Purpose of the Research: Dr. Kohler is conducting research to investigate how the brain processes visual information. For example, we ask how the brain can produce the representations necessary for human observers to experience the shape, movement and location of objects in the visual scene. Representations derived by the brain drive a wide range of everyday behaviors. By enhancing our understanding of brain function, our study may help improve treatment of vision disorders arising from illness or injury.

What You Will Be Asked to Do in the Research: Your participation will involve sitting in front of a computer screen and looking at displays consisting of pictures, geometric shapes, patterns or dots. You will respond to the visual stimuli using your own mouse or keyboard, following instructions given on the screen. The experiment is designed to allow you to take breaks and rest periods as needed. Participants will typically complete one or two experimental sessions. Interested participants may volunteer to take part in additional sessions and receive additional compensation.

Compensation: You will be compensated for your participation in the behavioural study at a rate of $5 per half hour, or alternatively for URPP credit (1 credit per half hour), pro-rated based on the amount of time you participate. You will not incur costs for participating in this experiment.

Risks and Discomforts: Watching video displays presents a potential risk of inducing seizures in susceptible individuals. Our video displays present no more risk of seizure than that associated with normal screen viewing activities such as television and computer monitors. Approximately 1 in 5000 individuals is susceptible to this risk (Harding and Jeavons, 1994), although not all participants who are at risk due to photosensitivity will actually have an event triggered by watching a video display. You will be asked to report if you have a history of seizures or photosensitive epilepsy. Individuals with such a history are not eligible to participate.

There is a potential risk of loss of confidentiality of your data and personal information. We address this risk by storing your data using a code, with identifying information stored separately and securely, de-identifying the data as necessary prior to public sharing, and storing any personal and health information on a secure, password-protected server with access restricted to authorized research personnel.

Participants may experience mild visual fatigue or eye strain from prolonged screen viewing. Participants may find the testing too simple or too difficult and become frustrated. During lab experiments, some people may feel anxious sitting in a dark room.

Otherwise, the risk to participants is minimal in behavioural experiments. At most, participants may find the testing too simple or too difficult and become frustrated. Previous experience with these sorts of paradigms suggests that subjects can perform these tests reasonably well with minimal impact on them. During lab experiments, some people feel anxious sitting in a dark room. If you feel uncomfortable at any point, we will stop the experiment and help you exit the experiment room.

Benefits of the Research and Benefits to You: Aside from the compensation described above, there are no direct benefits to you. However, you may find it meaningful to contribute to scientific knowledge and gain insight into how experiments in experimental psychology, vision science, and related fields are conducted.

Voluntary Participation: Your participation in the study is completely voluntary and you may choose to stop participating at any time. Your decision not to volunteer will not influence the nature of the ongoing relationship you may have with the researchers or study staff and the nature of your relationship with York University either now, or in the future.

Withdrawal from the Study: You can stop participating in the study at any time, for any reason, if you so decide. If you decide to stop participating, you will still be eligible to receive compensation for the time you participated. Your decision to stop participating, or to refuse to answer particular questions, will not affect your relationship with the researchers, York University, or any other group associated with this project. If you withdraw from the study, you may request that your data be removed and destroyed, provided the data have not yet been de-identified and incorporated into aggregate analyses.

Confidentiality: All information collected during the study will be kept confidential to the extent permitted by law; however, absolute confidentiality cannot be guaranteed. Your personal information will not be shared outside the research team unless required by law. Your behavioural data will be archived indefinitely on secure computer servers and may, in a de-identified form that cannot be connected to you, be used for teaching purposes, presented at meetings, published, shared with other scientific researchers or used in future studies. Note that the data obtained in the experiment might be uploaded to an open external repository to promote collaborative scientific efforts. The data will be de-identified, and your identity will not be revealed. The data collected in this research project may be used – in a de-identified form - by members of the research team in subsequent research investigations exploring similar lines of inquiry. Such projects will still undergo ethics review by the HPRC, our institutional REB. Any secondary use of de-identified data by the research team will be treated with the same degree of confidentiality and anonymity as in the original research project.

Questions About the Research? If you have any questions about this process, or about your rights as a participant in the study, please contact the Manager, Research Ethics in the Office of Research Ethics, York University (e-mail ore@yorku.ca). This office oversees the ethical conduct of research studies and is not part of the study team. Everything that you discuss will be kept confidential.

Legal Rights and Signatures: By checking the box below you consent to participate in the research project entitled Behavioural studies of human vision, conducted by Dr. Peter Kohler, and indicate that you have understood the nature of this project and wish to participate. You are not waiving any of your legal rights by indicating consent.

By checking this box you confirm that you do not have a history of seizures or photosensitive epilepsy.
By checking this box you indicate that you understand that your de-identified data may be placed into an open research data repository.
By checking this box you consent to participate in the experiment, as described above.

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