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Protocol Description Window

It is important that your protocol contains a description of your study for archival purposes and for future users.  To do this, click Description in the top menu and follow the instructions below.  This takes a little time, but it is important and it will help you clarify what you want to do in your mind.  

Screen Shot of the Description Window

Under Title, enter the title of your experiment (usually gives the independent and dependent variables).  In this tutorial, the title would be "Effects of Verbal Information On Opinions About Physical Attractiveness"  

Under Description, enter a description of the procedure of your study and your hypothesis.  For example, "This typical  between-subject control group design explores the effects of verbal descriptions of the attributes of a person in a photograph (e.g., intelligence) on perceptions of  other attributes of the person in the photograph (e.g., physical attractiveness).  There are two independent variables.  One is the attractiveness of the person in the photograph, and the other is the description of the person as "average" or "high" in intelligence.  All participants see one photograph and one description, then are asked to judge the person in the photo regarding how attractive the person is.  It is hypothesized that attractive photos will be rated higher in attractiveness than unattractive photos, that highly intelligent people will be rated as more attractive than people labeled as average in intelligence, and that being labeled as highly intelligent will have more of a positive effect on ratings of unattractive people than on ratings of attractive people. 

Under Topic/Field, enter the general area of investigation (e.g., "Person Perception")
 
Under Keywords, enter several descriptive phrases that people could use to locate your protocol if they wanted to conduct a similar study (e.g., "perceptions of stimulus persons, effects of descriptions")

Under General Plan, give a brief description of what researchers need to do if they want to replicate your study.  For example, "Obtain two photographs of people who were prejudged to be attractive, and unattractive, respectively.  Post each photo on a server and get a URL address for each.  Then, create a protocol for the above described experiment.  Pretest it and get a URL for each of the treatment groups for anonymous online users."

Note that your new protocol is automatically given a protocol ID number.  Remember this number for future reference.
 
Click the close box in this window to hide the description window and to fully display the Edit Protocol page of ProtoGenie.  Note at the top left of the page the "Edit Protocol" label in gold to the right of the ProtoGenie icon.
 
Click SAVE in the top menu.