Student research participation

To participate in research as part of the Introduction to Psychology course, you must create your research participation account on the SONA online system using your valid UM email address. 

• Claim your UM email address

• Read the SONA account creation guide (PDF)
• Create your SONA account

Your account should be approved in two working days. Once your account is approved, you will receive an email with your login information.

Bonus credit

Because creating your account early is essential to ensure earning full credit, you can earn 2 bonus credits by creating your SONA account within the first 30 days of classes.

Troubleshooting the account creation process

Ensure you have signed up using your UM email address (e.g. @myumanitoba.ca). If you use another email address (e.g., gmail, hotmail, etc.) your request will be deleted and you will not be notified. You must wait two days and then sign up again using your UM email address.

If you have taken PSYC 1200 before, you cannot re-use your SONA account. You will need to create a new account. Contact the Research Participation Coordinator to reset your account. Once your account is reset, you can sign up with your UM email address.

If you put in the wrong section number when you created your account, contact the Research Participation Coordinator to make the change. Do not try to delete your account.

If you used your UM email address but you have not received your password, and you have checked your junk mail, contact the Research Participation Coordinator.

After you have your user name and password for the SONA website, log in and select "View available studies."

You will see the name of each study that is available. Select "timeslots available" beside the study name to view times and locations, and to sign up for a study.

Visit the SONA website to sign up for a study

Once you have participated, researchers will grant the credits you earned to your SONA account. If you have questions about your credits, please contact the researcher of the study directly. It can sometimes take up to two weeks for researchers to grant credit.

Credit calculations - for regular session or DO1

You can earn up to 8 per cent of your course grade through research study credits.

Check the syllabus for each course to confirm the per cent and credits eligible to you as it can be different per course and per term.

For each half hour (30 minutes) of participation, you will receive 1 participation credit to a maximum of 16 credits. 

• If you earn 16 of 16 research credits throughout the course, you receive a grade of 8 per cent for the research component of the course.
• If you earn 12 of 16 research credits throughout the course, you receive a grade of 6 per cent for the research component of the course.
• If you participate in studies and earn more than 16 research credits throughout the course, only 16 will count towards your final grade. You will receive a grade of 8 per cent for the research component of the course.

Any no-show penalties you have will be subtracted from this maximum. See 'Missing a study or arriving late' below for information on no-show penalties.

Sample credit calculations

If you earn 16 credits, plus one 2-credit no-show penalty:

• 16 - 2 = 14 credits = 7 per cent of the maximum 8 per cent available

If you earn 18 credits, plus one 2-credit no-show penalty:

• 16 - 2 = 14 credits = 7 per cent of the maximum 8 per cent available

Mandatory participation of at least one in-person or standard-lab Zoom study

PSYC 1200 students in regular on-campus sections (A01 to A13) must complete at least one in-person or standard-lab Zoom study posted on SONA as partial fulfillment of the research participation credits. The SONA system indicates if a study is online, in-person or a standard-lab Zoom format.

Availability of in-person and standard-lab Zoom studies may fluctuate throughout the term. Therefore, it is important to fulfill the mandatory requirement of at least one in-person or standard-lab Zoom study as soon as you see an opportunity. 

At the end of the Winter term, a two-credit penalty will be applied if you fail to complete this requirement. 

Earning enough credits

You will have the opportunity to earn full credit if you check the SONA website frequently and you do not receive any no-show penalties.

Studies are posted throughout the term. There may be a week or two at a time where you do not see any studies. Studies are only visible to you when they have timeslots available, so check often.

Researchers often screen participants based on certain criteria. There may be some studies you are not eligible for depending on your pre-screen responses. Check the SONA site frequently as new studies and time slots open up sporadically.

In most cases, students who do not earn full credit have either checked infrequently or signed up late in the year for their research participation account.

Bonus credit

Because creating your account early is essential to ensure earning full credit, you can earn 2 bonus credits by creating your SONA account within the first 30 days of classes. All bonus credits are awarded on the deadline indicated in your course Research Participation Outline. Accounts made on the deadline but after 8:00 a.m. CT will not be eligible for the alternative assignment.

One bonus credit will be awarded for completing the pre-screen questionnaire which is required before completing studies on SONA and will appear when your account is approved. This credit will be awarded on the last day to participate and will be reflected in your final grade.

Alternative assignment if studies are not available

The number of studies offered is based on researchers’ needs for participants. In rare instances there are too few studies offered for students to earn full credit.

If this is the case, students who have made every effort to earn full credit but have not been able to do so by the end of the year will be offered an alternative assignment online to make up the needed credits. This assignment is not offered to students who either do not sign-up early or login frequently enough.

To qualify for the end of year assignment, you need to have logged in on 60 unique days between September 6, 2023 and April 10, 2024 at 4:00 p.m. CT and have created your SONA account by Monday, October 2, 2023.

The SONA system logs the number of unique days on which you have logged in to look for studies. If you login once a day for 15 days your account would show 15 unique log-in days. If you logged in 15 times in one day, your account would show one unique log-in.

Accessibility and personal waiver

Students who cannot attend in-person studies due to accessibility issues confirmed by the Student Accessibility Service (SAS) with an accommodation letter on record may apply for a personal waiver of the in-person requirement. You must contact your PSYC 1200 course instructor by the SONA account set-up early sign-up deadline. Upon the approval of a personal waiver, a student can attend online studies solely to fulfill the research participation credits.  

Universal waiver

In rare cases, when insufficient slots from in-person or standard-lab Zoom studies are available by two weeks before the last day to participate, the subpool coordinator will send an announcement to waive the mandatory participation requirement for all PSYC 1200 students for the remainder of the term. Should this situation arise, the two credit mandatory in-person or standard-lab Zoom study participation penalty will not be applied.

If you miss a study, or are late, and you do not cancel your participation before the start time of the study, you will be penalized two credits.

These two credits will be subtracted from your maximum 16 credits and cannot be earned back by participating in additional studies.

How to cancel without penalty

To avoid a no-show penalty, you must cancel your participation before the study starts.

• Log into SONA, and select ‘My Schedule & Credits’.
• Under the heading ‘Study Sign-Ups’ you will find the names of the experiments you have signed up for.
• A ‘Cancel’ button is located next to each experiment that you have signed up for. You can cancel online up to 24 hours before the start of the experiment.

If you miss this 24-hour deadline, you can still cancel by contacting the researcher directly or the research coordinator before the start time of the study.

Participation in any given study is purely voluntary on your part. In the highly unlikely event that someone attempts to pressure you into doing something that you do not want to do, leave the experiment and contact the Coordinator at 204-474-6982. You will still receive full credit for your time.