TITLE: Personalized Information Access
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Dr. Peter Brusilovsky
Professor
School of Computing and Information
University of Pittsburgh
Room 608, 135 North Bellefield Ave
Telephone: (412) 624-9404
Source of Support: National Science Foundation
Why is this research being done?
You are being asked to participate in a research study in which we will evaluate the usefulness of a personalized information access system. We are testing to determine how helpful our system is when finding the relevant and appropriate information more effectively, faster, and easier.
Who is being asked to take part in this research study?
People invited to participate in this study must be 18 years of age or older. The study is being performed with a total of up to 400 individuals. Pregnant women, prisoners and other special categories of subjects are excluded from this study.
What procedures will be performed for research purposes?
If you decide to take part in this research study, you will participate in the following procedure:
A session will start with a short explanation of the purpose of the study. Afterwards, you will be asked for some demographic data including age, education level, native language, program of study, and computer literacy. For some parts of the study, we will present a short questionnaire if you have prior knowledge about the events or people described in the texts used in the experiment. Thereafter you will be introduced into the computer system. If needed, an eye-tracking device for collecting eye movements will be used and calibrated before starting the main session. This devise is for measuring how you used and interacted with the visual elements of the system. The eye-tracking equipment is called Tobii 1750 Eye Tracker integrated into a conventional 17” flat panel monitor. Therefore, you can use the device just like a plain monitor without being interfered by the eye-tracking module. You don’t have to wear any specific gear for this purpose. Next, you will get a brief tutorial on how to use the personalized information access system designed for the experiment. Your activities such as reading text, annotating passages, opening document, search queries, etc will be logged and analyzed afterwards in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the system. After experiments, you will be asked to complete some questionnaires on the content of the text and to do some text-related tasks such as summarizing the content or writing an argument based on the text. The study can be done with no more than 5 experimental conditions. Each condition will last about 20 minutes.
What are the possible risks, side effects, and discomforts of this research study?
This study would have no harm except for the potential of a breach of confidentiality, the likelihood of which is very low. We will collect either the first name or last name only for the recruiting stage. We will destroy the linking information at the conclusion of the study. All the research information will be saved in password-protected databases. Eye-tracking data includes participant’s gaze on different parts of the interface that will be saved in the eye-tracking software database and the access to that data is password-protected.
What are possible benefits from taking part in this study?
There is no direct benefit to participating in this study.
Will I be charged for the costs of any procedures performed as part of this research study?
You will not be charged for any of the procedures performed for the purpose of this research study
Will I be paid if I take part in this research study?
You will not be paid for participating in the study.
Who will know about my participation in this research study?
Any information about you obtained from this research will be kept as confidential (private) as possible. At the end of this study, any records that personally identify you (i.e. the consent form) will be kept in locked files and will be kept for a minimum of five years. Your identity will not be revealed in any description or publications of this research. In unusual cases, your research records may be released in response to an order from a court of law. It is also possible that authorized representatives from the University of Pittsburgh Research Conduct and Compliance Office, or the sponsors of this research study (NSF) may review your data for the purpose of monitoring the conduct of this study. Also, if the investigators learn that you or someone with whom you are involved is in serious danger or potential harm, they will need to inform the appropriate agencies, as required by Pennsylvania law.
Is my participation in this research study voluntary?
Your participation in this research study for the purposes described above is completely voluntary. (Note, however, that if you do not provide your consent for the purposes described above, you will not be allowed to participate in the research study.) Whether or not you provide your consent for participation in this research study will have no effect on your current or future relationship with the University of Pittsburgh.
May I withdraw, at a future date, my consent for participation in this research study?
You may withdraw, at any time, your consent for participation in this research study for the purposes described above. (Note, however, that if you withdraw your consent for the purposes described above, you will also be withdrawn, in general, from further participation in this research study.) Any research information recorded for, or resulting from, your participation in this research study prior to the date that you formally withdrew your consent may continue to be used and disclosed by the investigators for the purposes described above.
To formally withdraw your consent for participation in this research study, you must provide a written and dated notice of this decision to the principal investigator of this research study at the address listed on the first page of this form. Your decision to withdraw your consent for participation in this research study will have no effect on your current or future relationship with the University of Pittsburgh.
If I agree to take part in this research study, can I be removed from the study without my consent?
In case of any technical problems such as a shutdown of the web servers, not properly working computer software etc. the session could be interrupted or postponed to a later point in time if you agree to participate in this study nevertheless. This is not very likely to happen.
VOLUNTARY CONSENT
All of the above has been explained to me and all of my current questions have been answered. I understand that I am encouraged to ask questions about any aspect of this research study during the course of this study, and that such future questions will be answered by the researchers listed on the first page of this form.
I agree to allow my answers and data to be shared with others for the purpose of analysis. I understand that all data will be anonymized so that my individual response cannot be identified.
Any questions which I have about my rights as a research participant will be answered by the Human Subject Protection Advocate of the IRB Office, University of Pittsburgh (1-866-212-2668).
Photo courtesy: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Store