Informed Consent for Participation

Study: Human Reasoning Task — Human Participant Research

Please read the following information carefully before deciding whether to participate. Your participation is voluntary, and you may stop or withdraw at any time without penalty. Note that eligibility for the study payment is described below.

Purpose

This study aims to collect human responses on a set of short reasoning tasks. The data will be used to analyze human problem-solving behavior and to support research in cognitive science and related fields.

Procedures

If you agree to participate, the testing platform will guide you through the following sequence of pages and steps:

• Introduction page: An introduction page describes the study and tips for participation.
• Tutorial page: A short interactive tutorial that demonstrates how to complete the tasks. You must read and follow the tutorial carefully to learn the response format and controls.
• Attention check page: A short verification page to confirm that you understood the instructions in the tutorial. You must complete the attention check correctly to continue.
• Formal test page: If you pass the attention check, you will be assigned the formal test sequence of tasks.

Important: You must read the tutorial and complete the attention check correctly to proceed to the formal test. Participants who do not complete the tutorial or who fail the attention check will not proceed to the formal test and will not be eligible for compensation.

Data Collected

• Task responses (the answers you provide for each task).
• Timestamps for task start and completion.
• Non-identifying metadata such as browser type and assignment ID. These identifiers are used for assignment management and quality control only and are not direct personal identifiers.

Confidentiality

All data will be treated as confidential. We will not collect direct personal identifiers such as your name or personal contact details. The platform may record technical information (for example, transient IP addresses or server logs) for operational or security purposes; these will not be used to identify you in research outputs and will be handled in accordance with the project's data-management policies. Collected research data will be stored on secure drives and used only for approved research purposes. Access to raw data will be restricted to authorized research personnel. Any publications or publicly shared datasets will contain only aggregated or anonymized results.

Compensation

All participants who successfully complete and submit the assigned test session will receive a fixed base payment for their time. In addition to this base payment, participants will earn a small bonus for each task answered correctly. Your total payment will be calculated as the base payment for the completed submission plus the per-item bonuses for correctly answered tasks.

The exact base amount and the bonus rate per correct answer will be displayed on the testing platform and in any payment instructions before you begin. To be eligible for payment (including any earned bonuses), you must complete the assigned session and submit your responses according to the study instructions; withdrawing before completion or failing to submit may affect eligibility. Payments will be issued by the method described by the study coordinator and may be subject to verification and routine quality-control checks.

Risks and Benefits

There are minimal risks associated with this study. You may experience mild fatigue from performing tasks. There is no direct benefit to you, but your participation contributes to scientific understanding of reasoning.

Voluntary Participation

Your participation is entirely voluntary. You may decline to participate or stop at any time without penalty. Please note that payment eligibility is governed by the completion rules described above.

Contact

If you have questions about the study or your compensation, contact the research team at

crq2020_08@mail.ustc.edu.cn.