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Screener Surveys

Experiments Surveys & forms

Screener surveys let you ask qualifying questions at the start of an experiment and automatically remove participants who do not meet your criteria, before they complete the full study.

How screening works

Section titled “How screening works”
  1. You add up to 5 screener questions at the beginning of your trial file, before any main experimental trials.
  2. You use if / then logic to detect ineligible responses.
  3. You set then = screenout on those rows.

When screenout is triggered, the participant sees a custom debrief message and is removed from your study without charging a credit (if using Testable Minds).

Adding screener questions

Section titled “Adding screener questions”

Use type = form rows for screener questions, exactly like any other survey. Ask about eligibility criteria such as age, language, clinical status, or prior participation:

type   = form
head   = Do you have normal or corrected-to-normal vision?
responseType = radio
responseOptions = Yes; No

Setting the screenout condition

Section titled “Setting the screenout condition”

On the following row (or the same row using multiple if/then pairs), define the condition and destination:

if   = response = No
then = screenout

Customising the screenout message

Section titled “Customising the screenout message”

Go to Setup → Consent & Debrief to write a custom debrief message for screened-out participants. This message thanks them for their time and explains why they were not eligible.

Testable Minds and screening

Section titled “Testable Minds and screening”

When you use Testable Minds as your recruitment source:

  • Enable the screener flag on your study posting so that Testable Minds knows the study contains screening questions.
  • Participants who are screened out are not charged to your credit balance, and no data is saved for screened participants.
  • You can optionally offer a small token reward to screened participants (configured in the study setup).
  • Screened participants appear with a screenout status in your results and Testable Minds dashboard.

External studies and screening

Section titled “External studies and screening”

If participants arrive via an external platform (e.g. Prolific, SONA, Mechanical Turk):

  • Testable Minds provides a screenout redirect URL for external platforms. Add this to your external study settings so screened participants are redirected back with an ineligible status.

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”