JOHNSTON , Iowa ( CNN ) -- Politics meets technology Thursday as a group of undecided Iowa Democrats has allowed themselves to be wired for the debate of Democratic presidential hopefuls . A dial-test graph is displayed over candidate Rudy Giuliani during a recent GOP debate . By the end of the debate , CNN hopes to be able to gauge which debater was the group 's favorite and whose popularity fell -- and perhaps -- who may win the first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses on January 3 . Across town , six Democratic candidates will be facing off for their final scheduled debate in the Hawkeye State before caucus night . The debate is hosted by the Des Moines Register and Iowa Public Television . Each member of the randomly selected group will watch the debate on a large-screen TV while operating special hand-held dial-testing devices which are approximately the size of typical remote-control devices . Viewers will react to the debate as it happens -- second-by-second -- as they move their dials to the right or the left . Dialing right indicates a positive response and dialing left represents a negative response . Southern Methodist University professors Rita Kirk and Dan Schill will track the average response of the group corresponding with each moment of the debate . Responses will be represented by a moving line on a video monitor . The group of Iowans , randomly selected by phone from a list of registered voters , will be recording their impressions of every moment of the debate . The Democratic participants will answer a series of questions both before and after the debate , to determine how the event may change their minds about the candidates . Among the questions to be posed before the face-off : Who do the group members think will perform best in the debate ? Afterwards , they 'll be asked who they think did the best . They also will be asked who they would vote for if the election were held today and who they think will win the nomination . All participants are planning to attend caucuses , but have yet to pick a candidate . Some are wavering between two candidates while some are considering several . They 're hoping to get a better sense of the race from watching this debate , and CNN is hoping to get a better sense of their impressions of the debate by watching them . E-mail to a friend .
Randomly chosen , undecided Democrats will watch debate while turning dials . Dials will rate their positive and negative responses to each debater . Group members will be asked questions about candidates before , after debate .