After having the participant in the room and ready to hook them up to the psychophysiology equipment, ensure that the participant is completely comfortable and that all components of consent forms are understood.

Recording psychophysiology data is very resource-intensive and takes time and effort. Therefore, it’s in the best interest of the researcher and participant to minimize the time spent with the participant under the measures while also maximizing data collection (provided that informed consent was given).

During the course of data collection (and before the participant arrives), the following items should be addressed during recruitment and the participant hookup:

• Is the participant within their BMI (body mass index) ratio?
• Did the participant exercise or take stimulants (e.g., caffeine, nicotine, etc.) 4 hours before the experiment?
• Participants should be gender-matched at all possible scenarios; technically under REB, female RAs may hook up a male participant to the equipment but male RAs cannot do this for female participants (for obvious reasons). Still, it is in the best interest that the participant be informed of whether the researcher will be female (if it’s a male participant) so they do not feel overly self-conscious or embarrassed. They could also be given the option to be notified if the RA will be female (e.g., advertise that the slot is a general slot for males and females, and have a separate “all-male” recruitment slot).
• Running the participant through a health-intake interview prior to data collection is ideal in order to collect as much data on the individual differences in physiology between participants that may not be attributed to the experimental variables of interest.

Things to watch out for once the participant is being fully hooked up to the machines and after they are ready for recording:

• Sanitize hands before touching the participant anywhere on their body – this is a good will gesture and makes them feel comfortable;
• Ensure the participant is sitting with their feet flat on the floor, not postured up in a way that their back would appear straight (for baseline recordings);
• Ensure that they do not have any cell phone turned on, that will disturb the recordings;
• Watch for any signs of movement that could alter the way data is being recorded live on the software.