Dr. Timothy Rickard is conducting a research study to gain more knowledge
about human learning and skill acquisition. You have been asked to participate
in this study because you are a UCSD student and because you have been selected
randomly from the psychology subject pool to participate. There will be
approximately 1400 participants in this study.
The purpose of this study is to learn more about how people learn and acquire new cognitive skills.
If you agree to be in this study, you will perform memory tasks and (or) solve
problems at a computer terminal or using paper and pencil. You will receive one-hour
of experimental credit for each hour of participation. Each session will last no more than 1 hour.
You will be involved in no more than three sessions.
Participation in this study may involve some risks or discomforts. These include the following:
1. A potential for the loss of confidentiality. The risk is very low, however. No identifying
information is included in the data that will be used in analyses. All copies of consent forms will be
stored in a secure location. Research records will be kept confidential to the extext allowed by law.
Research records may be reviewed by the UCSD Institutional Review Board.
2. There is potential for minor fatigue. The maximum one-hour duration of each session
minimizes this risk.
Because this is a research study, there may also be some unkown risks that are currently unforseeable.
You will be told if any important new information is found during the course of this study that
may affect your wanting to continue.
Participation in research is entirely voluntary. You may refuse to participate, withdraw or
refuse to answer specifc questions at any time without penalty or loss of benefits to
which you are entitiled. If you decide that you no longer wish to continue this study,
you are required to inform the experimenter as soon as your decision is made.
If you decide not to participate, you will have the opportunity to receive equivalent course
credit by completing an assignment related to one of the psychology courses in which you are
currently enrolled. Should you choose that alternative, contact your instructor for guidance.
There may or may not be any direct benefit to you from participating this study. The investigator, however,
may learn more about human learning and skill acquistion, and society may benefit from this knowledge.
The PI may remove you from the study without your consent if the PI feels that is in your best interest
or the best interest of the study. For example, you may be withdrawn from the study if you do not
follow the instructions given to you by the study personnel.
You will not receive monetary compensation for participating in this research. You will receive one-hour
of course credit fro each completed experimental session.
There will be no cost to you for participating in this study.
If you are injured as a direct result of participation in this research, the University of California will provide
any medical care you need to treat those injuries. You may call the Human Research Protections Program
office at (858-246-HRPP (858-246-4777)) for more infromation about this, to inquire about your
rights as a research subject, or to report research-related problems.
Timothy Rickard, Steven Pan, Jarrett Lovelett, or Derek Stoeckenius has explained this
study you and answered your questions. If you have other questions or research-related problems,
you may reach Timothy Rickard at 858-822-0122.
If you would like to save a copy of the consent form, please print this page.
If you agree to participate, please click the button below.
PLEASE CHECK THAT YOUR CELL PHONE IS SILENT (not vibrate) at this time.
Press ENTER to confirm that your CELL PHONE is set on SILENT.
Please be advised: Your complete ATTENTION and FOCUS is required to participate in this experiment!
That means that you need to CONCENTRATE and do the absolute best that you can.
If you are unable to do so, please do not continue the experiment.
Click below if you are able to participate.
Today you will be learning word pairs, one pair at a time.
Please CLOSELY STUDY each pair that you see, and commit it to MEMORY.
Please make sure your screen is in FULL SIZE or the pairs will not display properly.
You will now see the same pairs again.
For some pairs it will say:
STUDY THIS pair.
You will have 6 seconds to memorize the pair.
For other pairs you will be shown one of the words and asked to recall the second.
You will have 6 seconds to TYPE the second word.
For other pairs you will be shown one of the words and asked to recall the second.
You will have 5 seconds to TYPE the second word.
After 5 seconds the correct answer will appear for 1 seconds.
Please pay close ATTENTION to the answer.
Earlier you memorized many pairs, such as shoe-foot.
You will now learn some pairs with the same cue-word (shoe),
but a different target-word than before (sneaker).
For all pairs it will say:
STUDY THIS pair.
You will have 6 seconds to memorize the pair.
Each pair will be presented 3 times.
This concludes part one.
You will now add two digit numbers for 5 minutes.
Earlier you memorized many pairs, such as shoe-foot.
We will now assess your memory for those pairs.
Please ignore the previous target words you just studied.
Those were distractors.
Each pair will now be shown as a question, such as shoe-f.
Please type the ONE WORD answer that best answers that question.
Please type the entire one word answer, including the first letter given.
If you are not sure exactly how to SPELL the correct answer, please still type it out as best as you can.
Try to be as ACCURATE as you can.
Note: CAPITALIZATION does not matter.
Please do your best to answer each question,
while being as ACCURATE as possible.
Please make sure your screen is in FULL SIZE or the pairs will not display properly.
Study this pair.
Enter target word here:
Add these numbers together.
Enter the answer here:
Enter your demographic information here:
Age:
Sex:
Male
Female
Please input your UCSD email:
Did the experiment crash or anything weird happen? Please describe below if anything did.