INTRODUCTION OF PSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH REQUIREMENT

The Psychology Department requires that all students taking Introduction to Psychology complete a 6-credit research requirement. This consists of participating in experiments conducted by Department Faculty and their Research Assistants. These experiments are approved by the UT Arlington Human Research Review Committee. A typical 30-minute experiment is worth 0.5-credit. The purpose of the requirement is to give you firsthand knowledge of psychological experimentation. In lieu of participating in experiments, you may choose to write reviews of current research articles. Each review is worth 1-credit. You will not be graded on your performance in an experiment or on your reviews. FAILURE TO COMPLETE THE REQUIREMENT WILL RESULT IN AN INCOMPLETE FOR THE CLASS. You will then need to complete your requirement during the next semester or the incomplete will turn into an F.

For additional information about this requirement, please go to http://www.uta.edu/psychology and click on Participant Pool Information (in the Links section) to receive a copy of the latest Psychology Pool Handout.

Initial Registration and Account setup

The student credits are maintained in the Department's online system by the Administrator. Students are supposed to register into this online system to get their credits. The website address is: http://uta.sona-systems.com.

Credits and Penalties

- Credits: The number of credits available for you to earn for an experiments is listed in its description.
- Penalties: If you fail to keep an appointment, or if you are more than 5 minutes late for an appointment, not only will you fail to earn the credits applicable to that experiment, but that number of credits will actually be subtracted from your previous credit total. Penalties thus increase the total number of credits you must earn to satisfy your participation requirement, so it is in your interest not to miss scheduled appointments.
- Pending Credit: If credits or penalties have not yet been assigned for a past appointment, the experiment status will be listed as “Pending Credit” in the list of your experiments that you can view by clicking “View Your Appointments”. Allow up to a week after your appointment for the credit or penalty to appear. Contact the experimenter after that time if the status is still listed as pending credit, using the contact information listed for the experiment.

Research Article Report

As an alternative to participating in an experiment, you can write a Research Article Report instead. There are several primary sources of material that can be reviewed. For each article you choose to review, you will be required to write a one-page paper, which you can turn in either to your instructor or the Experiment Coordinator. Each review is worth 1-credit. Please see the Participant Pool Handout for additional information.

Deadlines

The number of experiments available depends on how many researchers are running experiments. We cannot guarantee that there will be enough experiments to accommodate everyone who wishes to take this option to fulfill the research requirement. If you wait until the end of the semester to sign-up, you may have trouble finding experiments to participate in. THE LAST DAY TO PARTICIPATE IN AN EXPERIMENT OR TO TURN IN A REVIEW IS THE LAST DAY OF CLASS IN DEAD WEEK.

Administrator

Any matter pertaining to a particular experiment should be addressed first with the experimenter. If you are unable to resolve any such matter, or if you have a problem involving the subject pool generally, contact the Subject Pool Coordinator at the following email address: psycpool@uta.edu.