PEEBS FAQ

(Psychology Electronic Experiment Booking System - Frequently Asked Questions)


What is it ?

PEEBS is the online experiment booking system for the Department of Psychology at the university of York.

Researchers set up experiments which list a number of free time slots and participants can sign up to these for a cash reward or course credit (subject hours are part of our porgramme requiremnt).

We have mailing list of participants who like to earn some cash Mailing List.


Can I be a Participant ?

Anyone can use PEEBS to sign up for an experiment. Primarily designed for people at the University of York PEEBS has the ability to handle external users (people without University of York logins) via the Universities web-access control system


Can I cancel my booking ?

YES if it is more than 30 mins until the slot. It is crucial to let the experimenter know if you cannot make it for any reason, especially if within 24 hours, as the experimenter will waste time preparing the experiment and waiting for you to turn up. If you can not show up please email or phone the experimenter ASAP. Their details show up when you try to cancel a booking or from


What is all my data used for?

The data about your status (left right handed etc..) never leaves PEEBS, and is used only to select which experiments you are eligible for. Some Experiments require their participants to meet certain criteria, PEEBS allows this to be specified.


Can I set up my own experiments ?

PEEBS is restricted by Departmental Research Committee guidance.
Peebs is open to Members of staff (faculty, RAs, RFs) and postgraduate research students

The view remains that opening it up to undergraduate and MSc *projects* would affect the ability of PhD students, RAs, post-docs and academic staff to recruit participants at the required rate.

Use of PEEBS will not extend to undergraduate or MSc projects. It can be used by students working on lab placements, in which case the experimental description must clearly specify the member of staff for whom the placement student is working. The placement student will be given access to PEEBS for the purpose of running the experiments that form part of the placement.




How do I become an experimenter ?

See who can use it above ? If you are faculty or PhD student you can promote yourself from the Edit My details page. If you are doing a lab placement then you need a Manager or Admin to promote you. Some faculty are managers. If in doubt email peebs At psychology dot york etc.


Can PEEBS book more than 1 experiment into the same room at the same time?

YES - PEEBS will warn you when setting up two experiments at the same time in the same location but allow you to do so. When one experiment. books the slot it becomes unavailable to the other experiment.


Can experiments have more than more than 2 participants at once ?

YES - when defining the slots tell PEEBS how many people can book that slot.


Can I use PEEBS just to sign people up without a time ?

Yes - create one time slot with however many participants you want. This allow people to register an interest in your experiment.


How do I add a room to PEEBS?

You need to be a manager (faculty) or speak nicely to one, remember to add directions and keep to the naming scheme.


Where has my 'New Experiment' gone??

I sometimes clean up the list of experimenst and remove "New Experiments' which have not been defined (ie no title or details). People often create these when starting out and don't edit them but create a new one. The we have these undefined ones lying around so I delete them.


I've got enough subjects now - how do I stop people signing up?

Edit your experiment and either
  • set the 'Maximum Filled Slots' to 1 (or less than currently signed up) or
  • set Max Slots per user to 0 or
  • remove all the unfilled slots still available future
Any of these will disable sign up.


How do I advertise my experiment ?

We have a university-wide email list of people who we call on when we need participants (Psychology Subjects Mailing List), in return for a small payment.

When you create a new experiment on peebs, you can send an advertisement to this mailing list - psych-participants@lists.york.ac.uk - to advertise your experiment.




I found an error What do I do?

I wish PEEBS could ....

Let me know, PEEBS errors/bugs and feature requests are all welcome, there is even a section on PsychBoard for discussing PEEBS especially for improvements. Contact via email to peebs AT psychology dot york etc.


How does it work ?

PEEBS is a database driven system. It uses Mysql and Cold Fusion to define, store and present information.


Where did it come from?

Peebs was commissioned and funded internally by the department and was designed in conjunction with the research committee. All the initial development was conducted by Andrew Wilkinson (Dept Comp Sci) and Rob Stone. Subsequent development and tweaks have been made by Rob Stone.



Department of Psychology, University of York,   [contact details]    [RFS Nov 2010]