Setup guide: Sona Systems
Sona sends each student to your study link with their survey code. ConductCognition saves the code, runs the tests and sends the student back to Sona, which grants credit automatically.
You need a ConductCognition study with its tests chosen, and an account with Sona Systems. The open link works while the study is active. Names in the steps match the ConductCognition screens and Sona Systems's help pages.
In ConductCognition, open your study. In the Recruitment panel, select Turn on the open link, choose Sona Systems as the recruitment platform, and select Save. The link works while the study is active.
In Sona, set the study up as an Online External Study and paste the link as the Study URL. The link ends with ?id=%SURVEY_CODE%, and Sona replaces %SURVEY_CODE% with each student's survey code.
https://app.conductcognition.com/join/abcd2345efgh6789?id=%SURVEY_CODE%In the Sona study's settings, copy the client-side completion URL, the one that contains webstudy_credit.aspx. Paste it into the Completion URL field in ConductCognition and replace XXXX at the end with {participant_id}, so the student's survey code goes back to Sona. Use one completion URL only.
https://yourschool.sona-systems.com/webstudy_credit.aspx?experiment_id=123&credit_token=TOKEN&survey_code={participant_id}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. Say this in the Sona study description, so students sign up from a suitable computer.
Activate the ConductCognition study, open Sona's sample link with a survey code, and finish the tests. Sona then shows that no credit was given because you are not a participant, which means the codes match and credit granting works.
Make the Sona study visible. Each student who finishes every test returns to Sona with their survey code and receives credit. Check the Study Quality Monitor after the first sessions.
Credit is granted when the student reaches Sona's completion URL with their survey code, after the last test. Check that the Sona Study URL contains %SURVEY_CODE% and that the Completion URL ends with survey_code={participant_id}. A student who opens the study without a survey code joins without an ID, and Sona cannot match their credit.
Sona replaces %SURVEY_CODE% with a unique number of 2 to 7 digits for each student. ConductCognition saves it as the participant's external ID.
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.
Studies that use only the free tests are free up to the free plan's participant limit. Other tests use pay-as-you-go credits or a yearly plan. Sona's own terms are set by your school's Sona site.
Checked on 2 October 2026.
Sona Systems can change its screens and rules. If a step here no longer matches, follow Sona Systems's page and tell us through the question button so we can update this guide.
Other guides: Prolific, 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.