Fundamentals of human behavioral research and experimental design

Fundamentals of human behavioral research and experimental design Feinberg Graduate School – Weizmann Institute of Science Semester a, 2017 -2018

Today • Ethical guidelines for working with human research participants • Learning and long-term-memory

Projects timeline • • • Research proposals are due by January 7 th: Background – 2 -3 relevant papers Research question with a clearly formulated hypothesis Nominal definitions and operational variables Experimental manipulation and research method Planned data analysis • Individual meetings – please schedule a meeting with me to discuss and get final approval of your project (should be done by January 16 th) • You should have a complete design (including the actual stimuli) • You are expected to participate in your classmates projects as research participants • Project presentations will be on January 30 th, 14 -16 pm (can everyone attend a longer class that day? ) • 15 minutes presentation by each student or group • Short discussion

Working with human participants

Respect for Persons – Informed consent Participants are free conscious agents that can decide for themselves • An Informed Consent Document Must Cover: Purpose of the study • Procedures • Potential risks and discomforts • Anticipated benefits to subjects • Anticipated benefits to society • Alternatives to participation • Payment for participation • Possible commercial products • Sample remaining at the end of the study • Identification of investigators • An Informed Consent Document Must Cover Purpose of the New findings • Withdrawal of participation by the investigator • Consequences of withdrawal • Participation and withdrawal • Privacy and confidentiality • Emergency care and compensation for injury • Financial obligation • Rights of research subjects • HIPAA privacy rights

Our Informed Consent form

Informed consent ה להשתתף במחקר בנושא התנהגות אנושית שיתבצע במכון ויצמן במסגרת הקורס / • אני מסכימ " שמועבר על ידי ד"ר תומר Fundamentals of human behavioral research and experimental design" • . ליבנה • I agree to participate in a research on the subject of human behavior that will be conducted in the Weizmann Institute as part of the course “Fundamentals of human behavioral research and experimental design” the is given by Dr. Tomer Livne. • המחקר יועבר על ידי סטודנטים במדרשת פיינברג הרשומים לקורס • The research will be conducted by students from the Feinberg graduate school that are enrolled to the course. . • הוסברו לי מטרות המחקר מטרת הניסוי היא לחקור מנגנונים הקשורים להתנהגות אנושית • The intentions of the research have been explained to me, and it is intended to study mechanisms related to human behavior

Informed consent שמיעה וחוש , תפיסה חושית כגון ראייה : • המחקר יניב הבנה וידע בתחומים הבאים . קבלת החלטות ופעולת המוח , המישוש • The research will enhance our understanding in the following fields: perception – e. g. vision, hearing, and tactile senses, decision making, and brain functions : • השיטות לביצוע המחקר , • המחקר יתבצע באמצעים שונים הכוללים ישיבה מול מסך מחשב וצפייה בתמונות פעילות גופנית לא , זיהוי חפצים באמצעות חוש המישוש , האזנה לגירויים אודיטוריים . ומילוי שאלונים , מאומצת כגון הליכה • Research methods: • The study will be performed using various methods, including sitting in front of a computer screen, watching images, listening to auditory stimuli, tactile object recognition, moderate physical activity such as walking, and filling up questionnaires

Informed consent : • משך ההשתתפות במחקר פגישות וסך כל הזמן שאדרש לתרום הוא 5 ידרשו עד , דקות 30 -120 • כל פגישה תארך כ . בשלב ראשוני זה של המחקר לא ידוע מראש כמה זמן תמשך העבודה. גמיש וניתן לשנוי • Expected duration of participation: • Each meeting will be 30 -120 minutes long, there will be up to 5 meeting, and the overall time that I will be required to contribute is flexible and is subject to changes. In this preliminary stage of the research it is unknown how long the experiment will actually be.

Informed consent , וההשתתפות במחקר איננה כרוכה בסיכון משמעותי , • בנוסף אני מבין כי למרות שהמחקר בטוח העיניים עשויות להתעייף מההתבוננות : עדיין עלולות להיות תופעות לוואי מזעריות כגון כמו כן הישיבה ללא תנועה , י להגיב / הממושכת במסך המחשב ומהגירויים שאליהם תתבקש גב או איבר אחר( הרגשה , בכל מקרה של התעייפות פיסית )עיניים. עלולה לגרום לאי נוחיות . רעה או חוסר נוחות או נוחיות עליך להגיד זאת לנסיין • In Addition, I understand that while the experiment is safe and there are no expected significant dangers for the participants, there might still be negligible side effects such as: fatigue of the eyes due to extended watching of the computer screen and other visual stimuli; as well as discomfort from sitting still for an extended period of time. In any case of discomfort (eyes, back, or any other organ), feeling bad, or general discomfort, please inform the experimenter.

Informed consent. ת לגמול על השתתפותי / • לא אהיה זכאי • I will not be entitled for any monetary compensation for my participation. • חסיון המידע מובטח לי כי לא יתאפשר. • מכון ויצמן משקיע מאמצים רבים בדאגה לחסיון המידע . לכשתוצאות המחקר יוצגו זהותי תישאר חסויה. זיהוי של הנבדקים בניסוי • Data confidentiality • The Weizmann Institute invests much effort in keeping data confidential. I am assured that the identity of the participants will no be revealed. When the findings of the research will be presented my identity will not be revealed.

Informed consent אוכל להיוועץ בגורם נוסף כדי להחליט אם. • מובטחת לי נכונות לענות לשאלותיי ה לבחור שלא להשתתף במחקר / אני חופשי. להשתתף במחקר או להמשיך בו בלי שיאונה לי , בלי לפגוע בזכויותיי , או להפסיק בכל עת את השתתפותי בניסוי . ובלי שתינקט נגדי סנקציה כלשהי , כל רע • I am guarantied the right to have my questions answered. I can consults other people before deciding to participate, or continue participating in the research. I am free to choose not to participate or to terminate my participation at any point without any loss of rights, without any repercussions to myself, and without any sanctions taken against me.

Informed consent • פרטי התקשרות 08 - • תומר ליבנה יהיה איש הקשר הישיר במהלך תקופת המחקר ויענה בטלפון . לכל פניה וכן בעת חרום 9344324 • Contact information • Tomer Livne will be the contact person throughout the research and will be available at 08 -9344324 for answers and in case of emergency • כמקובל במחקרים מסוג זה יתכן שמדענים נוספים יעשו שימוש שניוני או חוזר בעתיד . בתוצאות שיתקבלו במחקר זה • As costumery in this type of research it is possible that other scientists will make additional or repetitive use of the data collected in this research

Respect for Persons – Informed consent

Beneficence • Research must be designed to: • Maximize benefit to the individual or to society • Minimize harm to individual • The researcher must monitor the experiment and: • Stop it if the harm becomes significant • Stop it if the benefit of the new manipulation greatly exceeds that of the alternatives (medical research)

Justice • Equivalent chance and distribution of the burdens and benefits of the research • Researcher must make certain: • Not to exploit vulnerable individuals • Not to exclude eligible candidates (every research, but mostly applies to medical)

Ethical considerations of working with human participants • Respect for Persons • Beneficence • Justice

Research ethics – working with human research participants • All research must be approved by an Institutional Review Board (IRB) • http: //www. weizmann. ac. il/IRB/ • In accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (1975) • The common rule – a US standard (1991) • State laws • Complete training – CITI (Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative)

Long term memory

Memory types Iconic memory Short term memory (working memory) Long term memory Explicit/Declarative Episodic Implicit/Procedural Skills Semantic

Implicit memory • Non-declerative – we cannot describe its content • Procedural – how to (automatically) perform well learned tasks • walking, driving, playing music … • Try to think about every process involved in walking down the stairs and you will probably fall down

Explicit memory • Declarative – we have conscious access to the content of explicit memory and can describe it in detail • Semantic – knowledge about the world, facts (Tulving) • Episodic – our own personal experience, memory about events (Tulving)

Acquiring memories • Experience • Observations • Explicit learning • Doing stuff – practice

Learning and mastery • Automaticity – turning declarative knowledge into procedural memory through practice • Skillful task performance (~unconscious) – walking, driving, playing music, … • Higher cognitive functions – decision making without thinking, preferences, … • One definition for automaticity: does not tax the cognitive system, no attentional demands, does not interfere with or is interrupted by other tasks requiring attention

Context dependent memory • People tend to recall information better in the same setting that it was learned • Lists that divers learned underwater were better recalled underwater than on the surface (Godden & Baddeley, 1975) • Same classroom vs different classroom • Ambience – learning with music testing in a quite room • Enhancing recall by recalling the context • Word-pairs studies - Recall cue by learned associations (Tulving & Thomson, 1973) • Forgetting as the inability to access stored information due to the lack of retrieval cues

False memory • In recall settings the fidelity of the memory can be affected by information presented after the to be recalled event has been witnessed (Loftus & Palmer, 1974) • Immediate recall: • Showed people videos of a car accident: • Then they asked to estimate the driving speed: • Car smashed • Vs • Car hit • Participants in the smash condition estimated the speed to be higher than in the other conditions (actually: connected, hit, bumped, collided, smashed)

False memory – (Loftus & Palmer) • Delayed recall: • Similar immediate question manipulation (Hit, smashed, no question) • After a week a memory test: • Did you see broken glass? (not presented in the movies) • Again, the question presented after the movie was seen affected recall – people in the ‘smashed’ condition were more likely to report seeing broken glass. • Another example: critical lures in semantically related word lists

Consolidation • Stabilizing memory trace for ‘permanent’ storage • Takes time • Maybe requires sleep • Reconsolidation – re-storing memories after activation (retrieval): might be used for modifying or deleting memories – (possible treatment for PTSD)

Amnesia – inability to store or access memories • Patient H. M. (Scoville & Milner): anterograde amnesia – inability to form new long term memories but intact memory for old information (resected MTL) • Short term memory can be preserved but there is no transfer of the new information to a long term storage (H. M. could not remember that he had Amnesia) – supports a viewpoint of separate short-term/long-term systems • Amnesia can selectively affect explicit memory while preserving the ability to acquire new implicit memories – supports a viewpoint of separate implicit/explicit LTM systems • Retrograde amnesia: inability to recall old memories while being able to form new ones

Memory schemas (Piaget) • Represent information a as Framework for understanding the world – e. g. , what is involved in the process of going into the supermarket? • Heuristics – mental shortcuts based on schemas • Chess • Stereotypes – represent information about groups in simplistic terms and assume everyone follows this description • Encoding information in long term memory by modifying it to fit schemas (Bartlett, 1932) • Omissions • Transformation • Rationalization • Modifying schemas to fit new information: • Assimilation, accommodation, and equilibrium

Learning and memory

Conditioning • Classical conditioning (respondent conditioning - Pavlov): • Paring two unrelated stimuli – because one of them induces a response that you would like the other one to induce as well • Unconditioned - stimuli and response for which the participant already has established relations • Unconditioned stimuli (US) – air puff • Unconditional response (UR) – eye blink • US -> UR • Conditioned stimuli (CS) – neutral stimuli with no previous relations to the US or UR: pure tone • Conditioned response (CR) – same as UR (eye blink) produced by presenting the CS

Classical conditioning • By creating an association (pairing) between the two stimuli (CS & US) we find that the CS (tone) starts producing the CR (eye blink) Unconditioned Stimulus US Unconditioned Response UR Air puff Blink Tone Conditioned Stimulus CS Desired novel response Conditioned Response CR Relation established prior to the experiment