Information Form
Study title and Researcher(s) Details
Title: Relative contributions of semantic, voice, and variability information to the facial recognition process
Researcher: Edward Goodfellow 2834319G@student.gla.ac.uk
Supervisor: Dr Gaby Mahrholz gaby.mahrholz@glasgow.ac.uk
You are being invited to take part in a research study. It is important for you to understand why the research is being conducted and what it will involve. Please take time to read the following information carefully.
1. What is the purpose of the study?
We gain important insights into the social world by recognising the faces of people around us. Most of us do this effortlessly, countless times every day. Contemporary research in Psychology has however shown that the apparent ease and intuitive nature of facial recognition, as we typically experience it, underplays the true complexity of the task. Although we recognise friends and family with ease, most of us have a hard time recognising the faces of people we are unfamiliar with (Bruce et al., 1999). Because of this, researchers have concluded that we must become familiar with a face before we can recognise it reliably. Thus far however, the literature has offered little explanation as to how we become familiar with a face, and how this familiarization aids recognition.
The purpose of this study is to explore factors which might contribute to this process, to help us understand how the human brain processes and recognises faces.
2. What will I have to do?
You must first read this information sheet and subsequently the consent form. If at this point you wish to continue with the study, you will be required to provide consent. Upon providing consent you will be directed to the study which will be conducted entirely through your web browser and should take no more than 30 minutes.
The study itself will require you to carry out an unfamiliar facial recognition test which is divided into 4 blocks. Each block will consist of a study phase, followed by a test phase. In each study phase, a series of 10 different faces will be presented on screen one at a time. You may take however long you like to study each face. When you are satisfied, you may press the ‘continue’ button on screen to advance to the next face. Once you have advanced through the 10 faces, the study phase will terminate. At this point, you will watch a 30 second distractor video which will simply act as a break and an opportunity for you to reset. This will be immediately followed by the test phase, in which a series of 20 different faces will be presented on screen one at a time. Some of these faces will have been presented in the prior study phase, whilst others will be previously unseen. On the presentation of each face, you are tasked simply with stating whether or not you recognise the face from the previous study phase by clicking either the ‘yes’ (recognise) or the ‘no’ (don’t recognise) buttons located above the face picture. You may take as long as you like to provide an answer. After you provide your answer, the next face will be presented.
All 4 blocks follow this same basic structure, with some variations in the study phase. The first block, the Faces Only block will occur just as described above. In the 3 blocks that follow, additional stimuli are provided in the study phase which may influence recognition (short biographical info, voice clips, more face pictures). Further instruction will be provided prior to each block to better inform you on what to expect – so please read these instructions when they appear. The test phase for all 4 blocks follows the format described above.
Please remember throughout the test that recognising new faces can be difficult and it is normal to make mistakes. Just try to pay full attention, take your time, and read the instructions carefully.
We suggest that you use headphones for this study if you can. We also suggest that you complete this study somewhere quiet and free from distractions.
3. Why have I been chosen?
You have been invited to take part because you are at least 18 years of age, you have normal or corrected-to-normal vision, and have no hearing impairment.
4. Do I have to take part?
No, your participation in the study is entirely voluntary. If you feel at any point that you do not wish to continue with the study, then please just close your browser. Any data that has been collected up until that point will be deleted prior to analysis and will not be included in the study. As the data will be collected without personal identifying information, data cannot be deleted after the study is completed. Therefore, if you decide to withdraw your consent, make sure to do so before you are redirected to prolific.
5. Will my taking part in this study be kept confidential?
The answers to the demographic questionnaire and your ratings will be safely stored using GDPR-compliant University systems. No identifiable data is being collected, and all data will be electronically stored on GDPR-compliant, password-protected computers and cloud servers maintained by the University of Glasgow. In case of potential publication, no data identifying you personally will be published. Anonymised data might also be shared on a data server (e.g., Open Science Framework) for the purpose of open research practice.
6. What will happen to the results of the research study?
This research will be analysed and written up by the researchers for their MSc degree at the University of Glasgow. Data and results may be published elsewhere (e.g. presented at a conference, written up for publication, etc.), however, no information that could identify you personally is collected and therefore not be shared publicly.
7. Who can I contact if I want more information?
If you wish to receive further information about the study and/or a summary of the anonymised group results please feel free to contact the researcher Edward Goodfellow 2834319G@student.gla.ac.uk or his supervisor Dr Gaby Mahrholz gaby.mahrholz@glasgow.ac.uk
Privacy Notice for:
Relative contributions of semantic, voice, and variability information to the facial recognition process
The University of Glasgow will be what’s known as the ‘Data Controller’ of your personal data processed in relation to this research study titled “Relative contributions of semantic, voice, and variability information to the facial recognition process”. This privacy notice will explain how The University of Glasgow will process your personal data.
Why we need it
We are collecting your basic personal data such as age, gender, country of residence, ethnicity, if English is your native language, and whether or not you have impaired hearing or vision for the purposes of basic research and to describe them based on broad categories, but not to identify them in any way. We will only collect the minimum amount of data required for these purposes to minimise all risk to you of being identified.
Legal basis for processing your data
In the context of research, the lawful basis upon which we will process your personal data is usually where “Processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller” (Article 6 of UK GDPR). We will also process personal data as permitted by Article 9, of the UK GDPR which permits processing necessary for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes which shall be proportionate to the aim pursued, respect the essence of the right to data protection and provide for suitable and specific measures to safeguard the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject. Where we need to rely on a different legal condition, such as consent, we will inform you of this in the Participant Information provided to you.
What we do with it and who we share it with
All the personal data you submit within this project is processed by staff at the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom. Data will not be sent outside the UK for any purposes at any time. Throughout the project and during the archiving period all data will be stored on password protected University servers.
How long do we keep it for
Your anonymised data will be retained by the University for archiving purposes for a period of 10 years. After this time, data will be securely deleted.
What are your rights?*
Under the UK GDPR you have the following rights: • to obtain access to, and copies of, the personal data that we hold about you; • to require that we cease processing your personal data if the processing is causing you damage or distress; • to require us to correct the personal data we hold about you if it is incorrect; • to require us to erase your personal data; • to require us to restrict our data processing activities; • to receive from us the personal data we hold about you which you have provided to us, in a reasonable format specified by you, including for the purpose of you transmitting that personal data to another data controller; • to object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to any of our particular processing activities where you feel this has a disproportionate impact on your rights. Your rights to access, change (rectify), or remove your information (erasure) may be limited, as we need to manage your information in specific ways in order for the research to be reliable and accurate. If you withdraw from the study, we may not always be able to remove the information that we have already obtained. We must comply with a request to erase personal data, or to rectify personal data that is inaccurate unless there are grounds for refusing the request specified in the UK GDPR. To safeguard your rights, we will use the minimum personally-identifiable information possible. The Participant Information Sheet given to you will detail up to what point in the study data can be withdrawn as it may be anonymised after a certain point and thus no longer distinguishable as yours..
If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please submit your request via the webform or contact dp@gla.ac.uk.
*Please note that the ability to exercise these rights will vary and depend on the legal basis on which the processing is being carried out.
Complaints
If you wish to raise a complaint on how we have handled your personal data, you can contact the University Data Protection Officer who will investigate the matter.
Our Data Protection Officer can be contacted at dataprotectionofficer@glasgow.ac.uk
If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are not processing your personal data in accordance with the law, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) https://ico.org.uk/
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