Lab Study Policies

You should plan to arrive at least five minutes before your session is scheduled to take place. Most researchers start their sessions promptly and do not wait for late participants. The door to the lab will be opened when researchers have finished setting up their sessions and closed when sessions formally begin. If the door is shut when you arrive at the lab, please do not knock on it or attempt to open it.

The BRL is located in Building E19 (400 Main Street) on the MIT campus. The entrance to this building is locked after 6 p.m. on weekdays, and all day on weekends and holidays. If you signed up for a study that takes place during these times, the researcher who is running the study will email you in advance with instructions on how you can enter the building. In most cases, someone will be waiting in the building lobby to open the entrance for you when you arrive.

If you signed up for a lab study but are no longer able to participate, you can (and should) cancel your sign-up on Sona up until 12 hours before your session is scheduled to take place. To cancel a sign-up, please follow the steps below:

1. Log into Sona.
2. Click on “My Schedule/Credits” in the menu bar.
3. Scroll down to the sign-up you would like to cancel.
4. Click on the “Cancel” button.
5. Select “Yes, I want to cancel”.

You should email lab-manager@mit.edu  as soon as possible and no later than the session’s scheduled start time. Please also understand that the session may have already begun by the time you arrive, in which case you might not be allowed to participate. If you see that the door to the lab is closed, it means that the researcher is no longer accepting participants, and we ask that you do not knock on the door or attempt to open it.

If you missed a lab session but canceled your sign-up beforehand, you would not be listed as one of the participants in the study — it would be as though you did not sign up for the study in the first place. However, if you missed a session because you were late, you would be given either an excused no-show or an unexcused no-show on Sona, depending on whether you were able to notify the researcher before the session’s scheduled start time and whether you had a valid reason for your lateness. While there are no negative consequences associated with excused no-shows, accumulating three or more unexcused no-shows would result in your Sona account being “limited”, which means that you could no longer view or sign up for any studies.

If you canceled a study sign-up on Sona, or if you received a no-show (either excused or unexcused) for missing a lab session, you are allowed to sign up for the same study again, unless you have accumulated three or more unexcused no-shows as a result of your absence.