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Details on the exact procedure tend to vary greatly, perhaps because of the prolificity of the test, perhaps because of its status as a near-urban-legend. The following account should be considered dramatized ; it is only spiritually, not necessarily factually, accurate.
Participants were recruited using various phony experiments; for instance, one study at Yale used a "study for memory" as its excuse. It is common in psychological experiments to mislead the participant as to the nature of the experiment, because when participants figure out what the experiment is testing for, they will sometimes provide that outcome of their own free will--for which they deserve a pat on the back, but which can skew the experiment's results. Consequently, the experiment is described as studying a very different thing than it actually is. The Yale experiment was advertised as taking one hour, for which those responding would be paid $4.50. Participants were men between the ages of 20 and 50, excluding college and high school students; later recreations of the experiment tested demographics of all ages, races, occupations and genders.
In the waiting room, the participant meets the experimenter (decked out with clipboard and white lab coat) and someone who claims to be a fellow participant but is actually another experimenter. In psychological parlance, this person is called a "confederate." The experimenter explains to participant and confederate that the experiment will test the effectiveness of punishment on learning behavior. The participant will be the 'teacher': he will pose various questions to the confederate (hereby called the 'learner'). This testing will be facilitated by a communications device, which the Teacher and Learner are then shown.
The device, on the Teacher's side, consists of a large computerized control panel. It has a row of buttons, most with a numerical value associated with them. However, near the end of the row is a button labeled, "Do not go beyond this point"--though the presence of further buttons suggests that one can go beyond this point. The control panel also has a microphone and a speaker. The Learner's apparatus, on the other side of a wall from the Teacher's side, consists solely of a speaker, a microphone and a chair... A chair which can and will deliver an electric shock, in voltage equal to the numbers on the Teacher's control panel. This shocking ability is sometimes demonstrated to both Teacher and Learner.
The experimenter straps the Learner into the chair and then takes the Teacher to the control panel. If the Learner answers a question incorrectly, he will receive an electric shock as punishment, with each incorrect answer resulting in a shock of increased magnitude: hence the row of buttons with its ever-growing voltage labels. Also, the experimenter tells the Teacher, the experiment must not be disrupted. No matter what happens, the Teacher and Learner must continue. The experimenter will stay in the room with the Teacher to help facilitate this. The Teacher turns on his microphone, and the questions and answers begin.
The Learner gets questions wrong, and the Teacher delivers the appropriate shocks. As the voltage builds up, however, the Learner begins to protest. He yells out in pain every time the shocks are delivered. Between questions, he complains vociferously: the shocks are painful; he's starting to be hysterical; he wants the experiment to end right now. Even worse, he has a heart condition: too much voltage might kill him.
In reality, there are no shocks being given to the confederate; he is merely acting. He might have been replaced by the control panel itself, if technology allowed it: each button would trigger an appropriate sound byte. Milgram did not need an injured confederate, only the illusion of it. The experiment up until now seems simple: if the Learner is begging to be released, why not release him? The answer lies with the experimenter in the white lab coat, a symbol of faceless scientific authority; the experimenter, present in the room with the Teacher, would refuse to let the Teacher (the participant) end the experiment prematurely. The test Milgram was running was not a "test for memory"; instead, he was attempting to answer a question: "How many people will continue up to and past the button that says Do not go beyond this point... If that guy in the white lab coat is constantly hovering over his shoulder, urging him to go on, refusing to let him stop?"
At "Do Not Go Beyond This Point" (generally taking the place of the 300-volt button), the Learner gave a horrible scream; thereafter he would not answer any questions (which the experimenter would insist on interpreting as incorrect answers, necessitating the delivery of further shocks). His silence, combined with the knowledge of his heart condition and the blatant "Do Not Go Beyond This Point" label, led to an obvious conclusion. Once the participant had run out of buttons, the experiment ended.
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