How Does Anxiety Affect Episodic Memory? Impact for Alzheimer’s Disease.
Experimenter: Liah Brown, 2241336b@student.gla.ac.uk
Supervisor: Kerry Kilborn, kerry.kilborn@glasgow.ac.uk
Before you decide to participate in this study, it is important to understand why the research is being conducted and what it will involve. Please read the information in this document carefully, feeling free to discuss it with others. Contact either myself or Kerry, using the emails above, to obtain further information or if anything needs clarifying. Take time to decide if you wish to participate in this study or not.
Before you decide to participate in this study, it is important to understand why the research is being conducted and what it will involve. Please read the information in this document carefully, feeling free to discuss it with others. Contact via email myself or Kerry to obtain further information or if anything needs clarifying. Take time to decide if you wish to participate in this study or not.
Background of the study
As the occurrence of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is rising, understanding AD precursor is essential. Episodic Memory is the first memory subsystem that is negatively impacted by AD biology. Research has shown anxiety, both early- and late-life, plays a role in the development of AD, hence, researching how anxiety affects episodic memory, especially at an early stage, may reveal insights into why AD develops. By using Spielberg’s Trait-State Anxiety Inventory, the study aims to investigate how anxiety affects episodic memory in healthy University students, using an experimental design based on Craik and Tulving’s (1975) Depth of Processing paradigm. A series of words will be presented on screen for a limited time, and a question regarding the structural or animacy of the word will be shown. The research should show the impact of anxiety on the episodic memory, and this can then be related to Alzheimer’s Disease, specifically the precursors and therapies.
Participants
You have been approached as you are currently a University student attending a British University that meets the inclusion criteria for this study. The inclusion criterion includes; Individuals over the age of 17, Individuals must be University students, Individuals must be native or proficient English speakers, Individuals must have normal or corrected-to-normal vision. There is no exclusion criterion.
Right to refuse
Participation in this study is completely voluntary, meaning you have no obligation to participate and can withdraw your consent at any time. This includes after giving consent, and after the study has concluded. If you decide to withdraw your consent, you will not be expected to give an explanation nor persuaded or convinced to continue your participation. If you withdraw consent, your data will be destroyed and not included. There is no significant risk involved in your participation. There is no intended benefit from your participation as of current, however, the potential contribution of this research to the field could be ground-breaking. In addition to this, it gives you real-life experience with the Craik and Tulving’s (1975) Depth of Processing paradigm.
Method and Procedure
The experiment includes a demographic questionnaire, the Spielberg’s Trait-State Anxiety Inventory, and an Episodic Memory experiment that is based on Craik and Tulving’s (1975) Depth of Processing paradigm. The Spielberg’s Trait-State Anxiety Inventory consists of 40 questions on a self-report basis, measuring Trait and State anxiety using a 4-point scale. The Episodic Memory experiment contains a practice block, and 2 experimental blocks. In the experimental blocks, 40 words will be presented for a limited amount of time, and you are required to answer a question about the word. Each block will take 5 minutes to complete. You are only expected to complete the experiment once. Please respond to both the questionnaire and the inventory as honestly as possible, and for the episodic memory experiment your response speed is of equal importance as your response accuracy, so please respond as accurately and promptly as possible. After each section is completed, you will be directed straight to the next section, with no break between, due to this study researching memory. The study should take no longer than 20 minutes to complete, and as this is an online study, you are able to complete it anywhere quiet with secure internet and computer access.
Confidentiality and Anonymity
As this experiment is carried out online, there will be no-one present with you and your responses will be recorded online through Experimentum. Demographic data will be collected from you, however, nothing gathered will make you identifiable by others. The data will only be identifiable by code and will not be used for any purpose other than this research project. Your data will only be made available to those involved in this research, myself and Kerry, and stored securely using an encrypted password protected server provided by the University of Glasgow’s One-Drive. Once this research project is handed in, Friday 20th March 2020, all data will be destroyed.
Reporting results
The results from this study will be published within my Level 4 Psychology Research Report as part of course requirements. The results of the study will be presented in terms of groups of individuals. However, if any individual data is to be presented, it will be completely anonymous, and the individuals will be unidentifiable. The report will be completed by Friday 20th March 2020. If you wish to obtain a copy of the results, you may contact myself through my email stated above. The project has been reviewed by the University of Cambridge Psychology Research Ethics Committee.
If you wish to gather more information or a summary of the anonymised results, please feel free to contact myself via the email above.
Thank you for taking the time to read over this information and once you have done so, please click the experiment button below to begin.
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