Informed Consent
We are asking you to participate in a research study titled “Object state changes during language processing”. We will describe this study to you and answer any of your questions. This study is being led by Abhilasha Kumar, Psychology at Bowdoin College.
The purpose of this research is to understand how different features of concepts are activated during sentence processing, and whether attention to these features changes as the object is modified during the reading of the sentence.
We will ask you to take part in a computer-based experiment. You will be presented different sentences on the screen and asked to make judgments about the concepts mentioned in the sentences. You will also complete a demographic survey. You will also be provided a debriefing script at the end of the experiment for educational purposes. The entire experiment will be completed in one session that will not exceed 30 minutes.
We do not anticipate any risks from participating in this research beyond boredom and fatigue.
There are no direct benefits to participating in this study. We hope that the knowledge gained from this experiment will help scientists better understand the ways in which humans represent events and the objects within those events. We also hope that this study will help us understand how to build better event-centric models of language that would benefit AI-centric settings.
You will receive 1 credit for participating in this study. Please consult your course syllabi for alternatives to earn these credits if you do not wish to participate.
Your data will be protected and stored on encrypted servers and computers. All data will be automatically de-identified, such that no personally identifying information will be stored in the data files. Your confidentiality will be kept to the degree permitted by the technology being used. We cannot guarantee against interception of data sent via the internet by third parties.
Your involvement in this study is voluntary. You may refuse to participate before the study begins, discontinue at any time, or skip any questions/procedures that may make you feel uncomfortable, with no penalty to you, and no effect on your academic standing, record, or relationship with the university or other organization or service that may be involved with the research. You will only be compensation for successfully completing the study and sharing the completion code assigned to you at the end of the experiment for verification. You may choose not to participate if you are not comfortable with these conditions.
The main researcher conducting this study is Abhilasha A. Kumar, an Assistant Professor at Bowdoin College. Please ask any questions you have now. If you have questions later, you may contact Abhilasha Kumar at a.kumar@bowdoin.edu. If you have any questions or concerns regarding your rights as a subject in this study, you may contact the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at irb@bowdoin.edu.
If you have carefully read the above information and consent to take part in the study, please click the button below to continue to the experiment.