp located somewhere visible.
2. If you create your own flyer with tabs please drop off the flyers with tabs pre-cut, or be prepared to pay the RAs for their cutting time.
3. RAs will be paid out of the sponsoring faculty's COSTAR account for flyer design and distribution around campus.

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During the first week of classes of the fall and spring terms members of the lab visit lectures to spread the word about our studies. Volunteers sign up for 15 minute blocks to visit classrooms, speak briefly about our lab, and distribute sign up sheets to students. To date, this is the most effective measure of participant recruitment for our lab.
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The lab is continuing to brainstorm innovative recruitment ideas. Suggestions? Please e-mail the lab.

SONA provides a text box for researchers to enter descriptions about their studies. These descriptions are shown to participants when they view studies in SONA, and they are also featured in the study announcement emails sent to the pool and on our twitter. Study descriptions give participants an idea of what to expect when signing up for your study, and they are also an excellent way to make your study stand out. We recommend highlighting the fun parts of your study and using lively language to describe it. Remember who your audience is and try to avoid using the space to state your thesis or an overall theoretical question. Here are some examples:

• Good: “Want to make some fast cash? Sign up for our study and get paid to play a fun video game and fill out a short questionnaire about your experience. You'll also make $5 in 20 minutes!”
• Bad: “In our study we are investigating the broad effects of institutional pressure on cognition. Specifically, we are interested in how bureaucracy leads to the oppression of creative thought...”etc.
• Worse: “Study name. $5/20 minutes.”

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One easy way to advertise your study in addition to the lab advertisements is to post flyers. In the basement waiting area there is a bulletin board specifically for study postings, and there are plenty of locations on campus where flyers can be posted. Flyers are a good way to spread word about your study and even collect a few last-minute sign ups. Please be aware that if you do receive walk-ins to your study, you must sign them up for a timeslot in SONA before running them (full explanation of this policy). Flyers are also required by the IRB to have been approved by the IRB and display the stamp of approval somewhere visible.
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One strategy to make up for any no-shows you might have during a session is to email the no-shows and offer to let them participate in a future timeslot. Simply send them a message asking them if they would like to sign up again. If they do not respond, do not want to, or do not show up to the future timeslot assign them the appropriate no show; if they do come for a future timeslot code them as participated.
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