These are not instructions - we are obliged to inform you about these details before we start.
This is a Consent Form.
Important, please scroll down to read this whole text before you continue:
Your participation in this research is voluntary.
This online listening experiment is part of a scientific research study that attempts to find the reasons why we like some sounds, but then we dislike others. These reasons have already been published in our previous study (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bica.2017.09.001), and this new research study will be used to gather more details that will help us and other scientists to additionally validate our previous results, and to advance the science of hearing, brain and music even further.
The principal researcher is Mr.Toso Pankovski. You can find more details about the principal researcher and how to contact him in the text below.
This experiment will be conducted according to the following steps:
1. You will be asked if you wish to consent to participate in this experiment.
2. A webpage will be presented to you to ask you about: your age, region of residence and years of musical training. You don't have to answer these questions.
3. A webpage will be presented to you to ask you what type of headphones or speakers will you use. If you want to participate, you will have to select the type of headphones or speakers you intend to use during the experiment.
4. A webpage will be presented to you asking you to play a left and a right sound. After you have heard both sounds, you will be able to select which one sounded louder to you. The purpose of this action is to calibrate the volume of the sounds.
5. A webpage will be presented to you asking you to play a noise-sound that should "reset" your hearing, clearing it from influences of some music that you might have listened to recently (a few seconds or minutes ago), or from the previous experiment you might have performed (also, a few seconds or minutes ago).
6. A webpage will be presented to you asking you to play a left and a right sound. after you have heard both sounds, you will be able to select which one sounded smoother to you.
This study is conducted by BrainExperiments.com, a non-profit scientific research organization, based in Montreal, Canada.
Please note that there is no material benefit or prize for participation; however, you may consider that by participating, you will have helped the advancement of the science of hearing, the science of the brain and the science of music.
We cannot predict how many participants this experiment will have. Still, we hope that there will be many thousands.
We do not foresee any risk or inconveniences in perticipating, no more than listening to any other video with sound on YouTube. If you decide to participate, you will be listening to some sounds that may produce unpleasant emotions for a duration of 2 seconds, similarly to any regular song you may listen to. If you feel too uneasy, feel free to stop the experiment immediately, with no penalties or any other consequences.
The length of the experiment, if you decide to take it, can span from a couple of minutes, to any length of time, until you decide that you want to stop.
You may come and repeat the experiment as many times as you want.
You may stop participating at any moment, without penalty, by simply closing your internet browser. There will be no penalty or damage to you or anyone else, if you decide to stop the experiment at any moment. The response you gave during the experiment will be preserved and used in the research, regardless of when you decided to stop your participation - after just one response, or after many of them.
This experiment does not collect any information that could personally identify you, and it is not tracking your GPS position - it is completely anonymous. Still, the information you will provide and your responses will be stored and preserved into a data-storage protected by a strong password, at our web-hosting provider (GoDaddy.com) and backed-up in data-storage devices locked at a safe location.
This research study will end with one or more published scientific papers, where the anonymized results of the study will be presented - still, your privacy will not be violated by this publications, since we are not collecting any personal information that may identify you in the first place.
For that reason, in the event of a security lapse:
- No personally-identifiable information about you will be in danger of being seen or accessed by a third party..
- No data will be lost since a regular backup is performed on separate data-storage devices, which are stored in physically separate locations.
This research does not receive any funding. Our only sponsor is Google which is helping us to recruit study participants by allowing us a certain number of free AdWords advertisements.
By agreeing to participate, you are not granted any legal rights.
In case you have questions, feel free to contact us at the contact links provided at the bottom of this page.
This study has been reviewed by Veritas Independent Review Board (IRB). If you have any questions about your rights as a research participant or the Investigator’s responsibilities, you may contact the Manager of Veritas IRB 24 hours per day and 7 days per week at ++1-514-337-0442 or toll-free at ++1-866-384-4221. An IRB is a group of scientific and nonscientific individuals who perform the initial and ongoing ethical review of the research study with the research participant’s rights and welfare in mind. If you have any study-related comments, complaints or concerns, you should first contact the study investigator. Please call the IRB if you need to speak to a person independent from the Investigator and the research staff, and/or if the Investigator and the research staff could not be reached.
Please feel free to contact Principal Investigator - Mr. Toso Pankovski if you have any further questions regarding this experiment. Tel.: ++1-514-512-1341 or at Toso.Pankovski@BrainExperiments.com.
By clicking on the link "I agree to participate - START" below, you voluntarily agree to participate in this listening experiment.