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 extent 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 unknown 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 specific questions at any time without penalty or loss of benefits to
which you are entitled. 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 acquisition, 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 information 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 to 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.
This is an experiment investigating the ability to learn to type sequences. In this experiment you will repeatedly type a 5 digit sequence (e.g., 3-4-2-1-3) as quickly and accurately as possible 5 times. You will then have a break between trials. After training, you will then learn a series of word-pairs. After, you will again type the sequence.
The goal of each trial is to correctly type the entire sequence as quickly as possible 5 times and then the trial will end. It is important that you type the sequence as quickly as you can, but not at the expense of making errors because only sequences that have all 5 elements in the correct order will count as a completed sequence.
To type these sequences, you will use the #1 through #4 keys located near the top left of
the computer keyboard. You must use your LEFT HAND to type the sequences. Please place your:
pinky finger: on the 1 key
ring finger: on the 2 key
middle finger: on the 3 key
index finger: on the 4 key
PLEASE USE YOUR LEFT HAND!
You are now ready to begin the experiment. A countdown screen will be shown before each sequence is given to you. When the countdown screen finishes, a new screen will appear telling you to type the sequence that is shown. The 10 second trial begins immediately so you should be ready to type the sequence when the countdown is complete.
The first trial will be a practice trial and will only last 10 seconds.
You must complete only ONE sequence during the warmup or you will
repeat it.
For this trial, please focus on being as accurate as possible.
The rest of the trials will last until you complete 5 sequences.
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 leave the experiment now.
Click the button if you are able to participate.
Please type the sequence as quickly and accurately as possible.
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.
You will now be tested on these word-pairs
For each pair you will be shown one of the words and asked to recall the second.
You will have 6 seconds to TYPE the second word.
You will again type the same sequence repeatedly.
You will only have to type 5 sequences per trial.
Before starting again, you will warmup by completing ONE sequence.
The warmup trial will last 2 seconds and you must accurately complete ONE sequence
in order to advance.
You either had too many errors or didn't complete a sequence.
You will need to redo the warmup.
You either had too many errors or didn't complete a sequence.
You will need to redo the warmup.
Please repeatedly type the sequence with your LEFT hand.
Study this pair.
Add these numbers together.
Enter the answer here:
The next trial will begin in 10 seconds
Enter target word here:
Enter your demographic information here:
Age:
Sex Assigned at Birth:
Male
Female
Did the experiment crash or anything weird happen? Please describe below if anything did.