In a way, Stephanie Hynes had to be a laboratory guinea pig to pass a class.

While she wasn't confined to a terrarium, the education and Spanish sophomore is one of hundreds of students who'll participate in psychology research this semester — a seven-hour Psychology 101 requirement.

Hynes completed her research requirement by filling out multiple surveys, such as a women's issues questionnaire, and participating in a visual simulation project, in which she was monitored while playing a computer game.

"It made me think a lot more about myself, especially the women's survey one," she said. "It made me see more about how I think about things."

Some of the tests students can use to complete the requirement include a survey of how different facial expressions evoke certain emotions, reading court transcripts and acting as jurors and testing the correlation between finger length and the ability to cope with stress.

Research participation is supposed to give students real-life experience in psychological activities that a large lecture class cannot, psychology Professor Cathleen McGreal said.

"One of the advantages is that they have an opportunity to see what other students or other individuals have participated in," she said. "This is a chance to actively be a part of the research themselves. All of these are areas that students can participate in and kind of be on the other side of the textbooks."

While Hynes saw the benefits of research participation, others in the class felt as though they were used as nothing more than lab rats.

"I think it doesn't really have anything to do with what we're learning," kinesiology sophomore Rainelle Osuji said. She completed her requirement through online surveys and women's opinion discussions.

Physiology and Spanish senior Jason Manzano had his fingers measured for a stress-related test and his eye movement monitored while playing a computer game as part of his requirement.

He said he wished there was more of an educational connection between researchers and test subjects.

"I learned about my stress level, but they make it where they separate the students," he said.

Neal Schmitt, a psychology professor and the department's chairman, said most of the department's staff uses students as research testing subjects.

He estimated two-thirds of the psychology researchers take on students as research collaborates in more than 100 experiments.

Having students engage in active research is extremely common among large research universities, said Norbert Kerr, chairman of the psychology department's Human Participation in Research System.

"Every Big Ten department and every major research department in the country invites students as researchers," he said.