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Brain & Cognition Laboratory Guidelines & General Operating Rules

GENERAL PURPOSE

The Brain & Cognition Laboraroty (BrainCog Lab) is designed to conduct scientific research and for individual use by Psychology Department faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students.

Researchers at the BrainCog Lab must work to demonstrate a professional attitude that will help maintain a supportive environment. Researchers are responsible for their own behavior and performance, for understanding what is expected of them, and for meeting those expectations. Professionalism (e.g., proper dress, being prompt for scheduled hours, polite and courteous treatment of research participants, and the maintenance of a positive attitude) is expected from all researchers.

SUPPORTED ACTIVITIES

The primary use of the BrainCog Lab is for activities listed below (in that order):

  • Psychological experimentation (i.e., execution of experiments).
  • Development of experimental materials.
  • Undergraduate/graduate student and Postdoctoral research training.
  • Data processing (data entry and statistical analysis).
  • Laboratory meetings.

GENERAL OPERATING RULES

  • No food or drink is allowed in the BrainCog Lab at any time under any circumstances. (Note: Water bottles are acceptable as long as they are kept away from the working spaces.)
  • Software may be loaded on the disks of the computers in the lab or on relevant servers ONLY by faculty.
  • Equipment, including chairs, cannot be removed from the BrainCog Lab.
  • Users are responsible for saving their own work and backups.
  • Data entry/analysis is limited to computers (tag numbers: 37146, 37946, 33978, 37945) located on the periphery of the BrainCog Lab.
  • Computers located in room CNS 205C (sound proof room) are specifically designated for ERP-related research.
  • Workstation iMac/PC computers are specifically designated for the execution/preparation of behavioral experiments.
  • It is not allowed to download any programs, games, or pictures from the internet without the permission of the faculty supervisor.
  • It is not allowed to use lab computers to connect to any social media sites.
  • It is absolutely forbidden to visit pornographic sites. All computer and lab access privileges will be revoked upon violation of this rule.
  • BrainCog Lab researchers are welcomed to print an article or a manuscript. It is hoped that this privilege will not be abused and therefore will be continued.

BRAINCOG LAB SECURITY & MAINTENANCE

Only authorized faculty and undergraduate/graduate students may open the BrainCog Lab. All trash and papers must be picked up and recycled or discarded. Chairs must be pushed back to their original places and all computers must be shut down properly.

If any problems are encountered with software and/or hardware while using the lab, please notify the faculty supervisor as soon as possible.

PARTICIPANT SCHEDULING

Student participants can sign up for studies any time through the SONA participation pool system. Before scheduling an experiment, please coordinate with other researchers at the BrainCog Lab to prevent conflicting scheduling.

SHARED DRIVE

The BrainCog Lab uses Dropbox and Google drives as shared drives. These drives are accessible on the designated data entry computers. Students and faculty can store files on these drives and have access to these files from any computer in the BrainCog Lab.

BRAINCOG LAB PHONE NUMBERS

  • Roberto R. Heredia (CNS 205: Ext. 2637; rheredia@tamiu.edu).
  • Anna B. Cieślicka (PLG 313F: Ext. 2611; anna.cieslicka@tamiu.edu).
  • Mónica E. Muñoz (PLG 313C: Ext. 2620; mmunoz@tamiu.edu).
  • Angelique M. Blackburn (CNS 313M: Ext. 2666; angelique.blackburn@tamiu.edu).
  • Jeff M. Brown (PLG 313B: Ext. 2596; jbrown@tamiu.edu).
  • For a security related emergency, please contact campus police at Ext. 2100.