Online Data Collection in Auditory Perception and Cognition Research: Recruitment, Testing, Data Quality and Ethical Considerations

Online studies using recruitment services (such as Prolific or Amazon’s MTurk) and online testing platforms (such as Gorilla or PsyToolkit) are becoming increasingly common in psychological science. Although auditory disciplines have been slower to adopt these methods, uptake is rapidly increasing in auditory perception and cognition research. Utilizing online data collection and recruitment presents several advantages to researchers in terms of the speed of research and the range of target demographics available compared to either traditional lab studies or web-based recruitment via traditional means. Online platforms and recruitment services also present a set of technical and ethical challenges owing to the fact that the people completing experiments are working with their own devices outside the lab. This article discusses the potential technical and ethical implications of online studies, including both recruitment services and online testing platforms, with specific reference to auditory perception and cognition research. Rates of remuneration, sampling characteristics, anonymity, quality control, and ethics are all discussed with respect to these approaches. We also provide proposals for how researchers can ensure that online research meets present-day ethical and technical guidelines as well as research transparency standards