Social Interaction Study: FAQ

A brief survey to show your interest in the study: If you want to participate, you need to let us know you’re interested and we need to verify that you meet all the inclusion criteria. You can follow this link to take a 5-10 minute questionnaire to do that: https://shorturl.at/fXdti. We will review your answers and if you’re eligible, we will contact you by the email you provide there.

Additional information: We may ask you for additional information about you; you will be informed by email.

If you are eligible to participate, you will receive a link to an “experiences” survey. It’s online and should take around 35 minutes. It includes the full official Study Information and Consent Form, which you will need to sign (by checking the boxes in the survey) to continue. This is very important! Then, you will be asked to complete some standardized questionnaires (you might have already seen some in other studies) and a reasoning task (similar to the “IQ tests” you can find on the internet). There will be another survey, at the end of the study, after you have interacted with other participants on Zoom. This one should take 10-15 minutes and include some additional questionnaires and questions. You will also have the opportunity to share your feedback on the study there.

In short, you will have a chat with four other participants (5 minutes each) and play a “Taboo” game (with very simple items, also 5 minutes). Everything is designed to be pleasant and easy. You will be given more instructions when the time comes.

We encourage you to prepare your space and technical set up for the Zoom session ahead of time according to the following points:

□ I will be in a calm room/space with no or little background noise.
□ I shouldn’t be interrupted/distracted throughout the time of the study (e.g., I do not expect that someone would enter the room, my phone is silenced/off/put away, there is no radio/TV on around me, etc.).
□ I will be using a PC/laptop (not phone/tablet).
□ My PC/laptop will be fixed in one stable position (e.g., lying on the table, not on my lap).
□ The background behind me will be constant/static (e.g., I am not seating in front of a window where people walking down the street are visible, my dog is not playing in the background, a TV is not running behind me).
□ I will have a good internet connection (details below).
□ I will have a working camera and microphone (details below).
□ I know the basics of how to use Zoom (details below).
□ I will be well positioned in front of the camera and the lighting conditions around me will be constant and good (details below).
□ I will be physically prepared for my participation during the Zoom session (I will not start hungry, or needing to go to the loo, etc.)
□ All the above will be applied throughout the whole Zoom session (to the best of my abilities).

You do not need to print or send this checklist to us. It is for you to help you prepare.

– Got to https://fast.com/. The test will start automatically. When the number stabilises, please click on “Show more info”.
– To participate, you will need Internet speed (the big number) of at least 10Mbps and upload speed (visible after clicking “Show more info” on the right side) of at least 3 Mbps. If any of these values is lower in your test, please contact the researcher as soon as possible.

– To make sure your camera is working well, please visit https://www.veed.io/tools/webcam-test or similar (google “web cam test”) and click “Start Test”.
– You will see a pop-up window in which you need to allow the website to access your camera.
– Your camera has to be on for the test but you do not need to be visible for it; the website does not record your camera’s input.
– On the left side of the camera window, you will see two values. To participate, you need:
a) frame rate of at least 30 fps
b) resolution of at least 640×480 p
If either of these values is lower for your camera, please contact the researcher as soon as possible.

– To make sure your microphone is working well, please visit https://www.mictest.co or similar (google “mic test”) and click “Start mic test”.
– You will see a pop-up window in which you need to allow the website to access your microphone.
– Say something and watch the lines respond to your voice.
In the end, you should see a sentence summarising your microphone’s performance, which is hopefully “Congratulations!! Your Mic is Working Perfectly”. If the website detects some issues with your microphone, please contact the researcher as soon as possible.

– Zoom is an easy-to-use and quite intuitive software, but if you feel like you would like to learn more before joining the study, you can visit Zoom website for some trainings: https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/getting-started-with-meetings?id=zoom_meetings_guide.
– You may join the session via your browser or via Zoom Desktop Client. While both are ok, we recommend downloading the Zoom Desktop Client which is more stable and easier to use. You can download it from here: https://zoom.us/download (the first item).
– You do not need a Zoom account to join the session.

Please make sure that:

You should mainly know: how to mute/unmute your microphone, open/close the camera, and change your name. Follow the link below for a short video we prepared to show you these functions. We will also go through them together in the beginning of the Zoom session.

No worries! If you want to make sure you are comfortable with the technicalities of Zoom before participating, just send an email to the lead researcher, Magdalena (m.matyjek@ucl.ac.uk) to set up a quick Zoom call where you can practice and ask any questions.