January 2026

What did you do using Gorilla and what did you find?

I use Gorilla for my research involving experiments in Cognitive Psychology and for my teaching of research in Cognitive Psychology and Perception.

What is you next project?

I would like to investigate more the relationship between visual imagery of pictures of different valence, vividness ratings on perception and recognition memory.

Has this study been published?

Yes my recent research study was published in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. I supervised three undergraduate students on a research study comprising four experiments examining the recognition memory of pictures compared to sounds. All experiments were designed and deployed using Gorilla's online platform.

Ahmad, F. N., Tremblay, S., Karkuszewski, M. D., Alvi, M., & Hockley, W. E. (2023). A conceptual–perceptual distinctiveness processing account of the superior recognition memory of pictures over environmental sounds. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 77(7), 1555-1580.

What were your concerns about taking you research online?

I had concerns about the amount of learning required to master designing and deploying experiments and the potentital cost of recruiting participants. Another concern was tracking participant's responses and if the presentation timing of stimuli online to participants was as expected similar to traditional non-online testing. All my concerns were resolved after using Gorilla and the support provided to me from the Gorilla team!

What is the biggest advantage of online research methods?

Fast recruitment and easy deployment remotely.

What real-world problem do you see that your research could impact?

Our understanding of how human beings encode, perceive and retrieve pictures compared to sounds in the real world.

What do you believe to be true that you cannot prove (yet)?

I believe there are still ways for humans to perceive differences in writing, sounds and art generated by human beings and artificial intelligence.

How did Gorilla make your life or research better, easier or faster?

The use of Gorilla made my research easier as I did not have to code in experiments and simply designed using the GUI interface and did not have to worry about debugging. I could add in parts of my experiment due to Gorilla's continuous development and integration of new software features based on input from researchers and teachers. For me as a professor or instructor, I have also used Gorilla to help students learn how to design and deploy their own experiments.

Would you recommend Gorilla to others?

Yes, I would. There are now several peer-reviewed publications in which researchers have used Gorilla for experiments in Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience.