3 ms·
> Five subjects were recruited for this experiment ... Subjects 10001R, 10003L, and 20205R are coauthors on the paper and were blinded to the test conditions bu
by jonas21 1y ago
> Five subjects were recruited for this experiment ... Subjects 10001R, 10003L, and 20205R are coauthors on the paper and were blinded to the test conditions but were aware of the purposes of the study. The other two subjects were members of the participating lab at the University of Washington but were naive to the purposes of the study.
Is it normal for the authors to experiment on themselves and their colleagues like this? Or did they not like the idea of laser-stimulating the photoreceptors of random strangers?
- pvg 1y agoThat is the tradition. I tooke a bodkin gh & put it betwixt my eye & the bone as neare to the Backside of my eye as I could: & pressing my eye with the end of it (soe as to make the curvature a, bcdef in my eye) there appeared severall white darke & coloured circles https://www.newtonproject.ox.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/NATP00004#:~:text=58-,I%20tooke%20a%20bodkin,-gh%20%26%20put%20it https://www.newtonproject.ox.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/NAT...
- sebmellen 1y agoWow, I never knew that Newton risked retinal detachment to prove his theories.
- gnabgib 1y agoNot a Neal Stephenson fan then? (The Baroque Cycle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Baroque_Cycle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Baroque_Cycle)
- parpfish 1y agoAlso google “Giles Brindley” for another great self-experimentation tale
- krispyfi 1y agoAlso Albert Hofmann and Alexander Shulgin
- parpfish 1y agoSelf experimentation is pretty common in psychophysics experiments. I think a big part of it is that the experiments are long and boring, so the scientists themselves are the only people likely to pay attention and perform the task accurately the whole time.
- etrautmann 1y agoYes - many psychophysics experiments require a LOT of time and careful attention that would be tricky to get from random participants. It’s often not at all an issue of safety or risk and more just the length, tedium, and motivation.