NeuroFocus

Found this on study on craigslist. I also thought it was some SCAM but I checked out the website and I also patrolled around the building 30 min before my appointment time. The building is legit and very professional. The check-​in process was very quick and self-​explanatory. Signed a consent form and went into the testing area. This was the easiest $ 75.00 I ever made for 20 min of my time. I wear a cap and press buttons! Amazing! Very fast paperwork and I got my check right after the study. There is also free parking near the soccer field.

Found a craigslist ad for «Participants (18 – 54) Needed For A PAID Study — $ 75 (berkeley)» at 11am and decided to google the description to see if it was a know scam. Google lead to finding «Neurofocus» on Unilocal and it checked out as totally legitimate… so I sent them an email. They responded extremely quickly and asked me to take a small survey. After I sent that in, they called and made an appointment for 2pm. Went in and they hooked me up to a swim cap with neuro sensors, completely painless. Watched some ad’s and perform some basic visually cued tasks and was out in an hour. Easiest $ 75 you can make

Legit Company! I was worried that I might get myself into a dangerous situation, not knowing this company and going for the first time, but it was legit.
I made $ 75 in less than 2 hours. They put this net thing on my head which took half an hour (felt like I was in a salon doing my hair) then I did visual tests on the TV for about half an hour then I was done.
The assistants were very friendly and nice.

Easy as pie way to make some money with some spare time! I found NeuroFocus by perusing the Craigslist want ads — $ 75 for an hour of my time, with a non-​invasive and painless procedure? Sure! Filled out a couple surveys and I was in.
The facility is fairly low-​key, but the employees were all polite and prompt. One more consent form filled out and I was led to the back rooms, where a polite and friendly employee/​technician/​scientist (not really sure what her title was) hooked up an EEG cap. I was led into a room and told to sit still and stare at a TV screen, looking at different parts as they tracked my eye movement, and to press a button on a keypad when certain images or colors flashed up.
All told, it took about 30 minutes or so. Completely painless, the icky gel they put in my hair for the cap washed out easily in the bathroom there, and $ 75 was in my pocket! I’d totally do this again.

Getting hooked up to random things that measure your vital signs and brain waves isn’t as strange as it sounds. Wearing a swim cap with gel on your hair is basically the extent of it, and I’ve done this a few times for focus-​group-​type things, so I don’t necessarily dislike the process.
But being in a small room, watching a television that seems too close, and constantly being told that you’re not staying still enough? That’s a little bit annoying. Add to that the fact that the person who’s supposed to be closely monitoring you has apparently stepped away for a while because you’ve been telling her that you want to stop or take a break but she’s not responding, and the entire process can make you a little bit paranoid.
In her defense, she seemed flustered by something else that day, and my lack of sleep didn’t help matters much. But like I said, I have done this before, and it doesn’t need to be this annoying.
Three stars because you’re basically getting paid to sit in a chair, but things would go so much more smoothly if the people attaching the swim caps to your heads were a little bit friendlier, calmer, and more understanding.
But I got my money anyway, even though I think she didn’t get the results she wanted.

Found an ad on Craigslist that they were recruiting for a paid study. I sent an e-​mail and got a call back pretty quick. The times were flexible and they are very close — Berkeley. I went in and did a quick study — they put a cap on me with some sensor thingies, and I watched some ads on a tv. Less than an hour later I was done and they had a $ 75 check ready for me! I do focus groups/​paid studies all the time. Great way to earn extra cash! This is going into my Machu Piccu Fund!

Got an email, looked junky.
My mailbox is pretty clean of junk though, so I inquired more. After going back and forth a few times they disclosed that PayPal had contracted them to do a study. They didn’t have any info about me except for my email, and reading into PayPal’s privacy policy revealed that it’s all kosher. After all — it was not a biggie, NeuroFocus in this case was emailing me on behalf of PayPal.
The whole study took about 30min from start to finish. $ 100 check as I finished. Easy peasy.
Certainly will call them up if I ever get emails from them again :-), an odd job with no effort at $ 200/​hr — I’ll pick it up anytime :-)

This company sent me an unsolicited commercial e-​mail, aka SPAM.
The e-​mail contained a real name, phone number, and e-​mail address, so I called them, yelled at a real person, and had me taken off their list. Yuck. 1 extra star (barely) for actually being able to be removed.
Update: down from 2 stars to 1 star. Even after contacting them they sent me another SPAM asking me to participate in their crapload of a study.

Google Voice has a neat feature that transcribes a voice message into text. They also send you an email and multiple texts announcing that someone has called. So yesterday, as all the Voice alarm bells were going off, this «close enough» transcription appeared on my screen:
Hi Eric, My name is Roy. I’m calling from narrow focus in Berkeley to invite you to participate in the eighties research study, so take about an hour of your time, for which we would compensate $ 75 to watches TV monitor what we can use your responses on that thing this afternoon and tomorrow in Berkeley. If you’re interested in participating, please call us (510) 526‑9879. Again, one narrow focus, and as for Royal. Thanks Eric. Bye.
So after doing a Google search on NeuroFocus and talking with their representative, I figured they were legit. It was then a simple matter to set up an convenient appointment for the next day at 8 AM.
NeuroFocus Inc. uses their neuroscience expertise for the purpose of understanding consumer thought, emotion, and behaviour that are used for marketing-​related decisions. They basically had me wear a shower cap that was connected to electrodes that monitored my brain waves and eye and skin reactions as I watched a screen and completed a very basic data entry task.
From door to door, it took about an hour and for $ 100 it was pretty easy money, noninvasive, and private (brain waves, video monitoring, and a little conductive gel to easily wash off notwithstanding). The folks doing the work were friendly, efficient, and professional.
Note to Gayle — The check goes to the «We Shall be Wed» fund.