Developing Informed Research Participants in an Introductory Psychology Participant Pool

This activity offers a way to use the informed consent procedure to help students better understand the responsibilities of research participants. During a class activity, students completed a brief study. The study included presentation of consent forms and questionnaires before a surprise quiz over material from the consent form and a discussion about research ethics. Although students in the class performed poorly on this quiz, evaluations completed by researchers conducting studies within the department indicated that these students demonstrated greater attention to consent forms when completing actual research than did study participants who did not experience this activity. By preparing students to be engaged research participants, this activity helps researchers intentionally link students' participation to their classroom experiences.