Field of Science

Your age

Who participates in Web-based experiments? I recently analyzed preliminary results from about 4,500 participants in Keeping Things In Mind, an experiment I'm running in collaboration with a colleague and friend at TestMyBrain.org.

One of the things we're interested in is the age of people who participate. Here is the breakdown:


Not surprisingly, the bulk are college age (particularly freshmen). There are still a sizable number in their 30s, 40s and early 50s, but by the 60s it drops off considerably.

And then there are the few jokers who claim to be 3 or 100.

This is pretty similar to the breakdown I usually see at GamesWithWords.org, except that I usually have fewer tweens and more people in their 60s. But the mode is usually 18.

What this means for the experiment is that people in their 50s on up are woefully underrepresented. We're continuing to run the experiment in the hopes that more will participate.

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