Using SMS text messaging for teaching and data collection in the behavioral sciences.

Full Abstract

Recent interest in university teaching has focused on interactivity in lectures and practical classes, and teachers in several fields have set up systems in which students can interact with the lecturer using mobile-phone-based SMS text messaging. This approach has particular potential in psychology, where students could use SMS messaging as a way of responding in simple psychology experiments or demonstrations. We describe a simple architecture for an SMS-based responding, using an SMS-to-HTTP message relay service, and a PHP/MySQL input-output handler. We describe briefly two experiments we have run using the system. The first experiment examined anchoring effects in an SMS-based auction. The second experiment examined delay discounting, with participants indicating their intertemporal preferences using SMS. Finally, we evaluate the feedback we obtained from students about the practical and conceptual issues surrounding text-message-based responding.

Author information

Author/s: Reimers, Stian (S); Stewart, Neil (N);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University College London, London, England. s.reimers(-atsign-)ucl.ac.uk

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Behavior research methods (Behav Res Methods), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Aug; vol 41 (issue 3) : pp 675-81

Dates: Created 2009/07/09; Completed 2009/10/01;

PMID: 19587178, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 10/1/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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