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This study is being conducted by the Intelligent Interactive Systems Group at Harvard University.
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Nutrition Knowledge Test
How good is your nutrition knowledge?
Can you tell just by looking at a meal whether it is a significant source of protein, fat, or carbohydrates?
Find out for yourself and compare your performance to others!
This test typically takes 6 minutes to complete.
This study is being conducted by the Intelligent Interactive Systems Group at Harvard University.
Please read the following information carefully before proceeding.
Why we are doing this research:
We are trying to understand how to design online quizzes such that they help people learn useful knowledge
in the process.
What you will be asked to do:
You will be presented with a series of pictures of meals. For each you will be asked a nutrition-related
question. At the end of the study you will be able to compare your performance to that of others.
Your participation in this study is completely voluntary, and you may
refuse to participate or withdraw from the study without penalty or
loss of benefits to which you may otherwise be entitled.
Potential risks:
There are no risks anticipated in taking part in this study and you are free to
leave at any time without penalty or loss of benefits to which you are otherwise entitled.
Privacy:
Your responses will be kept anonymous. We do not collect any information
that could be used to directly establish your identity.
Whom to contact about your rights in this research, for questions, concerns, suggestions,
or complaints that are not being addressed by the researcher, or research-related harm:
Committee on the Use of Human Subjects in Research at Harvard University,
phone: 617-496-2847.
Email: cuhs@harvard.edu
Please print or save a copy of this page for your records.
Key Information
The following is a short summary of this study to help you decide whether or not to be a part of this study. More detailed information is listed later on in this form.
Why am I being invited to take part in a research study?
All adult Internet users are eligible to take part in this study.
What should I know about a research study?
Whether or not you take part is up to you.
Your participation is completely voluntary.
You can choose not to take part.
You can agree to take part and later change your mind.
Your decision will not be held against you.
Your refusal to participate will not result in any consequences or any loss of benefits that you are otherwise entitled to receive.
You can ask all the questions you want before you decide.
Why is this research being done?
We are trying to understand how to design online activities such that they are both engaging and help people learn useful knowledge in the process.
How long will the research last and what will I need to do?
The study takes 6 minutes on average. You will be presented with 24 nutrition quiz questions. Each question will show two meals and ask which of the two meals is higher in one of the macronutrients (carbohydrates, protein, fat, fiber). You will receive feedback on some of your answers. At the end of the study you will be able to compare your performance to that of others.
Is there any way being in this study could be bad for me?
We don’t believe there are any risks from participating in this research.
Will being in this study help me in any way?
We cannot promise any benefits to you or others from your taking part in this research. However, you may find participation in our study entertaining. You may also learn some new facts about nutrition. In the long term, we hope that this research will help us understand how to design online activities that are both engaging and that help people learn.
Detailed Information
The following is more detailed information about this study in addition to the information listed above.
What is the purpose of this research?
We want to understand how to design short (less than 30 minutes) online activities such that they are simultaneously intrinsically interesting to people and educationally valuable. For example, can we design online questionnaires such that they are scientifically valuable to the researchers, entertaining to the participants, and result in participants learning something valuable in the process?
The main aim of this study is to design and evaluate a series of micro-learning interventions and measure whether they result in at least short-term learning gains.
We are building on two strands of prior work. 1) Education research on feedback during instruction (e.g., Hattie, J., & Gan, M. (2011). Instruction based on feedback.) and 2) Recent research on pedagogical interventions in crowdsourcing tasks (e.g., Zhu, H., Dow, S. P., Kraut, R. E., & Kittur, A. (2014). Reviewing versus doing: learning and performance in crowd assessment. Presented at the CSCW '14: Proceedings of the 17th ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work & social computing, ACM Press).
How long will I take part in this research?
Participation in this research will involve a one-time completion of a nutrition knowledge quiz we have developed. Most participants finish the quiz in 5-9 minutes (6 minutes on average).
What happens if I say yes, but I change my mind later?
You can leave the research at any time; it will not be held against you.
Is there any way being in this study could be bad for me? (Detailed Risks)
We don’t believe there are any risks from participating in this research.
If I take part in this research, how will my privacy be protected? What happens to the information you collect?
We will not record a link between your Amazon Mechanical Turk ID and any information that you provide during the study. We will, however, have a record indicating that your Amazon Mechanical Turk ID participated in this study.
Efforts will be made to limit the use and disclosure of your Personal Information, including the fact that you participated in this study, to people who have a need to review this information. We cannot promise complete secrecy. Organizations that may inspect and copy your information include the IRB and other representatives of this organization.
The anonymous data collected during this study could be used for future research studies, distributed to another investigator for future research studies, or shared in public research data repositories without your additional informed consent.
What else do I need to know?
This research is being funded by the National Science Foundation.
Compensation
If you agree to take part in this research study, we will pay you $1 for your time and effort.
Who can I talk to?
If you have questions, concerns, or complaints, or think the research has hurt you, talk to the researcher at kgajos@eecs.harvard.edu or 617-496-1876.
This research has been reviewed and approved by the Harvard University Area Institutional Review Board ("IRB"). You may talk to them at (617) 496-2847 or cuhs@harvard.edu if:
Your questions, concerns, or complaints are not being answered by the research team.
You cannot reach the research team.
You want to talk to someone besides the research team.
You have questions about your rights as a research subject.
You want to get information or provide input about this research.
By clicking the "I agree" button you confirm that you have read and understood the above
and agree to take part in this research. Your participation is voluntary and you are free
to leave the experiment at any time by simply closing the web browser.
How do you describe yourself?
Instructions
You will be presented with pairs of photographs of meals.
For each, we will ask you a nutrition-related question like this:
Please pay attention to the description below each image. It is often hard to see all the ingredients
in the photograph. The descriptions will help you figure out what the main ingredients of the meal are.
Your job is to answer the questions as accurately as possible.
For some of them (but not all), we will give you immediate feedback on your answer. At the end of the study,
we will tell you how well you did and how your score compared to others.
The Meal Assistant
Sometimes, you will see a recommendation from a Meal Assistant, which is an experimental computer system
that can analyze the nutritional content of meals. The Meal Assistant is right most of the time but not always.
You are welcome to consider its recommendations, but you should make whatever decision you think is best.
Sometimes, after you make your initial choice you will see a recommendation from a Meal Assistant,
which is an experimental computer system that can analyze the nutritional content of meals.
You will have the option to revise your decision.
The Meal Assistant is right most of the time but not always.
You are welcome to consider its recommendations, but you should make whatever decision you think is best.
Sometimes, you will see a recommendation from a Meal Assistant, which is an experimental computer system
that can analyze the nutritional content of meals. The Meal Assistant is right most of the time but not always.
You are welcome to consider its recommendations, but you should make whatever decision you think is best.
If you you click the "View Meal Assistant's recommendation" button, a recommendation like this will be shown:
Sometimes, you will see relevant information from a Meal Assistant, which is an experimental computer system
that can analyze the nutritional content of meals. The Meal Assistant is right most of the time but not always.
You are welcome to consider the information it provides, but you should make whatever decision you think is best.
Sometimes, you will see relevant information or a recommendation from a Meal Assistant, which is an experimental computer system
that can analyze the nutritional content of meals. The Meal Assistant is right most of the time but not always.
You are welcome to consider the information it provides, but you should make whatever decision you think is best.
Question out of
The Meal Assistant has a recommendation
The Meal Assistant has some information:
Question goes here
(Assume equal portion sizes)
I am confident this is the right answer
Move the slider to indicate your answer
I am confident this is the right answer
Please refer to the meals by their descriptions, rather than locations (right/left) as those can change.
Thank you for your participation!
Before we continue to the results, please answer the following two questions: