Request for informed consent

You are requested to participate in research conducted by Andrew Hinderliter, under the supervision of Professor Marina Terkourafi of the Department of Linguistics of the University of Illinois. To participate in this study you must be a native speaker of English and be 18 years of age or older. You will be asked to read a series of short paragraphs, followed by a yes/no question and a yes/no response, and you will be asked to answer a question regarding the response. Following this study, you will be asked to fill out a brief demographic survey. Together, the survey and demographic questionnaire should take about 15 to 30 minutes to complete. Participation is voluntary and responses will be kept anonymous. However, whenever one works with the internet there is always the risk of compromising privacy, confidentiality, and/or anonymity.

The risks and discomfort associated with participation in this study are no greater than those ordinarily encountered in daily life or during other online activities. Your participation will not benefit you directly, but we hope the results will help us gain a better understanding of how people understand language.

You are free to refuse to participate or to stop participating at any time with no penalty. If you do so, the data collected from you in this session will be destroyed. If you have decided to participate, your responses will be recorded anonymously, and you will remain anonymous in any reports of the work.

If you have any questions or would like to find out later about the results of the study, you can contact Andrew Hinderliter at ahinder2@illinois.edu or Dr. Marina Terkourafi at mt217@illinois.edu. If you have any questions about your rights as a participant in this research, you can contact the University of Illinois Institutional Review Board by phone at 1-217-333-2670, or by email at irb@illinois.edu.

By clicking on the “Next Page” button below, you acknowledge that you have read and understand the above consent form and voluntarily agree to participate in this study. You may also like to print out a copy of this form for your records.