We are launching a UAS research project about understanding and training human cognition. This study is conducted by Dr. Marco Angrisani at USC, in collaboration with the Online Memory Training Study team led by Professor Aaron Seitz at the University of California, Riverside. In this survey, we will describe what is involved in joining the project, how much you would earn if you decide to join the project, and then ask if you would be interested in participating. You will earn $4 for reading about the project and deciding whether or not to participate.

You may have been asked about this in other surveys, but just to double check, do you have an Android or Apple iPhone or any other kind of smartphone? By smartphone we mean a phone that you can use for accessing the internet, sending email, etc. Please select all that apply.

Do you have a computer tablet? Please select all that apply.

Potential Participant Project Information

The purpose of this study is to learn how effective brain teaser games (played on a smartphone or tablet) are in improving memory, attention, and other abilities.

If you decide to join this study, you will be asked to play brain teaser games on your smartphone or tablet, using an app available from the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. The name of the app is Recollect the Study. It is a cognition training game app developed by the University of California Riverside Brain Game Center for Mental Fitness and Well-being. It has been designed to be used by anyone of any age who is interested in fun brain training.

Through the Recollect the Study app, you will play brain teaser games intended to challenge and improve perceptions, memory, attention and decision making abilities. We are studying how effective these games are.

As part of this study, you will also complete two UAS surveys, one at the beginning of the study of about 8 minutes and one at the end of about 4 minutes. The two surveys will ask about your general health and lifestyle.

If you join the study, you will be asked to complete a total of 22 brain game sessions. Each session takes between 20 and 30 minutes. We recommend that you complete 2 sessions per day and at least 10 sessions per week, but you can complete sessions at your own pace. Each session includes a brief training, the brain games, and then a handful of questions (about sleep and motivation for cognitive training) that you will answer through the app.

[You can earn up to a total of $38 for your participation in this study!/You can earn up to a total of $78 for your participation in this study!]

How will my identity and data be protected?

If you decide to participate in this study, you will receive a study-specific ID that is different from your unique UAS ID to further protect your privacy. Your performance on the brain games that you will play through the Recollect the Study app and your answers to the short app survey will be recorded in a data file that is associated with this study-specific ID. This data file will not include your unique UAS ID or any other identifiers.

The Recollect the Study app was developed for research purposes and it does not access or collect any information stored on your smartphone or tablet, like photos, contacts, passwords, GPS, location data, etc.

The de-identified data file with your brain game performance and survey answers will be stored on a protected server at the University of California Riverside Brain Game Center. The server was specifically created for UAS participants and it is monitored by UAS staff. Your data, combined with data from everyone else in the study, will be used by the University of California Riverside Brain Game Center team and the UAS team for the purpose of better understanding the impact of regularly playing these kinds of games.

No researchers in this study team or any other will ever have access to data that could identify you. As with all other UAS surveys and projects, your responses will be kept confidential, and no one outside the UAS team will be able to link your answers back to you.

At the end of the study the data will be stored on the UAS’s secure servers and, along with your survey responses, will be added to the UAS repository. Data from this study may be used by this study team for future research, and it may be shared with other research teams for studies that are similar or different than this research.

The data will be used to create reports, publications, and presentations to inform researchers and the public about what we learn.

If you do not want your data used for these purposes, you should not participate. If you decide to participate and then later change your mind, your study data will be deleted upon request.

What benefits will I receive from participating?

This study is designed to evaluate the effectiveness of brain games that may provide potential cognitive benefits. However, we do not know whether these games are effective.

By participating in this research, you will contribute new information, which may be of benefit to others in the future.

This study is not designed to assess your cognitive abilities. Hence, the study team will not provide you with an assessment of your cognitive functioning based on your performance in the brain games.

Whom can I talk to?

If you have questions, concerns, or complaints, you can contact the UAS helpdesk via email, uashelp@usc.edu, or phone, 855-872-8673 (Monday – Friday, 9 am to 5 pm, Pacific).

If you do have concerns about your memory or cognitive abilities, these are two informative and authoritative websites, both of which have information about Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders:

https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/about-adear-center -- This is a website of the National Institute on Aging.
https://www.alz.org/ -- This is the website of the national Alzheimer’s Association. The Alzheimer’s Association also maintains a 24/7 helpline: 800.272.3900

Do you want to participate in this project?

Could you tell us how interesting or uninteresting you found the questions in this survey?

Do you have any other comments on the survey? Please type these in the box below. (If you have no comments, please click next to complete this survey.)