PARTICIPANT INFORMATION
Division of Psychiatry & Applied Psychology
School of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences
Project Title: Investigating relationships between arousal regulation, attention and restlessness in a healthy sample.
Researcher: James O’Donovan, email:
Supervisor : Dr. Maddie Groom, Dr. Elizabeth Liddle, and Dr. Peter Collins
Ethics Reference Number:
This is an invitation to take part in a research study that will investigate relationships between arousal regulation, attention and restlessness. This information is designed to tell you what it will involve.
Your participation is voluntary, and you may change your mind about being involved, or decline to answer a particular question without giving a reason. You are free to withdraw at any point before or during the study. This study includes an anonymous questionnaire and once you have finished the questionnaire and submitted your answers it is not possible to withdraw the data.
Participants will be given £10 inconvenience.
What is the project about?
People with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are thought to perform more poorly on tasks that require sustained attention because they are poor at controlling their overall level of arousal or how alert they are. Previous studies have also shown that when people with ADHD are given incentives during a cognitive task, their performance can improve and their ‘hyperactivity’ (restlessness) decreases. This might be because incentives enhance their arousal and improve their attention. However, very little is known about the links between arousal, attention, restlessness and incentives. This project will explore these relationships in healthy people who do not have ADHD. The findings will be used to inform a future study in ADHD.
Who is being asked to take part, and why?
We will be asking right-handed people age 18 to 25 to take part in this study. Having a limited age range and only right-handed people will help to reduce differences between the study participants.
What will I be asked to do?
Taking part in this study will involve arranging to attend the lab at the Institute of Mental Health on Jubilee Campus at the University of Nottingham. You will first have an opportunity to discuss your possible participation further with the researcher. You will then be given a consent form to complete. You will then complete two short questionnaires that will ask you about your attention, restlessness and impulsivity in daily life. You will then complete a computer based task while an eye-tracker records where you are looking, the size of your pupils, and your head movements. Your heart rate and wrist movements will also be recorded with watches you will be required to wear. The computer task you perform has been designed to be similar to a computer game. You will perform the task twice: in one version, you will receive or lose points based on your performance and in another version of the task, you will not receive or lose any points. Your visit to the IMH is expected to last approximately one hour.
Will the research be of any personal benefit to me?
We cannot promise the research will benefit you in any way. We hope that you will find exposure to a research study to be an interesting experience. It is hoped that your participation will aid the design of a future study designed to investigate Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
What will happen to the information I provide?
The information we collect about you will be kept confidential. If you join the study, some of the information you give will be looked at by authorised persons from the University of Nottingham who are organising the research and by authorized people who may check that the study is being carried out in the right way. All will have a duty of confidentiality to you as a research participant and we will do our best to meet this duty.
All information which is collected about you during the study will be kept strictly confidential. It will be stored in a secure and locked office, and on a password protected database. Any information about you which leaves the study will have your name removed (anonymised) and a unique code will be used so that you cannot be recognised from it.
All research data will be kept securely for a minimum of 7 years after the end of the study. After this time your data will be disposed of securely. During this time all precautions will be taken by all those involved to maintain your confidentiality, only members of the research team will have access to your personal data.
What will you do with the data?
The results of this study will be written up as part of James O’Donovan’s third year BMedSci dissertation. The results of the study may also be published in medical journals or be presented to meetings of doctors, psychologists and other health professionals. You can ask for copies of any publications arising from the study. You will not be identified in any report or publication.
If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to ask. We can be contacted before and after your participation at the above email address.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION
If you have any queries or complaints about this study, please contact the student’s supervisor in the first instance. If this does not resolve the query to your satisfaction, please write to the Administrator to the Division of Psychiatry & Applied Psychology’s Research Ethics Committee (, +44 (0)115 8232214) who will pass your query to the Chair of the Committee
Participant information sheet, version 1 29/08/16