METHOD OF RECRUITING SUBJECTS AND PERFORMANCE ON COGNITIVE TESTS

College students often serve as participants in psychological research . The effects of three methods of recruiting subjects for laboratory t ests of attention and memory were assessed in a series of studies. The performance of students who received monetary incentives and the perf ormance of students who received course-credit incentives were compare d with the performance of students recruited from classes where resear ch participation was a requirement. Monetary incentives resulted in sl ight, but significant, improvements in performance on tests of sustain ed attention and recognition memory. Course-credit incentives did not affect subjects' test performance. Test performance did not differ as a function of the time of the semester when studies were conducted. Re cruitment issues pertinent to departmental subject pools are discussed .