Message from Nicky Israel - Research Participation

Dear everyone

Firstly thank you so much to everyone who has taken part in my pilot study so far – the data provided is hugely helpful and I hope you found the process interesting – and also thank you to all of you for your continued interest and considering participation – I know you get a lot of requests at this time of year. 

If you have taken part in the pilot already, please note that feedback for the first round (collected last week) is complete and can be collected from my pigeonhole in U211, the main Psychology office. The feedback is in an envelope with your randomly assigned participant number on the front (this matches to the number on the informed consent sheet you detached and kept).

Once you have fetched your feedback, if you could please complete the one last question on the ‘pilot questionnaire’ and return it either to my pigeonhole in U211 or under my door or to Michael Pitman who will have a box to collect them, it would be hugely appreciated.  

If you have not yet taken part and would still like to and/or be willing to, I would hugely appreciate the input. Please collect a questionnaire from me in my office (U306C on the third floor of Umthombo) or email me (Nicky.Israel@wits.ac.za) to set up a time that is convenient to collect the questionnaire and I can explain the process briefly. You can complete the questionnaire at home (it should take approximately an hour) and then return it to me either under my door (U306C) or in my pigeonhole in U211.

A reminder of the following:

The study is based on piloting my instruments for my PhD study and I therefore need a sample that is ‘psychometrically’ aware, which you, as third year Psychology students, are. My topic is based in cognitive psychology (different approaches to cognitive problem solving), so I also thought you might find it interesting. All students who complete the questionnaires will get a) brief individual feedback regarding an aspect of their personal learning style; b) entry into a draw to win prizes (first prize is a netbook or laptop*; you will need to keep your informed consent sheet*). Participating will involve completing a set of questionnaires that should take approx. 1 hour in one sitting as well as completing a short additional questionnaire that should take about 10 mins (most of this questionnaire can be completed at the same time as the main set however there is one question you will only be able to answer once you have your feedback). Choosing to participate or not to participate in the study is completely your choice and will have no effect whatsoever on your marks or any aspect of your academic life. Your answers will be anonymous.

Thank you again and kind regards,

Nicky