The study is in two parts.
Today you will play a simulated game of Concentration,
and then answer a couple questions. This may take about 10 minutes.
Then tomorrow you should return to a second website
that will be indicated at the end of today's session,
and answer a couple more questions there.
This may take about 5 minutes, so about 15 minutes total.
You will need to pick an anonymous USERNAME to identify you on both days. This can be anything that other people would be unlikely to pick. If you can't think of anything suitable, perhaps you could pick a favorite letter, a number, and a favorite color and string them together, such as A+262+green = "a262green". Please REMEMBER your username, you'll need it on the second day.
Instructions for the Concentration game: In the area below there is a 4x5 grid of squares. The name of a country is hidden behind each square; when you click on the square you see the country name. Try to find two squares that have the same country behind them, and click on both.
Although you can just click at random, you will get through this a bit faster (especially in the question section) if you actually do "concentrate" and try to remember what is behind each square.
Your performance is anonymous, but concentrate and try to do well-
you'll get through it faster.
If you are seriously interrupted or distracted or
do not wish to continue for any reason,
just hit the "Quit" button. You can revisit the web page later
if you choose.
If the distraction is small (several seconds) don't worry
and just continue on.
Please do not run the experiment to completion more than once.
The experiment requires that Java be turned on, visit your browser preferences to do this. If you don't have java installed (some versions of XP probably do not have it) and would like to install it, a recent version is at http://java.sun.com/getjava/index.html.
Before continuing, read the following and if you agree to it, please copy it and email to zilla@computer.org. This little 'consent form' is recommended procedure to satisfy concerns about abuse of subjects in experiments- may seem silly here but this is serious stuff in other settings.
I have freely volunteered to participate in this pilot study. I have read the instructions and do not have any concerns about proceeding. I am aware that at any time I may stop participating in this study.Note that your email is recorded separately from the the experiment data; your performance on the test is completely anonymous.
Scroll down to see further instructions.