title: Method of recruiting subjects and performance on cognitive tests.
abstract: College students often serve as participants in psychological research. The effects of three methods of recruiting subjects for laboratory tests of attention and memory were assessed in a series of studies. The performance of students who received monetary incentives and the performance of students who received course-credit incentives were compared with the performance of students recruited from classes where research participation was a requirement. Monetary incentives resulted in slight, but significant, improvements in performance on tests of sustained attention and recognition memory. Course-credit incentives did not affect subjects' test performance. Test performance did not differ as a function of the time of the semester when studies were conducted. Recruitment issues pertinent to departmental subject pools are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa 35487-0348.
authors.forename: P D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Tomporowski
authors.forename: R G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hager
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011581:Psychological Tests; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012106:Research; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D000078329:Workforce