Setup guide: Prolific
Prolific sends each participant to your study link with their Prolific ID. ConductCognition saves the ID, runs the tests and sends the participant back to Prolific after the last test.
You need a ConductCognition study with its tests chosen, and an account with Prolific. The open link works while the study is active. Names in the steps match the ConductCognition screens and Prolific's help pages.
In ConductCognition, open your study. In the Recruitment panel, select Turn on the open link, choose Prolific as the recruitment platform, and select Save. The link works while the study is active.
Select Copy link. The link ends with Prolific's own placeholders, which Prolific replaces with each participant's PROLIFIC_PID, STUDY_ID and SESSION_ID.
https://app.conductcognition.com/join/abcd2345efgh6789?PROLIFIC_PID={{%PROLIFIC_PID%}}&STUDY_ID={{%STUDY_ID%}}&SESSION_ID={{%SESSION_ID%}}In Prolific, create a study and paste the link as the study URL. To record Prolific IDs, choose URL parameters, the option Prolific recommends.
Prolific gives a completion code and a completion URL that ends with it. Enter the code in the Completion code field in ConductCognition and set the Completion URL as shown; ConductCognition fills in the code. Participants reach Prolific only after every test in the study is complete.
https://app.prolific.com/submissions/complete?cc={completion_code}Yes, for untimed tests: 15 untimed tests run on phones and 17 on tablets. Timed tests need a desktop or laptop with a mouse or trackpad. A phone that cannot run every test in a study is stopped before the consent form. On an open study link, that person is not counted and uses no credit. In Prolific, mark the study for desktop devices and say so in the description. Prolific shows participants which devices a study supports, and ConductCognition's device check stops a session that cannot run the tests.
Open the link with test values in place of the placeholders, for example ?PROLIFIC_PID=TEST, and finish the tests. Check that you land on Prolific's completion page and that the participant list shows the test ID with the Open link label. A test run uses one participant place or credit.
Publish the study in Prolific. After the first participants finish, open the Study Quality Monitor to see which sessions are valid, need review or are invalid, and why.
Export the score CSV. Each row has the Prolific ID in external_id, url_STUDY_ID and url_SESSION_ID, and participant_source set to open_link.
The participant reached the link without PROLIFIC_PID, so ConductCognition created an anonymous participant. Check that the Prolific study records IDs through URL parameters and that its study URL is the link copied from the Recruitment panel. An ID that is not a valid value is refused, and the participant is asked to open the study again from Prolific.
The completion code and the redirect appear only after the participant finishes every test in the study. A participant who stopped early can open the same Prolific link again and continue.
Yes, for untimed tests: 15 untimed tests run on phones and 17 on tablets. Timed tests need a desktop or laptop with a mouse or trackpad. A phone that cannot run every test in a study is stopped before the consent form. On an open study link, that person is not counted and uses no credit.
The same participant ID continues the same participant record and does not use a second credit or allowance place. The participant continues from the next unfinished test, and a test that was interrupted starts again.
Prolific's attention-check policy says time limits and internal measures are not permitted for attention or comprehension checks. Use the Study Quality Monitor's flags to decide which sessions to analyze. Approve or reject submissions under the recruitment service's own rules.
Participant payments and Prolific's fees are paid to Prolific. In ConductCognition, each participant uses one credit or one place in your plan's allowance.
Checked on 2 October 2026.
Prolific can change its screens and rules. If a step here no longer matches, follow Prolific's page and tell us through the question button so we can update this guide.
Other guides: Sona Systems, CloudResearch Connect, Qualtrics. All of them start from the recruitment setup overview.
How sessions are checked: Study Quality Monitor. What it costs: pricing.
Create a study, preview the tests, then turn on the open link.