Psych Department Paid Guinea Pigs

[eldoctor]

My school's psych department does a lot of fMRI research, and they often have undergrads come in for brain imaging studies where they pay 60-80 for 2 hrs.
I did one of these studies ($75/2hrs) a few years ago, and if I have some time, I wouldn't mind to do them again for that kind of money. Would any of you do this/Have any of you done this more than once? Do you know if its unsafe to have fMRI's done multiple times for no reason?

Thanks!

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[schrizto]

I signed up for one of these studies recently and I'm really excited. I totally want to see my brain and see different parts of it light up.

I think the risk in having multiple fMRIs is pretty minor.

 

[shiftingmirage]

At my UG, if you took an intro to psych class, you had to do 5 psych surveys for research. For each one you didn't do, you dropped a letter grade. I'm jealous you got paid, granted they weren't looking at our brains, couldn't they have given us $20 for our troubles?

 

[Lokhtar]

At my UG, if you took an intro to psych class, you had to do 5 psych surveys for research. For each one you didn't do, you dropped a letter grade. I'm jealous you got paid, granted they weren't looking at our brains, couldn't they have given us $20 for our troubles?

That absolutely is not ethical. My school would never allow that. The professor has to offer you an alternative if you don't wish to participate in research. I am shocked your school's Institutional Review Board let your professor get away with that. It doesn't matter how innocuous the surveys are.

 

[schrizto]

My intro psych class requires four hours of participating in studies. If you don't show up for an appointment you signed up for, the requirement gets higher. Not participating means no grade is given. There are optional essays if someone doesn't want to participate in the studies, but you have to write four of them to fulfill the requirement (1 for each hour).

 

[Lokhtar]

My intro psych class requires four hours of participating in studies. If you don't show up for an appointment you signed up for, the requirement gets higher. Not participating means no grade is given. There are optional essays if someone doesn't want to participate in the studies, but you have to write four of them to fulfill the requirement (1 for each hour).

Yea, that would make more sense.

 

[wanderer]

That absolutely is not ethical. My school would never allow that. The professor has to offer you an alternative if you don't wish to participate in research. I am shocked your school's Institutional Review Board let your professor get away with that. It doesn't matter how innocuous the surveys are.

My school's intro psych class made us participate in 2 hour long surveys, but they couldn't force us to stay so I showed up and left after a 3 minutes.

 

[eschaton88]

My school's psych department does a lot of fMRI research, and they often have undergrads come in for brain imaging studies where they pay 60-80 for 2 hrs.

Oh wow, I wish my school paid like this for psych studies...mostly it's a lot of $20 for 3 hours with an EEG sort of thing.

Or phase I vaccines through the immuno dept.

 

[Suenya]

Assuming you dont have any of the contraindications, fMRIs are pretty safe. Most of the RAs where I work do them alot for spending money. The pay can be great (50-100 per hour for most of them, at least in my area).

I did some for money, but my neck tends to hurt from laying still so I couldn't do too many.

 

[shiftingmirage]

I don't really see the point of requiring students to do the surveys, because some wont take it seriously. What's the point of doing a study when you know some of the lab rats will just fill in a bunch of circles and get out ASAP. The results will be screwed up.