The ABC of a Decent Experiment For Graduate-level Happy Individuals


Koji Miwa

Last updated 04/04/2024


  • I believe that this is my best recipe for graduate students’ experimental project.  
  • Foreseeing that you need to use an experiment programming software and R, start studying these early.
  • If you are stuck, wondering about the problem alone may not present you a solution.
    • Do lots of readings, and you may be able to connect dots as time goes by.
    • Ask your graduate student colleague for help. Please also help your colleagues with your abundance mentality.
    • You can also make an apppointment with your supervisor. Check our Google Calendar [Koji’s Psycholinguistics Lab]  for the availability of the lab and your supervisor. Then, simply propose a date/time for the meeting.
  • If you have something to be edited or approved by your supervisor, please give him 2 weeks.


1. Take care of your and others' mental health

  • First and foremost, it is extremely important that you maintain your mental health because your academic life is “done” when you are mentally “done.” Please maintain your mental health as much as you maintain your physical health. 
  • If you start feeling depressed or burnt out, visiting a mental clinic might be a good idea. If you do not know which clinc you should visit, I recommend that you talk to Dr. Mizuno at Hirokojidori Mental Clinic (https://www.hirokoji-mental.com/)
  • If you also have some room to care about other people, please think about the mental health of your supervisor and gradualte student colleagues. They are humans, and they have their own life. They do not enjoy your verbal abuses and illogical complaints.


2. Study the basics


3. Participate in weekly meetings

  • Talk to your supervisor every week regardless of whether you have something to discuss with him. Always participate in weely meetings and report your progress (or no progress).
  • After weekly meetings, submit your meeting note: https://forms.gle/5ktyKpiN2cUikZwb9


4. Find a critical “why” and ask primitive questions

  • Always distinguish facts from opinions (and judge whether those opinions accompany credible supporting evidence).
  • It is a good practice to think about many things in life more ….and wonder why things are as they are and how certain ideas can be tested.
  • It is sometimes important to find time alone to wonder many things and juggle ideas in the mind.
  • Broaden your perspective by reading papers on many different topics (do not say “this paper is not relevant to my study" without reading it).


5. Do literature reviews

  • Narrow down your focus and identify one topic that you are motivated to study further.
  • It is particularly important to read papers published in peer-reviewed international journals. 
  • Reading 100 relevant papers should give you a good idea about the topic of your interest.
  • Note that literature reviews will continue till the end.


6. Narrow down the topic and design a study with a testable hypothesis

  • At this point, “why” should become “whether," “which," "how (much)," or “when” for a quantiative investigation.
  • It often helps to compare two or more things (e.g., two different groups of participants, two different tasks).
  • Do not make your study design more complex than necessary.


7. Organize your team

  • Note that it is nearly impossible for typical students to carry out a decent psycholinguistic study all by themselves. It is therefore important that you find a collaborator (most likely your supervisor) before you move on.
  • If you have a collaborator(s), before you start the project, it is recommended that you discuss the authorship issue with them to avoid future conflicts.
  • Whoever contributes significantly to your project should be a co-author. Whoever provides only minor contribution should not be a co-author (but should be acknowledged instead). Do not let other people work hard for you "free of charge."


8. Prepare your experiment


9. Research ethics application

  • Make sure to study the ethical guidelines stated in the Declaration of Helsinki (World Medical Association, 1964).
  • Test yourself first to check (1) whether the experiment is doable, (2) whether the experiment script is error-free, and (3) how long the experiment lasts. Do NOT let other people do what you yourself do not want to do.
  • Prepare research ethics documents.
    1. Information sheet (English example, Japanese example)
    2. Consent form (English example, Japanese example)
    3. Debriefing sheet (English example)
  • Obtain ethics review application forms from here and submit it to the Graduate School of Humanities Ethics Board together with (1) an information sheet, (2) a consent form.
  • If you want your experiment cost reimbursed, also make sure to submit the following documents to your supervisor (so that he can complete a 謝金支出伺 form) before you start your experiment: (1) an information sheet, (2) a consent form, and (3) an experiment ad.


10. Recruit participants

  • Before you start recruiting participants, make sure that you become the first participant for your experiment. Go through the whole experiment by yourself and see whether it is doable and whether the data are properly collected.
  • Pay attention to your target population and sample an appropriate number of participants.
  • Make a one-click-sign-up page in a recruiting website (Example). Doodle.com is useful.
  • Make an experiment ad and advertise your experiment (Example.pptx). Making the recruitment URL shorter or generating a QR code may help.
  • Reserve time slots for your experiment on our Google Calendar [Koji’s Psycholinguistics Lab] . If there are multiple experiments going on, be considerate of others.
  • When participants sign up, indicate on our Google Calendar [Koji’s Psycholinguistics Lab] that the time slot is formally taken.


11. Collect data

  • If necessary, conduct a pilot study to see whether your experiment design is appropriate. Note that the purpose of the pilot study is not to test a hypothesis.
  • Remind yourself that clean data are vital to the success of your study (Note: statistics does not improve the data quality).
  • Before the experiment
    1. Come to the experiment room early, at least 10 minutes before the experiment.
    2. Turn on the experiment devices you are going to use.
    3. Place the information sheet/ the consent form and a bottle of water on the desk.
    4. Place the “実験中 (Experiment in Progress)” board outside the room.
  • During the experiment
    1. Keep track of the participants’ info (i.e., who participated, when they participated, what happened during the session).
    2. Ask the participant to read the information sheet and sign the consent form.
    3. Make sure to give the participant an opportunity to ask questions.
    4. Treat participants with respect and pay attention to the participant’s physical condition.
    5. Pay attention to all the details so that you can collect clean data.
  • After the experiment
    1. Give an Amazon gift card (1000 yen / hour) to participants right after each experiment. Ask the participant to fill out the receipt with their complete address.
    2. Briefly explain the purpose of the experiment to the participant.
    3. Give the debriefing sheet to the participant.
  • Once you finish collecting all the data, submit a "被験者謝金支給調書” sheet to your supervisor.


12. Complete the method section

  • Write the method section of your manuscript first (or you will never be able to write it).


13. Analyse the data and interpret the results


14. Write up a manuscript


 Last updated 04/06/2024                              © Koji Miwa 2015-2023 All Rights Reserved