SCCN Experimental Guidelines

SCCN Experimental Guidelines

There are four phases of running experiments

Initial Testing Phase

• The experimenter uses the lab space to test their scripts and/or related items. Presence of an SRA should be requested if you need technical assistance
• It is always good to discuss experiment design with Andrey and SRAs

Technical Pilot Phase

• Testing progresses from initial phase using mock EEG (bypassed BioSemi in DataSource), minimal required MoCap, etc. and running through all aspects of the experiment
• An SRA must be present to help out, to establish logistics for running the experiment, etc.
• A successful technical pilot run must be done before moving into the full pilot phase
• Paid subjects can be used if necessary

Full Pilot Phase

• Full pilot sessions include EEG along with all components of the experiment

(e.g. PhaseSpace, force platform, Max MSP, etc.)

• An SRA must be present at all sessions for the whole duration of the experiment
• Lab personnel can be used as subjects if necessary (pre-IRB approval)
• If you make a change to your experiment, you must discuss with Evren, Marissa and SRAs whether a technical pilot is necessary before continuing with full pilots
• If a full pilot run has to be abandoned due to technical problems, you must have a successful technical pilot before continuing with full pilots
• If more than 3 full pilots are needed, you must meet with Evren and Marissa to discuss any logistic and/or technical issues that need to be resolved to help you progress to the data collection phase. This will include a discussion about what problems you are having and how the lab staff can support you and remove any obstacles that may be impeding you from moving forward. Future meeting schedule will be established at this time

Data Collection Phase

• You should only proceed to the Data Collection phase after you have finished making all changes to your experiment, including questionnaires, logistics, etc.
• Before starting this phase, there must be a meeting with Marissa, Evren and the SRAs to plan the logistics
• An SRA must be present at all data collection sessions for the whole duration of the experiment.
• Experimenters are responsible for noting irregularities within the experiment session on the Wufoo protocol sheet, and, if significant, to SRAs, Evren or Marissa directly
• When changes need to be made to the protocol during the data collection phase, they need to be discussed with Evren, Marissa and the SRAs to discuss whether technical pilots need to be run before continuing with data collection