ࡱ > ; 2 4 ! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . / 0 1 b l jbjb{x{x % u E J J J J J J J l y y y 8 y z t l ҳ H| 2 z~ ( ~ ~ ~ } D , v R ȸ - J ρ } } ρ ρ J J ~ ~ X ρ J ~ J ~ ^ R J J J J ρ : , J J ' <| y i ; r ` ҳ N N ; J l l DQ ` l l ` Chapter 27: Behavioral Research and Data Collection via the Internet Ulf-Dietrich Reips (1) Departamento de Psicologa, Universidad de Deusto, (2) IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science Michael H. Birnbaum California State University, Fullerton Date: 4/11/10 Contact regarding this paper should be sent to Ulf-Dietrich Reips: Prof. Dr. Ulf-Dietrich Reips Departamento de Psicologa Universidad de Deusto Apartado 1, 48080 Bilbao, Spain Email address: HYPERLINK "mailto:u.reips@ikerbasque.org" u.reips@ikerbasque.org Phone & Fax: +34 944 139 085Web: http://iscience.deusto.es/ Address for Birnbaum: Prof. Michael H. Birnbaum, Department of Psychology, CSUF H-830M, P.O. Box 6846, Fullerton, CA 92834-6846 USA Phone: 657-278-2102 Email address: HYPERLINK mailto:mbirnbaum@fullerton.edu mbirnbaum@fullerton.edu In the last 15 years it has become possible to collect data from participants who are tested via the Internet rather than in the lab. Although this mode of research has some inherent limitations due to lack of control and observation of conditions, it also has a number of advantages over lab research. Many of the potential advantages have been well-described in a number of publications (Birnbaum, 2000a; 2001a; 2004a, 2007; Krantz & Dalal, 2000; Reips, 1995; 2000; 2006; 2007; Reips & Bosnjak, 2001; Schmidt, 1997a; 1997b). Some of the chief advantages are that (1) one can test large numbers of participants very quickly; (2) one can recruit large heterogeneous samples and people with rare characteristics; (3) the method is more cost-effective in time, space, and labor in comparison with lab research. This chapter provides an introduction to the major features of the new approach and illustrate the most important techniques in this area of research. Overview of Internet-Based Research The process of Web-based research, which is the most frequent type of Internet-based research, can be described as follows: Web pages containing surveys and experiments are placed in Web sites available to participants via the Internet. These Web pages are hosted (stored) on any server connected to the WWW. People are recruited by special techniques to visit the site. People anywhere in the world access the study and submit their data, which are processed and stored in a file on a secure server. (The server that hosts or delivers the study to the participant and the server that receives, codes and saves the data are often the same computer, but they can be different.) The Internet scientist plans the study following guidelines while striving to avoid pitfalls (Birnbaum, 2001a; 2004a; 2004b, 2007; Reips, 2002b, 2002c, 2007; Reips & Bosnjak, 2001; Schmidt, 2007). The researcher creates Web pages and other files containing text, pictures, graphics, sounds, or other media for the study. He or she will upload these files to the host server (as needed), and configure the Web server to accept, code, and save the data. The researcher tests the system for delivering the experiment and for collecting, coding, and saving the data. The Web researcher must ensure that the process is working properly, recruit participants for the study, and finally retrieve and analyze the data. Although this process may sound difficult, once a researcher has mastered the prerequisite skills, it can be far more efficient than traditional lab methods (Birnbaum, 2001a; Reips, 1995, 1997, 2000). Psychological Research On the Web To get an overall impression of the kinds of psychological studies that are currently in progress on the Web, visit studies linked at the following sites: Web experiment list (Reips & Lengler, 2005): http://wexlist.net (see Figure 1) Psychological Research on the Net: http://psych.hanover.edu/research/exponnet.html Web Experimental Psychology Lab (Reips, 2001a, 2001b): http://wexlab.eu Decision Research Center: http://psych.fullerton.edu/mbirnbaum/decisions/thanks.htm The number of studies conducted via the WWW appears to have grown exponentially since 1995 (Reips, 2007), when psychologists began to take advantage of the new standard for HTML that allowed for convenient data collection (Musch & Reips, 2000). Internet-based research has become a new topic and a new set of methods in psychology. The basics of authoring Web-based research studies will be described in the next sections. Insert Figure 1 about here 1. Constructing Studies for the Internet There are many computer programs that allow one to create Web pages without knowing HTML. These programs include Adobe GoLive, Adobe Contribute, Adobe Dreamweaver, and Microsoft FrontPage (not recommended), among others. In addition, programs intended for other purposes, such as Open Office, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, or Apple Pages and Keynote allow one to save documents as Web pages. Although these programs can be useful on occasion, those doing Web research really need to understand and be able to compose basic HTML. While learning HTML, it is best to avoid these authoring programs. If you already know how to use these programs, you can study HTML by using them in source code mode, which displays the HTML, rather than the what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) or layout display. There are many free, useful tutorials on the Web for learning about HTML and many good books on the subject. Birnbaum (2001a, Chapters 2-4) covers the most important tags (basic units in HTML) in three chapters that can be mastered in a week, with a separate chapter (Chapter 5) for the technique of Web forms, which is the technique that made Web research practical, when this technique was supported by HTML 2, introduced in late 1994. 2. Web Forms There are three aspects of Web forms that facilitate Internet-based research. First, forms support a number of devices by which the reader of a Web page can send data back to the server chosen by the author of a page. Forms support two-way communication of information, with the possibility for dynamic communication. Second, Web forms allow a person without an e-mail account to send information from a computer, even if the computer is not configured to send e-mail. For example, a person at a local library, in an Internet caf, or in a university lab could fill out a Web form on any Internet-connected computer, and click a button to send the data. This means that participants can remain anonymous. Third, Web forms can deliver their data to a program on the server that codes and organizes the data, and saves them in a convenient form for analysis. In fact, server-side programs can even analyze data as they come in and update a report of cumulative results. The Web form is the HTML between and including the tags,
, within a Web page. The response or input devices supported by forms allow the users (e.g., research participants) to type in text or numerical responses, click choices, choose from lists of selections, and send their data to the researcher. Table 1 shows a very simple Web form. You can type this text, save it with an extension of .htm, and load it into a browser to examine how it performs. Table 1, along with other examples and links are available from the following Web site, which is associated with this chapter: HYPERLINK "http://wexlab.eu/hcihandb/" http://wexlab.eu/hcihandb/ (with a mirror at http://psych.fullerton.edu/mbirnbaum/handbook/) In this example, there are four input devices, a hidden value, an input text box, a submit button, and a reset button. The hidden input records a value that may be used to identify the data; in this case, the value is MyTest1. The value of the submit button or reset button is what is displayed on the buttons, but the value of a text box is whatever the viewer types in that field. When the reset button is clicked, the form is reset; i.e., any responses that were typed in or clicked are erased. Insert Table 1 about here. When the submit button is clicked, the action of the form is executed. In this example, the action sends email with the two variables to the e-mail address specified. You should change this to your own e-mail address, load the form in the browser, fill in your age, and click the submit button. If your computer and browser are configured to send e-mail, you will receive an e-mail message with your responses in the message. The encryption type attribute can be erased (save the file and reload it in the browser), and you will see the effect that this attribute has on how the e-mail appears. 2.1 Server-Side Scripting to Save the Data Although sending data by email may be useful for testing Web forms or for small efforts, such as collecting RSVPs for a party, it is neither practical nor secure to collect large amounts of data via email. Instead, we can let the Web server write the data to its log file for later analysis (section 6 of this chapter), or we can use a computer program to code the data and save them in a file, in a form ready for analysis (section 5). To do this, we use a CGI (Common Gateway Interface) script, e.g., written in Perl or PHP, that codes, organizes, and saves the data safely to a secure server (see Schmidt, 1997a; 2000; 2007). The ACTION of the form is then changed to specify the URL address of this script. For example, revise the FORM tag in Table 1 as follows: