Participation Status & Compensation

To view all your study sign-ups (past and present) as well as your “credit status” (i.e., participation status) for each of these studies, please log into Sona and click on “My Schedule/Status” in the menu bar. There are four possible types of credit status: “Awaiting Action from Researcher”, “Participated”, “Failure to Appear — Excused”, and “Failure to Appear — Unexcused”. Your credit status should be updated within 24 hours after you complete a lab study. As for online studies, researchers will update the credit status of all participants at once within five business days of a study’s participation deadline. If your credit status is inaccurate or not updated on time, please send an email to lab-manager@mit.edu.

Yes!

Participants typically earn $15–$25/hour for lab studies and $12–$20/hour for online studies. While most researchers pay participants a flat rate, some researchers prefer to use a performance-based payment system, where participants receive a fixed base rate for completing a study, plus a variable bonus that reflects how well they perform in certain tasks.

Researchers may pay participants with electronic gift certificates. You should expect to receive payment no later than five business days after completing a study. Researchers should pay participants in a timely manner. If this is not the case for you, please send an email to lab-manager@mit.edu.