Chapter
overviews and demonstrations
Learn more about the topics covered by the book and see live demonstrations
of the exercises
Downloads
Download the HTML, CGI/Perl, and image files used in the book
FAQ
Read answers to frequently asked questions about conducting research online
Discussion
forum
Share ideas, scripts, and questions with others on the online forum. [temporarily down]
Order
the book
Order a copy of the book via the Guilford
Press
Resources
and links
Links to programs that may be of interest to online researchers
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Overview
of the Book
During the last few years, an increasing number of behavioral scientists
have expressed an interest in using the World Wide Web as a tool for conducting
psychological research. It is easy to understand the appeal of using "the
Web" for research purposes. Just about any study that can be conducted
via traditional pencil-and-paper methods can be implemented on-line, but
without the hassles of explicit transcription or data entry, the scheduling
of participants, and paper costs. Moreover, behavioral scientists who
use computers in their experiments for manipulating visual or narrative
stimuli, randomizing trials, or creating customized assessments can easily
implement their studies on-line. Finally, although researchers can use
the Web simply as an efficient way to collect data from undergraduates
in their departmental subject pools, the Web allows us to open our laboratory
doors to participants from across the world.
Unfortunately, there are very few resources available to the behavioral
scientist who wishes to create on-line research studies. Some books provide
excellent reviews of the many tools that can be used for Internet research,
but do not serve as a useful guides for how to program on-line studies.
Other books provide wonderful introductions to CGI programming--a technique
that is necessary for most kinds of on-line research--but are not written
with the research scientist in mind.
My objective in writing this book was to create a basic, step-by-step
guide for behavioral scientists who are interested in using the Internet
to conduct empirical research. This book has been written to be a one-stop
shop, if you will, for moving from square one to the point at which the
reader can create dynamic and interactive studies online. With the help
of this book, any researcher with access to nothing more than a desktop
computer and an Internet connection should be able to conduct on-line
research within two weeks or less.
The book begins by showing the reader how to obtain access to a web server
and design rudimentary web pages in HTML. Once the reader has mastered
these basic skills, the book introduces CGI programming in Perl. CGI programs
are designed to run on a web server, and, unlike standard HTML web pages,
these programs can be used to create a dynamic, interactive web experience
for the user. By using CGI programs, researchers can (a) randomize the
presentation order of stimuli, (b) randomly assign subjects to conditions,
(c) automatically save response data to a file for data analysis, (d)
provide subjects with customized feedback based on their responses, (e)
exploit both text and image-based stimuli, (f) measure reaction times,
and (e) employ complex branching operations within a project. Chapters
5 through 14 of the book teach the reader how to accomplish these things
through the use of detailed examples. Each chapter presents one or two
examples on how to implement a "generic" research technique (i.e., random
assignment), explains the code in depth, and describes how the code can
be tailored to different applications. The final chapter of the book reviews
some of the advantages and disadvantages of web research.
The intended audience for this book is anyone who currently conducts research
in the behavioral sciences. Although many of the techniques and applications
I discuss focus on psychological applications, non-psychologists should
have no trouble understanding how these tools can be used to serve their
purposes.
R. Chris Fraley |
http://www.psych.uiuc.edu/~rcfraley/
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