Run a Study End to End

This journey is for researchers who want to take a project from nothing to a downloaded dataset, including recruitment through Testable Minds. It assumes no prior Testable knowledge; the building itself is covered by its own journeys, which form the first step here. By the end you will have collected real data and know how to read it.

Build

1. Build an Experiment, Start to Finish or Build a Survey. Follow whichever matches your project (or both, for mixed designs). Everything below assumes you have a working trial file, so finish one of these first.

Configure the project

2. Participants & Data. Set your participant limit and participation time limit, and enable Balanced Group Assignment if you use subjectGroup. This page is also where all recruitment routes meet: besides Testable Minds, it documents direct link sharing, SONA, and Prolific or Mechanical Turk wiring if you recruit elsewhere.

3. Informed Consent. Choose one of the four consent modes and configure the debrief for participants who decline. Skip on a first pass only if consent is fully handled outside Testable, and even then consider the in-app record the page recommends.

Check

4. Previewing Your Trials. Run through every trial in the previewer before anything goes live, checking stimuli, layout, feedback, and instructions. Read the limitations table closely so you know what the previewer does not simulate.

Caution

The previewer shows trials in file order: randomisation, subjectGroup assignment, and breaks are not active there. Test those with a real run of the published project before recruiting.

Recruit with Testable Minds

5. What is Testable Minds?. Understand who the panel participants are, the difference between Regular and Verified Minds, and the quality controls (reject window, bot protection, approval history) before you spend anything.

6. Set Up Your Study. Work through the study form: target N, timing, participant fee, an honest study description, and eligibility criteria. Note the review step, and the 24-hour lead time if you schedule rather than launch ASAP.

7. Launch and Manage. Learn the study versus session distinction and the session statuses, then the approval workflow: you have 48 hours to approve or reject each completed session, after which pending submissions are approved automatically.

8. Payments and Credits. Understand the participant fee plus 30% commission, load credits before launching, and use the budget calculator to estimate total cost. Screened-out and rejected participants are not charged.

Monitor and analyse

9. The Data & Results Dashboard. Watch participants, live statistics, and interactive figures in real time while sessions come in, flag sessions for exclusion, and share a read-only snapshot. Its CONSORT tab, covered in Fieldwork Insights & Trial Reporting, adds the participant-flow report for your methods section (note the plan requirements at the top of that page).

10. How to Read the Results Files. Learn how result files are named, what sits in the header block, and what the key generated columns (response, correct, RT) contain.

11. Results Formats. Pick the download that fits your analysis: individual files, wide, long, anonymised, or proof of consent. Skip the anonymised and consent formats on a first pass unless GDPR or your ethics board requires them.

12. Results Reference. Keep this open as a lookup while analysing, not as reading. It documents every column Testable generates, including timing diagnostics and what was actually shown after randomisation.

Tip

Achieved timing columns and custom trial file columns are not exported in the long format. If you need them, download the individual files or the wide format instead.

You are ready when your Minds study has closed, every session is approved or rejected, and you have a downloaded results file whose columns you can map back to your trial file. From there, the Results Reference answers the column-level questions your analysis will raise.