Title of Project:
(insert title)
Student Investigator:
(insert name, department, email)
Faculty Supervisor:
(insert name, department, phone #, email)
Study Purpose
You are invited to participate in a research study that examines how younger and older adults
attend to realistic pictures. More specifically, the study will examine the characteristics of
visual scenes that capture attention.
Past research has demonstrated that when shown pairs of stimuli such as words or faces,
participants are faster to respond to the stimulus (e.g., via a button press) to which they were
attending, and respond more slowly to the stimulus to which they were not attending (Lipp &
Derakshan, 2005). Thus, a faster response to a stimulus indicates that it captures attention to
a greater extent. The current study will use a similar method to examine attention to visual
scenes.
Moreover, previous research has found differences in how much attention young and older
adults pay to different types of facial expressions (Mather & Carstensen, 2003). However,
attention to other types of stimuli has not been examined, and it is unclear whether past
results will generalize to other types of realistic stimuli. Therefore, the purpose of our study is
to compare the amount of attention that younger and older adults pay to a different type of
stimulus: realistic visual scenes (pictures). As such, there are two groups of participants in this
study: a group of younger adults aged 17-35 and a group of older adults aged 60 years and
older.
Study Procedures
As a participant in this study, you will be asked to view pairs of full-colour pictures on a
computer screen and respond to the pictures via a button press. You will also be asked to
complete neuropsychological and psychological tasks, and rate pictures.
Details of Methods
For the experimental tasks, you will first complete a practice session. In the practice session,
you will see pairs of pictures presented onscreen for a brief period of time. After a given
picture pair disappears from the screen, a dot will appear in the place of one of the pictures,
and you will be asked to press a button on the computer keyboard to indicate the location of
the dot. There will be 8 trials, and you will have an opportunity to take a break after the
practice session.
You will then complete the experimental session, which uses the same procedures as the
practice session. There will be 288 experimental trials (lasting about 12 min.), and you will
have an opportunity to take a break whenever you feel fatigued.
Immediately after completing the experimental session, you will complete neuropsychological
tasks in which you will: read a set of irregularly spelled words on a page, and indicate to what
extent you currently feel different emotional states on a scale.
Following this, you will view the pictures you saw in the study and rate them in an onscreen
task on the rating scales of pleasantness, excitement, and personal relevance.
Finally, you will complete one task in which you are given letters of the alphabet and asked to
say as many words that begin with each letter as quickly as you can, which will be audio
recorded with your agreement. The final task will ask you to write down personal memories
that relate to words.
To give you an idea of the kinds of pictures that will appear in the study, please see the
sample pictures below. These sample pictures come from the same standardized set of
pictures that are used in the study. Study pictures will be full-colour photographs of people,
animals, inanimate objects, and nature scenes.
Sample Pictures:
Potential Benefits
By volunteering for this study, you will learn about research in psychology in general and the
topic of this study in particular. The information obtained from this research may lead to a
better understanding of how people attend to realistic visual stimuli.
Risks
The risks associated with participation in this study are minimal, such as experiencing brief
unpleasant feelings when viewing some pictures, or becoming fatigued with the experimental
tasks. If at any time you prefer not to continue, you are encouraged to tell the researcher so
that you may take a break, or discontinue the study without penalty.
Participation and Time Commitment
Participation in this study is voluntary, and will take approximately 1.5 hours of your time. In
addition, you will receive a detailed feedback sheet about the study.
****If participants will be recruited through the PsychPool rather than SONA, then the
above paragraph would be “Participation in this study is voluntary, and will take
approximately 1.5 hours of your time. In addition, you will receive a detailed feedback sheet
about the study.” ****
Remuneration
You will receive 1.5 research participation credits toward your psychology course.
****If participants will be recruited through the PsychPool rather than SONA, then the
above paragraph would be “You will receive $8/hour for participation.” ****
Withdrawal from the Study
You may decide to withdraw from this study or may refuse to complete any of the
experimental tasks or other tasks in whole or in part, at any time for any reason by advising
the researcher, and may do so without any penalty or loss of participation credit.
Confidentiality and Security of Data
All information you provide is considered completely confidential; indeed, your name will not
be included or in any other way associated, with the data collected in the study. Furthermore,
because the interest of this study is in the average responses of the entire group of
participants, you will not be identified individually in any way in any written reports of this
research. Paper records of data collected during this study will be retained indefinitely in a
locked filing cabinet in PAS 4236, to which only researchers associated with this study have
access. Electronic data and audio recordings will be kept indefinitely on a secure computer in
a locked room in PAS 4236, to which only researchers associated with this study have
access. All identifying information will be removed from the records prior to storage.
Concerns or Questions about Participation
If you have any questions about participation, please feel free to ask the researchers. If you
have additional questions at a later date, please contact (name student investigator) at the
phone number or email address listed at the top of the page.
I would like to assure you that this study has been reviewed and received ethics clearance
through a University of Waterloo Research Ethics Committee. However, the final decision
about participation is yours. If you have any comments or concerns resulting from your
participation in this study, please contact Dr. Maureen Nummelin, the Director, Office of
Research Ethics, at 1-519-888-4567, Ext. 36005 or maureen.nummelin@uwaterloo.ca.
References
Lipp, O. V., & Derakshan, N. (2005). Attentional Bias to Pictures of Fear-Relevant Animals in
a Dot Probe Task. Emotion, 5, 365–369.
Mather, M., & Carstensen, L. L. (2003). Aging and Attentional Biases for Emotional Faces.
Psychological Science, 14, 409-415.
CONSENT FORM
I have read the information presented in the information letter about a study being conducted
by (insert student investigator’s name) under the supervision of (insert faculty supervisor’s
name) of the Department of (insert department name) at the University of Waterloo. I have
had the opportunity to ask any questions related to this study, to receive satisfactory answers
to my questions, and any additional details I wanted. I am aware that I may withdraw from the
study without penalty at any time by advising the researchers of this decision.
I understand that this project has been reviewed by, and received ethics clearance through a
University of Waterloo Research Ethics Committee. I was informed that if I have any
comments or concerns resulting from my participation in this study, I may contact the Director,
Office of Research Ethics at (519) 888-4567 ext. 36005.
With full knowledge of all foregoing, I agree, of my own free will, to participate in this study.
Print Participant Name: ___________________________
Participant Signature: _______________________________
Witness Name and Signature: _____________________________________________
Dated At Waterloo, Ontario: ___________________________