Participants & Data

This section of the setup allows you to control who can access your experiment and how they can access it.
In this guide you can find detailed information about each of the settings in order of their appearance in the setup tab.

Participant limit

Define a maximum number of participants that can take part in your experiment. Once that number is reached, no further participations are allowed.

Participant counter

Shows the current number of participants who have taken part in your study.

You can reset this counter at any time. The counter also includes participants who are currently taking part in the study. (Their participation will be subtracted, should they not complete the study before the defined timeout)

Balanced Group Assignment

Enabling even allocation ensures that each of your subject groups receive an equal number of participants. By default, group allocation is random and can lead to disparities between the groups.

This feature is relevant when you are running a between subject experiment. Make sure that you first set up the appropriate groups in your trial file using the subjectGroup column.

Participation time limit

Time in minutes after which a participation is cancelled and removed from subject group and the overall counters.

Once a participant begins your experiment, their participation is counted towards the group allocation and the overall count. It is assumed that they will complete the study, to avoid oversampling.

Some participants may however abandon the experiment and never return to it. The timeout you define will determine how long the participant has to return to the experiment before their participation is removed from the count.

Participant recruitment

If you're looking to recruit participants on your own, this option gives you the flexibility to share the experiment link through any channel you choose. You can distribute it via email, social media, or post it on forums, or even use it in a lab setting.

How it works: Testable provides you with a unique experiment link (e.g., tstbl.co/600-142). Simply copy this link and share it wherever you’re recruiting from.
Set up your study: After sharing the link, participants who click it will be directed to your experiment on Testable.

Custom recruitment/ Other Subject Pools

If you're looking to recruit participants on your own, this option gives you the flexibility to share the experiment link through any channel you choose. You can distribute it via email, social media, or post it on forums, or even use it in a lab setting.

How it works: Testable provides you with a unique experiment link (e.g., tstbl.co/600-142). Simply copy this link and share it wherever you’re recruiting from.
Set up your study: After sharing the link, participants who click it will be directed to your experiment on Testable. No additional integration steps are required.

Recruiting Through Testable Minds (Recommended)

Testable Minds is Testable’s in-house recruitment pool, providing high-quality, diverse participants and easy integration. This option is designed for researchers seeking a quick and reliable way to access participants, with robust screening features.

How it works: Selecting Testable Minds automatically integrates your study with Testable’s own participant pool.
No additional completion setup is required from your end.
Set up your study: From the Testable Minds setup, you can configure demographic filters and other advanced criteria to match your participant needs. Once you set up the study, Testable Minds manages the recruitment and tracks participant progress.

Click here to learn more about Testable Minds and study setup.

SONA Systems integration

If your institution uses SONA, you can quickly set up your study to recruit participants directly from their system, with built-in tools for tracking and validating completions

Setting Up Participant Access

Testable generates a unique Study URL for your experiment (tstbl.co/600-142?sona_id=%SURVEY_CODE%).

This URL includes additional parameters, such as sona_id, which allows SONA to track individual participants and pass their unique IDs into the study.

Set up: Simply copy this link and paste it into the Study URL field in your SONA study setup form.

Verifying Participant Completions

For participants to be compensated, you’ll need to validate their completion through SONA.

This URL usually follows a format like https://yourschool.sonasystems.com/webstudy_credit.aspx?experiment_id=123&credit_token=... and ensures that each participant’s completion is recorded in SONA.

Set up: Retrieve the Completion URL (or “Return URL”) provided by SONA and paste it into the completion settings in your Testable project.

Research Now (SSI) Integration

Setting Up Participant Access

Testable generates a unique Study URL for your experiment (tstbl.co/123-456). This URL directs participants from Research Now to your Testable study and can be shared directly with the Research Now platform.

Set up: Copy this Study URL to Research Now as part of your study setup to allow participants to access the experiment.

Verifying Participant Completions

To ensure participants are properly compensated and keep track of their participation status, you’ll need to provide completion means.

Set up: Retrieve the Completion URL (or "Complete (Qualified)" URL) provided by Research Now. This link typically looks like https://dkr1.ssisurveys.com/projects/end?rst=1&psid=XXXXX&basic=12345

Paste this URL into the completion settings of your Testable project to confirm and record each participant’s completion status.

Data Settings

Choose the best way to save your experiment data based on your research needs and data security preferences.

In the Cloud (EU Servers)
By default, Testable saves your data on secure EU servers, which comply with strict EU data protection standards.

US Servers
If preferred, data can be stored on US servers, though this option does not support certain advanced download formats (wide/long format).

Record

Enhance your data collection by capturing additional technical and environmental details.

These options allow you to gather insights into device and system characteristics, track session specifics, and even capture audio.

Operating system
Web browser
Screen size
Framerate
Audio recording (throughout the entire experiment)
URL parameters