Participant Information
The Effect of Occlusions on Facial Perception
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences Department of Psychology, Health and Professional Development Oxford Brookes University, Headington, OXFORD OX3 0BP.
Researcher: Nicole Low Khai Yeng Undergraduate, Email: 19024020@brookes.ac.uk
Supervisor: Michael Pilling, Email: mpilling@brookes.ac.uk , Tel: 01865 483788
Please take time to read the following information carefully.
What is the purpose of the study?
The purpose of the study is to investigate how an individual’s facial perception can be affected by obstructions on different parts of the face. The present study is also interested in investigating factors that can contribute to misperception such as when the observed face and the observer are of the same ethnicity
Why have I been invited to participate?
This study is on adults aged between 18 and 70. A total of 40 people (20 Caucasians and 20 Asians) who do not have prosopagnosia will be asked to participate. You have been invited to take part in this study due to being within the criteria of our target audience of adults.
Do I have to take part?
No. It is up to you to decide whether or not to take part. If you do decide to take part you are still free to withdraw unprocessed data at any time after reaching the end of the survey by clicking the 'withdraw consent' button
What will happen to me if I take part?
If you choose to take part in the study, you will be presented with an online questionnaire in which you will be asked to make aesthetic judgements of pictures of faces. This experiment should take no longer than 20 minutes to complete.
What are the possible benefits or disadvantages of taking part?
There are no direct benefits of taking part in this study. However, outcomes of this study will help to further develop research on the effect of face occlusions on perception and we also hope that you will find the experience interesting. Furthermore, all data collected from this study will be used to help with the researcher’s third year dissertation project. Other than the time you spend answering the questionnaire, there are no risks or disadvantages of taking part in this study.
Will what I say in this study be kept confidential?
Yes. You will not be asked to give any information that could be used to identify you personally (e.g., your name, date of birth, IP address). Confidentiality, privacy and anonymity will be ensured in the collection, storage and publication of research material (subject to legal limitations). Research data will be stored in Qualtrics and Google Drive, for which the University has security agreements, or Pavlovia (for which the privacy policies can be found here: https://pavlovia.org/docs/home/ethics), or uploaded to a repository so that it can be shared for teaching and research purposes.
What should I do if I want to take part?
If you would like to take part, please click on the Continue to Experiment/Questionnaire button at the bottom of this page before proceeding.
What will happen to the results of the research study?
The results of the research will be used in an undergraduate psychology dissertation. If a publication is planned, the data generated by the study will be retained by the supervisor in accordance with the University's policy on Academic Integrity and may be kept securely for a period of ten years after the completion of the research project. If no publication is proposed the data will be deleted in December 2022.
Who has reviewed this study?
This research is being conducted by a Psychology student at Oxford Brookes University as part of the requirement for their course. The study procedures have been reviewed and approved by the Psychology Research Ethics Committee, Oxford Brookes University. If you have any concerns about how the study has been conducted, please contact the Psychology Research Ethics Officer, Dr Emma Davies, on edavies@brookes.ac.uk
Contact for Further Information
Please contact the researcher or their supervisor (contact details above) if you would like any further information about this study.
If you wish to obtain a summary of the findings when they have been written up in February 2022, please e-mail Nicole Low Khai Yeng at 19024020@brookes.ac.uk.
Thank you for taking time to read the information sheet.
10/11/2021
