I have experiments done on me to pay the bills

I participated in my first experiment during Freshers’ Week, and I’ve been hooked since.

As someone who worked in school and who enjoys making money, I decided that I definitely wanted to get a job when I arrived at  uni. However, as an international student studying both chemical engineering and informatics, I needed something more flexible, informal, and less time consuming than a typical job.

While searching through the job listings on the career hub, I discovered loads of listings for experiment participants.

Most opportunities can be scheduled according to the your availability, take under 90 minutes, and pay cash at the end. I’ve made over £150 since September.

I’ve participated in experiments in the basements of four different University buildings. The majority of experiments take place at 7 George Square, the Psychology building, and those familiar with it will know how impossible it is to navigate.

Once you find the waiting area, the researcher guides you through the labyrinth of the lower levels of the building to the specific lab where the experiment takes place. The other times, I’ve been given instructions to find labs in the basements of the Informatics Forum and Appleton Tower, and left to my own devices. 

The actual experiments can be roughly broken down into categories: listening comprehension and speech synthesis experiments involve sitting in a little, insulated pod, putting on headphones, and listening to audio clips.

I was paid £8/hr to guess words that were played with a lot of background noise, but the experiment didn’t have a distinct end, so I just continued for an hour that grew progressively more and more torturous.

Eye tracking experiments are also a bit agonizing. They involve sitting in the same position with the face in a chin and forehead rest for an extended amount of time. The eye tracking technology is temperamental and needs to be calibrated repeatedly. The experiments themselves consist of looking at pictures or reading sentences, but there are anywhere from 75 to over 100 tasks, so it’s easy to get tired and wonder if the experiment will ever end.

The most fun experiments I’ve done have been those where I was able to interact with other participants. One particularly fun experiment required me to learn a few simple words or concepts of a made-up “alien” language, and then I was tested on what I’ve learned. 

The weirdest and most time consuming experiment I’ve experienced involved me having around 30 electrodes attached to my head and conducting gel applied all over my hair. The actual experiment wasn’t complicated or really any different from what I’d done before (I read some more sentences), but sitting in a dark room with all of those wires attached to me was an incredibly bizarre experience.

I was paid £15 for that experiment, which also set the record for my highest-paying. Most experiments pay anywhere from £7-£10 an hour. For some, the compensation is prorated for the amount of time actually taken, but for others, the payment is the same no matter how quickly or slowly you complete the experiment.      

Scheduling studies in between classes while I’m already in George Square is extremely convenient, and the immediate cash payment certainly doesn’t hurt.

Some researchers will hand out a debriefing document at the end, which includes information on the researcher’s subject and the purpose of the experiment, so it’s also an excellent way to get exposure to and learn about actual scientific research being conducted by the University.

If you’re interested in making some quick money, helping a researcher out, or simply seeing the pits and dungeons of various University buildings, get on the career hub and find some experiments.