Dear participant,

Thank you for your interest in participating in this study. Please read carefully the following information before participating.

What is this study about?

This study aims at collecting data about how people rate pictures. You will be asked to rank pictures and choose your preferred picture between pairs of pictures. This research is part of the Recognition project, funded by the European commission. Learn more about why we are doing this study.

The RECOGNITION project concerns new approaches for embedding self-awareness in ICT systems. This will be based on the cognitive processes that the human species exhibits for self-awareness, seeking to exploit the fact that humans are ultimately the fundamental basis for high performance autonomic processes. This is due to the cognitive ability of the brain to efficiently assert relevance (or irrelevance), extract knowledge and take appropriate decisions, when faced with partial information and disparate stimuli. Using the psychological and cognitive sciences as concrete inspiration, our approach is to develop functional models of the core cognitive processes that allow humans to assert relevance and achieve knowledge from information. This involves mechanisms such as inference, belief, similarity and trust. These will be translated to the ICT domain by development of flexible RECOGNITION algorithms that can be imbedded in ICT on a flexible basis for self-awareness.
We will demonstrate this new paradigm for Internet content. The future Internet will see ever-increasing amounts of content that needs to be effectively managed and acquired, often from portable devices and in diverse spatial and social situations. The massive scale of content will swamp the user with information, impeding effective management and relevant acquisition by the user. By exploiting the self-awareness capability we will enable the users, content and network to cope effectively in a scalable manner, thus making unprecedented amounts of relevant content available and unleashing new classes of applications that extract maximum utility from content.

What am I required to do?

The experiment is divided in 3 phases and lasts between 10 and 15 minutes. In the first phase, you will be asked to fill in a simple personality test. In the second phase, you will be asked to rank 30 pictures in groups of 6. In the last phase, pairs of pictures will be displayed to you, and you will be asked to slide a cursor towards your preferred picture.
When evaluating pictures, there are no good or bad answers: your answers are subjective and you can use any criteria to determine your choice. For instance, it can be because you like the aesthetic of the photograph, or because you like the action represented by the picture, or again because you dislike the other picture. The more you slide the cursor towards one of the two pictures, the more you are confident with your choice.

Will my participation be anonymous and confidential?

We are collecting your name, your IP address and your email address. Before participating in the experiment, you will be asked to confirm that you know a list of people. Your name and choices will only be shared with us and these people. All personal data, including your name, will be anonymised at the end of the collection process.

Do I have to take part?

This information page has been written to help you decide if you would like to take part or not. You can change your mind and withdraw at any time during the study or after the study, without providing a reason, and we will remove any data we collected from your participation. Feel free to contact any of the researchers conducting this study if you have any questions.

• If you do not want to take part,
  please close this browser window now, or navigate away to another website. No data has been collected so far.
• If you decide to take part,
  please fill in the following fields with the same name and email address you provided when signing up, and click on the 'Start' button to participate now in the study. By clicking on the 'Start' button, you give your consent to participate in the study as described on this page. Your consent does not imply any commitment and you can withdraw your consent at any time, before, during or after the study, by contacting the researchers.

Thanks for your participation. Before rating the photos, tell us more about your personality by answering how accurate are the following descriptions of yourself.

I am the life of the party. I feel little concern for others. I am always prepared. I get stressed out easily. I have a rich vocabulary. I don't talk a lot. I am interested in people. I leave my belongings around. I am relaxed most of the time. I have difficulty understanding abstract ideas. I feel comfortable around people. I insult people. I pay attention to details. I worry about things. I have a vivid imagination. I keep in the background. I sympathize with others' feelings. I make a mess of things. I seldom feel blue. I am not interested in abstract ideas. I start conversations. I am not interested in other people's problems. I get chores done right away. I am easily disturbed. I have excellent ideas.

I have little to say. I have a soft heart. I often forget to put things back in their proper place. I get upset easily. I do not have a good imagination. I talk to a lot of different people at parties. I am not really interested in others. I like order. I change my mood a lot. I am quick to understand things. I don't like to draw attention to myself. I take time out for others. I shirk my duties. I have frequent mood swings. I use difficult words. I don't mind being the center of attention. I feel others' emotions. I follow a schedule. I get irritated easily. I spend time reflecting on things. I am quiet around strangers. I make people feel at ease. I am exacting in my work. I often feel blue. I am full of ideas.