Information for Prospective Research Participants

About CPL Research Participation

Students are given a link to this page each time they are asked to participate in any part of our research. Most students visit this site at the time they volunteer to complete the prescreening.

If you are here because you are thinking about completing a prescreening for extra credit in your psychology course, at minimum, we ask that you read this page and the handout that pertains to research participant rights (link can be found at the bottom of this page).

What is the CPL?

The Cortland Psychophysiology Laboratory (CPL) is a research facility at SUNY Cortland. The CPL faculty and student researchers are interested in the study of cognitive processes, personality, social psychology, emotion, research methods and statistics. We are all psychologists, who share a common interest in understanding how the brain processes information.

We conduct a variety of research projects, some inside the CPL (in Old Main at SUNY Cortland) and some are conducted outside of the laboratory (in the Cognitive Laboratory, Moffett Building, SUNY Cortland). Occasionally we conduct experience sampling research, where students complete diary entries on the internet as they go about their normal daily activities.

What is a prescreening?

A prescreening is a survey that helps researchers filter student into appropriate research for them, based on social demographic and health characteristics. Prescreenings also help researchers ensure that their sample adequately represents the population they hope to study. Every study has a different set of requirements, and some research will accept all who volunteer.

What is the purpose of the CPL prescreening survey?

The purpose of this prescreening survey is to gather just enough information to know which students are interested and eligible to participate in CPL research.

Participants who complete this survey may be contacted regarding additional opportunities to volunteer for research this semester; however, students who complete this survey are not obligated to participate in any future research. If you are contacted, you will be provided with additional information before you are asked if you want to schedule an appointment. Our research involves no known risk to participants; measurements are taken only from the top of clean skin. More than 100 students at SUNY Cortland have participated in the CPL laboratory, as part of a class project or as a way to earn extra credit in their psychology courses.

If one of our research assistants contact you, asking if you would like to participate in our psychophysiology research, click on the icon to your left to obtain more information about that research and our laboratory. (Adobe Acrobat file)