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Informed Consent

Summary: You have chosen to participate in a study with the purpose of examining how individuals allocate their resources based on the content of two scenarios. If you choose to participate in this study, you will be asked to read through scenarios regarding performance on two tasks and answer a number of questions.

Estimated Time Required: 30 Minutes

Risks and Benefits: There are no known risks or costs associated with participating in this study. You will not benefit from your participation in this study; however your participation will contribute to understanding multi-tasking decisions. This contribution may have implications for explaining and predicting behaviors.

Compensation: If you are participating as part of MTurk, you may be financially compensated based on whether you meet the completion requirements. You must fully complete the survey to be compensated. There will be attention checks in each survey (e.g., Select number “5”) to ensure you are not randomly responding to questions. If you fail the attention checks, you will not be compensated.

Confidentiality: Your privacy will be protected to the maximum extent allowed by the law. All identifying information will be removed to ensure respondent confidentiality and will only be accessible by the research administrators involved in this study. Any reports concerning this research will contain anonymous or statistical data and will be reported at the group level.

Contact Information: The investigator in this study is Katrina Piccone. Any questions you have regarding the research may be directed to Katrina Piccone by Email: [email protected]. Information involving the conduct and review of research involving humans may be obtained from the Chairman of the Institutional Review Board of the Florida Institute of Technology, Dr. Lisa Steelman at 321-768-8000.

I understand that PARTICIPATION IS VOLUNTARY. Refusal to participate will involve no penalty or loss of benefits to which I am otherwise entitled. I understand that I may discontinue participation at any time without penalty or loss of benefits to which I am otherwise entitled.

If you choose to continue, you will indicate that you agree to participate in this research and that:

1. You have read and understand the information provided above.
2. You understand that participation is voluntary and that refusal to participate will involve no penalty or loss of benefits to which you are otherwise entitled and,
3. You understand that you are free to discontinue participation at any time without penalty or loss of benefits to which you are otherwise entitled.
4. You are of at least 18 years of age.

Press the “Continue” button to indicate your voluntary consent to participate and adhere to the terms described above.

If you do not consent, please exit out of the survey at this time.

Instructions: Please read the following scenario carefully. While reading, imagine that you are actually taking part in the hypothetical circumstances. You will be presented with portions of this scenario and related questions in the following parts of the survey.

FULL SCENARIO

Training for Track

Imagine that, given your running talents, you are part of the University’s track and field team and compete in the 100-m sprint. You have been training hard for this year’s competitive season, which is due to start in two weeks, because you want to avoid losing a race. If you lose the race, you will lose your $8,640 scholarship for the year, which breaks down to $720 per month.

You only have 18 hours of free time a week and in the previous weeks you have been devoting all of that time to training. Things are not going well. In only 20% of your training sessions were you able to achieve a time that would allow you to avoid losing the race. At this point, you are not confident in your ability to avoid losing the race.

You have more training sessions this week consisting of 12 time trials. So far this week, you have been progressing fairly quickly toward your desired speed. You just found out your time from your last trial and it is faster than your desired trial times for this week.

Working at the Museum

On your way home, you keep thinking about your goals and aspirations. Your mind shifts between thoughts about your chances of avoiding the loss of the 100-m sprint and thoughts about how good it would be to have a permanent job for the year. This week, you just started working on a trial-basis at the Modern Art Museum as a museum tour guide. These positions do not open often and are highly sought after. You have been interested in modern art for many years now. Also, you would like to attain a permanent job at the museum because you want to earn extra money. If you get the permanent job, you will get $180 a week, which adds up to $720 per month.

The decision of whether or not to hire you permanently as a part-time tour guide will be announced at the end of the week and it is based on the quality of your work and visitors’ satisfaction. Typically, tour guides who work the most hours during the trial-basis are the ones who get the best ratings and subsequently are hired. Given your limited experience, you are not confident that you will get hired, even if you try your best.

During this trial-basis, you may choose to work 6 to 18 hours each week. So far this week, you have been making good progress in putting in hours. You have even worked more hours than you thought would be adequate for this point in the week. Now, you are feeling eager about your work at the museum.

What to do?

At the back of your mind, you are thinking that working more hours would mean training fewer hours per week. The museum needs to know how many hours you will be working in the upcoming weeks and wants an answer today. You promised that you will call back soon. You only have a few minutes to think about this, and then make a decision.

Instructions: Please read the following PART 1 of the scenario carefully. While reading, imagine that you are actually taking part in the hypothetical circumstances.

Scenario Part 1: Training for Track

Imagine that, given your running talents, you are part of the University’s track and field team and compete in the 100-m sprint. You have been training hard for this year’s competitive season, which is due to start in two weeks, because you want to avoid losing a race. If you lose the race, you will lose your $8,640 scholarship for the year, which breaks down to $720 per month.

You only have 18 hours of free time a week and in the previous weeks you have been devoting all of that time to training. Things are not going well. In only 20% of your training sessions were you able to achieve a time that would allow you to avoid losing the race. At this point, you are not confident in your ability to avoid losing the race.

You have more training sessions this week consisting of 12 time trials. So far this week, you have been progressing fairly quickly toward your desired speed. You just found out your time from your last trial and it is faster than your desired trial times for this week.

Please read each question carefully then respond to each question as if you are actually taking part in the hypothetical scenario. The scenario is presented at the top of each page for you to refer to at any time.

1. Some goals involve pursuing something we want, whereas other goals involve trying to avoid something we don’t want. How would you describe your goal for the 100-m sprint race?

2. How positive do you feel in regard to your goal to avoid losing the 100-m sprint race?

3. How pleasant do you feel in regard to your goal to avoid losing the 100-m sprint race?

4. How nice do you feel in regard to your goal to avoid losing the 100-m sprint race?

5. How energetic do you feel in regard to your goal to avoid losing the 100-m sprint race?

6. How engaged are you in regard to your goal to avoid losing the 100-m sprint race?

7. In regard to your goal to avoid losing the 100-m sprint race, how active do you feel presently?

Scenario Part 1: Training for Track

Imagine that, given your running talents, you are part of the University’s track and field team and compete in the 100-m sprint. You have been training hard for this year’s competitive season, which is due to start in two weeks, because you want to avoid losing a race. If you lose the race, you will lose your $8,640 scholarship for the year, which breaks down to $720 per month.

You only have 18 hours of free time a week and in the previous weeks you have been devoting all of that time to training. Things are not going well. In only 20% of your training sessions were you able to achieve a time that would allow you to avoid losing the race. At this point, you are not confident in your ability to avoid losing the race.

You have more training sessions this week consisting of 12 time trials. So far this week, you have been progressing fairly quickly toward your desired speed. You just found out your time from your last trial and it is faster than your desired trial times for this week.

The following scale consists of a number of words that describe feelings, mood, and emotions. Once again, imagine that you have actually been training to avoid losing the 100-m sprint race. Please indicate the extent to which you would feel each of these in relation to your current goal-related performance.

Use the following scale from "Not at all" to "Extremely" to record how you feel in regard to your current performance related to training to avoid losing the 100-m sprint race.

* 60. Please rate how you are feeling right now in regard to your goal to avoid losing the 100-m sprint race by indicating, in the drop down below, which box in the grid best represents your feeling.

1. How close was your current rate of progress to your desired rate of progress when striving toward your goal of avoiding the loss of the 100-m sprint race?

2. I would describe my progress rate for training to avoid the loss of the 100-m sprint race as:

3. What is the probability that you will avoid losing the 100-m sprint race this season?

4. How confident are you that you will avoid losing the 100-m sprint race this season?

5. Do you expect to succeed in avoiding the loss of the 100-m sprint race this season?

5a. Please select the middle option at this time.

6. Are you optimistic about avoiding the loss of the 100-m sprint race this season?

7. How important is your goal to avoid losing the 100-m sprint race?

8. How good would it be if you avoid losing the 100-m sprint race this season?

Instructions: Please read the following PART 2 of the scenario carefully. While reading, imagine that you are actually taking part in the hypothetical circumstances.

Scenario Part 2: Working at the Museum

On your way home, you keep thinking about your goals and aspirations. Your mind shifts between thoughts about your chances of avoiding the loss of the 100-m sprint and thoughts about how good it would be to have a permanent job for the year. This week, you just started working on a trial-basis at the Modern Art Museum as a museum tour guide. These positions do not open often and are highly sought after. You have been interested in modern art for many years now. Also, you would like to attain a permanent job at the museum because you want to earn extra money. If you get the permanent job, you will get $180 a week, which adds up to $720 per month.

The decision of whether or not to hire you permanently as a part-time tour guide will be announced at the end of the week and it is based on the quality of your work and visitors’ satisfaction. Typically, tour guides who work the most hours during the trial-basis are the ones who get the best ratings and subsequently are hired. Given your limited experience, you are not confident that you will get hired, even if you try your best.

During this trial-basis, you may choose to work 6 to 18 hours each week. So far this week, you have been making good progress in putting in hours. You have even worked more hours than you thought would be adequate for this point in the week. Now, you are feeling eager about your work at the museum.

1. Some goals involve pursuing something we want, whereas other goals involve trying to avoid something we don’t want. How would you describe your goal for the museum tour guide job?

2. How positive do you feel in regard to your goal of attaining the museum tour guide job?

3. How pleasant do you feel in regard to your goal of attaining the museum tour guide job?

4. How nice do you feel in regard to your goal of attaining the museum tour guide job?

5. How energetic do you feel in regard to your goal of attaining the museum tour guide job?

6. How engaged are you in regard to your goal of attaining the museum tour guide job?

7. In regard to your goal of attaining the museum tour guide job, how active do you feel presently?

Scenario Part 2: Working at the Museum

On your way home, you keep thinking about your goals and aspirations. Your mind shifts between thoughts about your chances of avoiding the loss of the 100-m sprint and thoughts about how good it would be to have a permanent job for the year. This week, you just started working on a trial-basis at the Modern Art Museum as a museum tour guide. These positions do not open often and are highly sought after. You have been interested in modern art for many years now. Also, you would like to attain a permanent job at the museum because you want to earn extra money. If you get the permanent job, you will get $180 a week, which adds up to $720 per month.

The decision of whether or not to hire you permanently as a part-time tour guide will be announced at the end of the week and it is based on the quality of your work and visitors’ satisfaction. Typically, tour guides who work the most hours during the trial-basis are the ones who get the best ratings and subsequently are hired. Given your limited experience, you are not confident that you will get hired, even if you try your best.

During this trial-basis, you may choose to work 6 to 18 hours each week. So far this week, you have been making good progress in putting in hours. You have even worked more hours than you thought would be adequate for this point in the week. Now, you are feeling eager about your work at the museum.

The following scale consists of a number of words that describe feelings, mood, and emotions. Once again, imagine that you have actually been striving for the goal of attaining the museum tour guide job. Please indicate the extent to which you would feel each of these in relation to your current goal-related performance.

Use the following scale from "Not at all" to "Extremely" to record how you feel in regard to your goal of attaining the museum tour guide job.

* 60. Please rate how you are feeling right now in regard to your goal of attaining the museum tour guide job by indicating, in the drop down below, which box in the grid best represents your feeling.

1. How close was your current rate of progress to your desired rate of progress when striving toward your goal of attaining the museum tour guide job?

2. I would describe my progress rate for working to attain the museum tour guide job as:

3. What is the probability that you will attain the museum tour guide job?

4. How confident are you that you will attain the museum tour guide job?

5. Do you expect to succeed in attaining the museum tour guide job?

5a. Please select “Not at all” at this time.

6. Are you optimistic about attaining the museum tour guide job?

7. How important is your goal to attain the museum tour guide job?

8. How good would it be if you attained the museum tour guide job?

Instructions: Please read the following PART 3 of the scenario carefully. While reading, imagine that you are actually taking part in the hypothetical circumstances.

What to do?

At the back of your mind, you are thinking that working more hours at the museum would mean training fewer hours per week. The museum needs to know how many hours you will be working in the upcoming week and wants an answer today. You promised that you will call back soon. You only have a few minutes to think about this, and then make a decision.

At this time, please read the scenarios (presented on the next page) once more before responding to the following questions.

FULL SCENARIO

Training for Track

Imagine that, given your running talents, you are part of the University’s track and field team and compete in the 100-m sprint. You have been training hard for this year’s competitive season, which is due to start in two weeks, because you want to avoid losing a race. If you lose the race, you will lose your $8,640 scholarship for the year, which breaks down to $720 per month.

You only have 18 hours of free time a week and in the previous weeks you have been devoting all of that time to training. Things are not going well. In only 20% of your training sessions were you able to achieve a time that would allow you to avoid losing the race. At this point, you are not confident in your ability to avoid losing the race.

You have more training sessions this week consisting of 12 time trials. So far this week, you have been progressing fairly quickly toward your desired speed. You just found out your time from your last trial and it is faster than your desired trial times for this week.

Working at the Museum

On your way home, you keep thinking about your goals and aspirations. Your mind shifts between thoughts about your chances of avoiding the loss of the 100-m sprint and thoughts about how good it would be to have a permanent job for the year. This week, you just started working on a trial-basis at the Modern Art Museum as a museum tour guide. These positions do not open often and are highly sought after. You have been interested in modern art for many years now. Also, you would like to attain a permanent job at the museum because you want to earn extra money. If you get the permanent job, you will get $180 a week, which adds up to $720 per month.

The decision of whether or not to hire you permanently as a part-time tour guide will be announced at the end of the week and it is based on the quality of your work and visitors’ satisfaction. Typically, tour guides who work the most hours during the trial-basis are the ones who get the best ratings and subsequently are hired. Given your limited experience, you are not confident that you will get hired, even if you try your best.

During this trial-basis, you may choose to work 6 to 18 hours each week. So far this week, you have been making good progress in putting in hours. You have even worked more hours than you thought would be adequate for this point in the week. Now, you are feeling eager about your work at the museum.

What to do?

At the back of your mind, you are thinking that working more hours would mean training fewer hours per week. The museum needs to know how many hours you will be working in the upcoming weeks and wants an answer today. You promised that you will call back soon. You only have a few minutes to think about this, and then make a decision.

Please read each question carefully then respond to each question as if you are actually taking part in the hypothetical scenario. The scenario is presented at the top of the page for you to refer to at any time.

1. Given your current situation, how hard would you train to avoid losing the 100-m sprint race?

2. To what extent would you strive to avoid losing the 100-m sprint race?

3. I am willing to put forth a great deal of effort in training to avoid losing the 100-m sprint race this season.

4. How hard would you work to attain the museum tour guide job?

5. To what extent would you strive to attain the museum tour guide job?

6. I am willing to put forth a great deal of effort to attain the museum tour guide job.

* 7. Of the 18 hours of discretionary time that you have available each week, how many hours will you spend working at the museum? (0 hours if you dismiss the job opportunity; 6–18 hours if trying to obtain the job). Select the number of hours from the drop-down below.

8. Does striving to attain the museum tour guide job have a helpful, a harmful, or no effect at all on your goal to avoid losing the 100-m sprint race this season?

* Please indicate your age in the space provided.

* Please indicate your gender.

Male

Female

* Please indicate your ethnicity.

* Please indicate your SAT Total Score (Write “N/A” if you did not take the test and write your best estimate if you can not remember the exact score):

* Please enter your MTurk Worker ID in the space below. Your ID will be used only to verify that you completed the survey.

* After you read the debrief on the next page, please enter your MTurk Worker ID into the Completion code field in the Scenario Survey in MTurk. This is required to complete this survey and gain compensation.

I understand that my MTurk Worker ID must be entered into the completion code field in the Scenario Survey in MTurk to complete this survey and gain compensation

Debrief

The study that you just participated in was designed to examine how people perform in complex multi-tasking situations. Many work environments require employees to perform multiple tasks during the same timeframe, which requires employees to allocate their resources to more than one task. The goal of this study is to better understand how individuals allocate their resources while performing two tasks.

Individuals must make difficult choices about how to allocate their time and attention between the two tasks that must be completed within the same timeframe. In this study, the challenge was allocating time and effort between a 100-m sprint race and a museum tour guide job.

Individuals may have a better chance of achieving a goal if all effort and time is allocated to one particular goal. However, this strategy means that attaining the competing goal is highly unlikely. Allocating time and effort to both goals provides one with the opportunity to meet both goals. However, a great deal of effort is needed to perform at the level needed to meet both goals due to the complexity of the task. Additionally, when attempting to achieve both goals, individuals run the risk of meeting neither. This study is interested in examining how individuals make these difficult decisions when they have competing goals such as in these scenarios.

This study is also interested in how individuals’ emotions influence the strategies that individuals use to pursue both goals. Individuals may allocate more time and attention to pursuing a goal that is related to activated emotions (e.g., emotions associate with high arousal, such as excitement and anxiety). The impact of emotions on resource allocation will be explored in this study.

Please DO NOT discuss any part of this study with anyone, especially those who may participate in the study in the future (i.e., the next few months). Individuals who participate in this study with prior knowledge of the study are likely to alter the way they approach the study. This will invalidate the results of this study. So again, please do NOT discuss any aspect of this study with any who may participate in the study in the future.

Thank you very much for your participation in this study. If you have any questions about this study or would like to receive a copy of the results when they are complete, please notify the investigator by e-mail at [email protected]. Please include the words “Results Summary” in the subject line of your e-mail.

Thank you again for participating in this study,
Katrina Piccone