It is a common, if controversial, practice to recruit undergraduate psychology students as research participants. There is substantial research concerning putative educational benefits for students, but as students increasingly have freedom to choose between studies to meet participation requirements, factors underlying student choice of participation activities have been understudied. This research was designed to gain insight into what influences students' choice of research participation activities. Respondents were first-year psychology students at a research-intensive university. In Study 1, 43 students provided open-ended responses reflecting on their participation experience. A grounded theory approach was used to identify themes. In Study 2, 135 students completed a short questionnaire designed using the themes extracted in Study 1, with additional questions to probe self-reported and actual learning via questions about study contents and procedure. Across both studies, the dominant reasons for choosing a particular study were interest and convenience. However, 29% of respondents in Study 2 indicated that they had not learned anything during participation. This suggests that it is beneficial to offer a wide range of potential studies as students can tailor participation to match their interests, but improved debriefing strategies may be required to ensure students derive educational benefit and understand what they learned.