AVP Information for Researchers

What is the Adult Volunteer Panel (AVP)?

The Adult Volunteer Panel (AVP) is a registry of community members who are willing to be invited to research studies conducted within the Department of Psychology. The AVP was established in 2019 as an important supplement to the Sona PSYA01/PSYA02 undergraduate research participant pool, to support labs in recruiting research participants from the broader population. It is a paid participant pool.

AVP members range from 18 to 80+ years of age. Most members are located in the Greater Toronto Area, many of them in Scarborough, Markham, Pickering, or Ajax. But not all members are located close to our campus. Some live as far away as Ottawa, London, Niagara, and beyond, and have opted for online-only participation opportunities. AVP members have indicated their preference for in-person, online, or both kinds of studies, and have answered a number of basic prescreening questions. Our AVP Sona research participation system filters the studies to which they are invited based on the responses they have provided.

To be eligible to recruit from the AVP, you must be a Department of Psychology faculty member or a recognized member of a faculty research lab (e.g., postdoc, graduate student, RA).

When you are ready to request AVP participants for your study:

1. Complete the Account Request / Study Approval form.
2. Email your completed request form to the AVP Coordinator, along with your study's ethics approval form.

When your recruitment request is approved:

1. Obtain login access to the AVP Sona system from the AVP Coordinator.
2. Login to the AVP system, create a description of your study, indicate whether it is a standard in-person study or an online/remote study, and set any desired eligibility criteria (e.g., age range, handedness, etc.).
3. Make your study active.
4. Add timeslots to your study for which AVP members can then sign up.

Contacts and Resources