Patty Canale didn't know what to think when she signed her name to a list of participants for an upcoming psychology experiment.
"I thought maybe I was performing an experiment," said Canale, a freshman in The College of Arts and Sciences. I didn't know that I'd be hooked up to electrodes and have to fill out a waiver when I got there. I thought I'd be looking at pictures."
Like Canale, many students taking PSY 205 and PSY 209 don't know what the individual experiments they sign up for will entail and how researchers are able to take advantage of this student requirement. Students have questioned the extent to which their participation in other peoples' experiments has educational value for them.
Students enrolled in the two courses earn points by participating in experiments selected by the psychology department. There is often a choice involved, as there are currently 5 different experiments being conducted, said professor Larry Lewandowski, who has been teaching the course for seven years. Participation in these experiments is often the most appealing option to students, whose other alternatives include a seven-page research paper or a four-page critique of a psychological journal article.
"We've had alcohol-effects experiments, survey experiments, an interesting study of stress and emotion last semester," Lewandowski said. "Students are exposed to a wide variety of what goes on in psychology. The experiments that deal with alcohol, sex and rock 'n' roll get filled more quickly because they appear more interesting at the outset."
"If you scored too high on the survey you were called back to talk about the risks of underage drinking," said Emily Richter, a sophomore broadcast journalism and political science major who participated in an alcohol survey for her PSY 205 class. "It was especially beneficial because it might have helped people realize they have a problem."
The experiments vary in subject matter and length (usually a half an hour to three hours), but all allow researchers conducting the experiments to use a research pool that the Syracuse University psychology department has run for decades. Researchers apply to acquire subjects through PSY 205 after it has been determined that their experiments meet the requirements of SU's Institutional Review Board. Most experimenters are psychology department faculty, students or outside people from SUNY Upstate Medical University, Lewandowski said.
Vincent Costa, a senior psychology major, is currently running an experiment on emotional experience and well-being using this student research pool. His experiment will fulfill the thesis project requirement for the Renee Crown Honors Program.
"PSY 205 is highly advantageous," Costa said. "I can draw quickly and conveniently from a large pool of university students. Otherwise I'd have to use more cumbersome recruitment methods. There aren't any disadvantages - students are generally courteous about showing up and participating."
The benefits to researchers are obvious, and many students saw at least some educational value to their experience.
"I find reactions all over the board," Lewandowski said. "Some people feel it's more of an intrusion, and other students feel like they're helping others. People understand the notion of how things work - undergrads help graduates, graduates help professors. It's the idea of collaboration in science."
Now that Costa is on the research side of the exchange, he said he better appreciates the experience he had as an undergraduate participating in experiments. Undergraduates currently taking introductory psychology classes shared his sentiments.
"I think it's a good experience - it's not something you'll get to do in every class, and it didn't take much time," said Shannon Dubois, a freshman biology major. "It was neat to be involved in something more hands-on than sitting in the classroom."
"If I decide to major in psychology I'll already have exposure to research," said Nick Iannuzzi, a freshman in The College of Arts and Sciences.
But some students doubt the advantages and educational value the experiments afford to participants.
"I think it should be optional," Canale said. "They should tell you what you're signing up for. There should be more incentive, like extra credit. It shouldn't be our responsibility to get the graduate students' work done."
"The researchers tell students when to show up and don't tell them what to expect," said Eric Gleason, a junior art history and political science major. "Ninety-five percent of the people who take PSY 205 know it's a cake class and follow along with it just to get a good grade. There wasn't a lot of appeal, considering I'm majoring in art history and political science."
Researchers rely on responsible student participation because it ensures the validity of their experiments. If students are apathetic or dishonest in their participation, the researcher runs the risk of publishing inaccurate results.
Costa said that the students participating in his experiment have not seemed apathetic. He emphasized the fact that participation is essentially voluntary, since nobody forces students to take a class with a participation requirement.
Lewandowski said there have been instances in which researchers have had to discard information that wasn't collected correctly, such as students answering 'yes' to every question on a survey. He added that the problem was not so much being a part of the research as having to deal with the red tape associated with it.
For the most part, Lewandowski has found that students who participate do so responsibly.
"For me, the course begins and ends with student participation - that goes for everything from lectures to experiments," he said. "It's been a great seven-year run because the students are awesome - most participate eagerly. Research is what allows a little more engagement in such a big class."
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