The lab is partitioned into three areas: (1) two participant rooms (2) an observation room, and (3) a waiting lounge.

Participant Rooms

Experiments are conducted in the two participant rooms. Both rooms have the same hardware configurations, including a Microsoft Windows-based personal computer, web camera with a built-in microphone, and speakers. The web camera is used to capture the participants’ facial expressions. The built-in microphone is designed to record participants’ verbalizations as part of the thinking aloud protocol found in many studies.

Observation Room

The observation room is located between the two participant rooms. The observation room is equipped with two-way mirrors attached to the participant rooms to facilitate observations during experiments. The observation room is also equipped with a shared laser printer; speakers; and two Microsoft Windows-based computers, each of which can be connected to the participant rooms and to the Internet. In addition, the computers in the observation room have dual-monitor settings.