MediaLab holds the potential to reshape the way social psychologists conduct research. With MediaLab, it is possible to present participants with involving manipulations including graphical arrays, Power Point shows, and even video clips. All of these can be seamlessly integrated into a single experiment. No doubt, the quality of the data is improved because participants are more engaged in the experimental procedures. MediaLab is great for researchers, too. Not only is it easy to create experiments, but it’s simple to run participants and integrate the data as well. In fact, because MediaLab automatically records the data on a spreadsheet, it’s possible to run 200 participants during the day and analyze the data that night. Also, because the entire administration is computerized, it’s possible for interested researchers to conduct replications of your work using your exact experimental procedures. You can post your experiments on the web or e-mail them to interested researchers. Simply put, MediaLab allows the researcher to obtain better data with less time and effort. It’s the next wave in psychological research.

S. Christian Wheeler,
Stanford University