Participant Information Sheet

Title of study: Overnight memory of neutral and emotional word lists

Name of researcher: Dominic Carr

Contact details of the researcher are given at the end.

I'd like to invite you to take part in my research study. Joining the study is entirely up to you. Before you decide, I would like you to understand why the research is being done and what it would involve for you. Please read the information below and let me know if you have any questions. If you are interested in participating after this please tick the consent box below.

What is the purpose of the study?

The study is being conducted as part of my training for the Masters in Psychological Research Methods Programme.

Sleep is known to help us turn short term memories into longer term ones. Some research suggests it does this preferentially for emotional memories, and particularly for negative ones. The current study aims to measure this memory biasing effect by getting participants to learn emotionally neutral, positive, or negative word lists then testing their overnight recall. If the theory is correct then negative lists should be remembered best the next day, and neutral lists remembered worst.

Am I eligible to take part?

You are eligible if you are over the age of 18, have good vision and hearing and are able to use a computer. You will not be elligible if you have known memory problems or you are unable to sleep overnight (approximately from 11pm-7am).

Do I have to take part?

Participation is completely voluntary. You should only take part if you want to and choosing not to take part will not disadvantage you in any way.

What will I be asked to do?

If you chose to take part you will be asked learn 6 word lists on a computer. Each list will be made up of 10 neutral, 10 positive, or 10 negative words. Words will appear one at a time at the centre of the screen for 4 seconds, then there will be a short delay until the next word. For instance, for the negative list you might get words like ‘murder’........’cancer’.......’assault’........and so on. We will show you each list twice to make it easier to memorise, then check your learning by asking you to pick out list words from a mixture of list words and new words. We will continue until you can remember at least 8 words from each list.

After a delay that includes overnight sleep you will be asked to take some recall tests. These will examine how well you can recall each list when you have no prompts to help you, as well as how well you can identify list words when they’re presented alongside new words, as before. What we are really interested in here is how your recall for each list changes overnight, so you needn’t worry about your absolute recall score as such.

Will I be paid expenses for taking part?

I am not able to provide any expenses or payment for taking part.

What are the possible benefits of taking part?

There are no direct benefits of taking part in the study, but you might find the study interesting and you may learn something about how sleep influences memory. You would also be helping me to complete my masters studies.

What are the possible disadvantages and risks of taking part?

You may find the learning task a bit boring and repetitive, but there are no real risks.

Will anyone know I have taken part?

The information we collect will be handled in confidence. No one will know you have taken part and your identity will not be linked with any of the data we record.

Where will my data be stored?

Study data will be stored on the University of Lincoln OneDrive in password protected files. Only the researcher will have access to them.

What will happen if I don’t want to carry on with the study?

You are free to withdraw at any point, without having to give a reason, by stopping the computer task and logging off the computer.

If you choose to withdraw from the study, we may keep the data that we have already obtained, in accordance with our Research Participant Privacy Notice (see below). As you have completed the study anonymously it will not be possible to remove the data provided, as I will not be able to identify you in any way.

What will happen to the results of the research study?

The results of the study will be written up as a research report which will go towards my Masters qualification.

Who is organising and funding the research?

This research is being conducted by Dominic Carr, a masters student at the University of Lincoln, under the supervision of Prof. Timothy Hodgson.

Who has reviewed the study?

All research conducted by the University of Lincoln is looked at by an independent group of people, called a Research Ethics Committee, to protect your interests.

What if there is a problem?

If you have a concern about any aspect of this study, you should ask to speak to me and I will do my best to answer your questions. Contact details are given at the end of this information sheet. If you remain unhappy and wish to complain formally, you can do this by contacting ethics@lincoln.ac.uk.

Further information and contact details

Student researcher: Dominic Carr (26703835@students.lincoln.ac.uk)

Supervisor: Timothy Hodgson (tlhodgson@lincoln.ac.uk)

The University of Lincoln is the lead organisation for this study and will be the data controller for this study. This means that we are responsible for looking after your information and using it properly.

The university’s Research Participant Privacy Notice (https://ethics.lincoln.ac.uk/research-privacy-notice/) explains how we will be using information from you in order to undertake this study.

If you feel that we have let you down in relation to your information rights then please contact the Information Compliance Team by email on compliance@lincoln.ac.uk or by post at Information Compliance, Secretariat, University of Lincoln, Brayford Pool, Lincoln, LN6 7TS.

You can also make complaints directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO is the independent authority upholding information rights for the UK. Their website is ico.org.uk and their telephone helpline number is 0303 123 1113.