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 unforeseeable.
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 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 a One-Part SONA Study.
This study is worth a total of 0.5 CREDITS, which you will earn so long as you:
PLEASE CHECK THAT YOUR CELL PHONE IS SILENT (not vibrate) at this time.
Press click the button to confirm you understand.
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 make sure this screen is in FULL SIZE or the pairs will not display properly.
The pairs will look like the image below.
Inside the circle, there will be the cue word. The target word will be displayed at randomly assigned locations just outside the circle.
Please CLOSELY STUDY each pair that you see, and commit it to MEMORY.
You will now see the same pairs again…
For some of the pairs it will say:
STUDY THIS PAIR.
This gives you more time to memorize.
For other pairs you will be shown the cue word and asked to recall the target word.
You will see the cue word and asked to recall the target word
Please type the one word answer in the textboxt below.You will have 6 seconds to Type each.
After 6 seconds, the correct answer will appear for 2 seconds.
Please pay close ATTENTION to the correct answer.
div id="instructionsControl">
This concludes part one of session 1.
Please feel free to take a break but please take no more than FIVE minutes!
You will now add two digit numbers.
You will be shown a word inside the circle.
Your job is to click on the associated location for that word.
You will be shown a screen that looks like this:
Move your mouse over the associated location on the circle
that you learned in the first phases of the experiment
like the image below:
Click on the location and a red bar will appear.
You will only get one click per trial.
You will now begin the next phase.
Enter target word here:
Enter the answer here:
Enter your demographic information here:
Age:
Sex:
Male
Female
Did the experiment crash or anything weird happen? Please describe below if anything did.