Individuals for the experiments described were solicited using several methods. Posters were distributed around the MIT campus and other Boston-area campuses. In addition, emails were posted to departmental email lists. Moreover, job postings were placed in the volunteer and "ETC" jobs sections of boston.craigslist.com. These posters and emails asked individuals to visit a web page which hosted the experimental registration system described in this section.

Figure 2. The poster used to solicit subjects on the MIT campus.

The text used to solicit participants in the experiments in email and on boston.craigslist.com (an area community website) was quite similar to this poster:

The first page of the registration system sought to inform potential participants about the purpose of the experiment as well as what sort of participants were being solicited. An effort was made to be deliberately vague so as not to influence questionnaire data collected later in the experiment.

Figure 3. Initial page of experiment registration system.

The second page of the experiment registration system collected simple demographic information. This data is presented in the thesis to show a breakdown of the participants who were involved in the experiment.

Figure 4. Demographics page of experiment registration system.

The third page of the experiment registration system asked participants to choose a time slot from a calendar. When choosing a time slot they were either randomly assigned to one of experiments involving two participants or (in the case that someone else had chosen that slot) they were assigned to a complementary condition and task. This was because a large number of participants did not appear for their experiments during the pilots. For the sake of efficiency, we chose to use subjects whose partner did not appear for the Quiz experiment, which only required one subject.

Figure 5. Calendar page of experiment registration system.

The last page of the experiment registration system was designed to provide subjects with information on how to locate the facilities as well as a reminder of what date and time they had selected. A small map from public transportation and a picture of the Media Lab were given to aid participants.

Figure 6. Reminder page of experiment registration system.

Additionally, three reminder emails were sent out to participants. Once immediately after registering, a second a day before their experiment, and a third one hour before the experiment.

To: 
From: experiment@media.mit.edu
Subject: Experiment Appointment

Greetings,

You have signed up for an experiment at the MIT Media Lab at:

[subject's time and date here]

Here are directions to the building and to the room:

The Media Lab is in Building E15 (a.k.a. The Weisner Building), at 20
Ames Street on the east side of campus.  It's the building with the
big white tiles, rounded corners and the big modern concrete arch
connected to the side of it. You can find a map of the area at this
URL:

http://arsenal.media.mit.edu/study/walk-e15.jpeg

The Lab is easily accessible by T (see the Kendall Square T stop on
the above mentioned map).

When you arrive at the Lab, please come to Room 001 on the lower
level, directly across from the elevators.  Have a seat on the
couches; we will be with you shortly.

If you will be unable to make it to your appointment or know that you
will be late, please contact experiment@media.mit.edu at least 24
hours in advance so that the experimenters can make alternative
arrangements.

It is very important that you arrive on time to your appointment since
the experiment may involve multiple participants.  The whole group
will be delayed if you are late so please be considerate of the other
subjects and show up on time.

Thanks for your interest and participation.

Regards,
The Experimenters