CogKnit

What you can imagine depends on what you know.

- Daniel Dennet

Less than 20 years ago, behavioural science looked markedly different: participants came to windowless little basement labs, did often repetitive computer-based tasks or questionnaires, got their compensation, and went on their way. Responses came through specialised button boxes and software. Their data sat on the same computer where the participant completed a task until a researcher was ready to retrieve and process it.

Now, if anything, research in human behaviour, social sciences, and even the humanities relies more on computer based tasks than it ever has. The vast majority of data collection in behavioural and social science happens online - anything from a questionnaire to a multi-player game can take place in the browser. This has spawned survey platforms like Qualtrics and SurveyMonkey, front-end frontend frameworks like jsPsych and Survey.js, full featured experimental design and hosting software like Gorilla and Labvanced, and recruitment platforms like Mechanical Turk and Prolific.

The knowledge space this little revolution has spawned is complex: researchers have more choices for collecting data than ever before. The choice of what to use can be daunting enough; how to use it complicates things further. Full-featured services like Qualtrics are relatively easy to use, but are expensive for individual researchers. Less expensive alternatives like Microsoft or Google forms have limited features, and may not give researchers full ethical and GDPR-compliant control of their data. Platforms like Gorilla and LabVanced allow for more control and flexibility, but they don't come free, and have a non-negligible learning curve. Frameworks like jsPsych are free to use as standalone front-end libraries, but leave open questions as to where your data goes and how it gets there - and have a learning curve to match. CogKnit can help you navigate this space: we can help you understand what your project needs, and how to get it without spending more than you need to. CogKnit will help you focus on getting the insights you want, rather than settling for what you can get with platforms you know.

Beyond the lab: Leveraging the web

We can just do this for you: if you need a specific project as a one-off, we can take care of it. But we can also engage in your research on a deeper level: we can be costed into grants as industry collaborators, or provide bespoke training for your team on how to create and maintain innovative online projects.

CogKnit can help you to imagine what your research could do. While behavioural science has busted out of its little basement lab, the tasks we use to study behaviour have stayed largely static. The vast majority of online tasks involve participants engaging alone in things like repetitive questionnaires or mind-numbing decision tasks. Heavy reliance on existing paradigms risks research drifting away from big questions and grounded theory, effectively replicating old constraints of the physical lab in a new way. At the same time, this is understandable: methodological and technical tools available for research are proliferating faster than anyone researcher can be expected to keep pace with.

Nonetheless, there is a huge space of possibilities online tasks afford, from gamification to multi-participant interaction. CogKnit can help you take advantage of this. Our consultants have a depth of expertise in collaborating to innovate online tasks and tools to fit your research needs, not methodological constraints set in a basement more than two decades ago. Rather than squeezing your research into narrow methodological constraints, we can help you to expand the methodological boundaries of your field.

What about costs?

To understand more about the costs of doing innovative behavioural research online, see our Cost Guide.