Departmental Ethics Form for UG and PGT projects

Applicant Information

Name of Researcher: Mr X

Level: PhD

Supervisor/ PI: Prof. Y

Contact details for correspondence: c.xx@lancaster.ac.uk

Project Information

Project Title: The Effects of Short Term Sleep on Hemispheric Processing of Emotional and
Neutral False Memories

Background to the research: A large number of studies have found that sleep not only helps
in the consolidation and accuracy of memory, but also affects the production of false memories
(Diekelmann, Born & Wagner, 2010; Diekelmann, Landolt, Lahl, Born & Wagner, 2008; Fenn,
Gallo, Margoliash, Roediger & Nusbaum, 2009; Payne et al., 2009). Further to this, most
previous research has found that the right hemisphere tends to produce more false memories
than the left hemisphere of the brain (Bellamy & Shillcock, 2007; Westerberg & Marsolek,
2003) and that the emotionality of stimuli, either negative or positive, can influence the
number of false memories that are produced (Brainerd, Stein, Silveira, Rohenkohl & Reyna,
2008; El Sharkawy, Groth, Vetter, Beraldi & Fast, 2008; Howe, Candel, Otgaar, Malone &
Wimmer, 2008)

Furthermore, research investigating specific sleep stages contribution to veridical memories

suggests that slow wave sleep (SWS) is particularly important in the processing and
consolidation of declarative memories (Fowler, Sullivan & Ekstrand, 1973; Tucker et al.,
2006). For the development of false memories there is evidence to suggest that both rapid eye
movement (REM) sleep (Sterpenich et al., 2014) and SWS (Diekelmann, Buchel, Born &
Rasch, 2011; Payne, 2011) may play a role in their development.

Previous research has also indicated a significant effect of REM sleep on accurate memory
performance (Groch, Wilhelm, Diekelmann & Born, 2012; Wagner, Gais & Born, 2001),
however there is a lack of evidence to indicate what effect the different sleep stages have on
the production of emotional false memories in the left and right hemisphere.

Bellamy, K. J., & Shillcock, R. (2007). A right hemisphere bias towards false memory.
Laterality, 12(2), 154-166.
Brainerd, C. J., Stein, L. M., Silveira, R. A., Rohenkohl, G., & Reyna, V. F. (2008). How Does
Negative Emotion Cause False Memories? Psychological Science (Wiley-Blackwell),
19(9), 919-925.
Diekelmann, S., Born, J., & Wagner, U. (2010). Sleep enhances false memories depending on
general memory performance. Behavioural brain research, 208(2), 425.
Diekelmann, S., Büchel, C., Born, J., & Rasch, B. (2011). Labile or stable: opposing
consequences for memory when reactivated during waking and sleep. Nature
neuroscience, 14(3), 381-386.
Diekelmann, S., Landolt, H., Lahl, O., Born, J., & Wagner, U. (2008). Sleep loss produces
false memories. PloS one, 3(10), e3512-e3512.
El Sharkawy, J., Groth, K., Vetter, C., Beraldi, A., & Fast, K. (2008). False memories of
emotional and neutral words. Behavioural Neurology, 19(1/2), 7-11.
Fenn, K. M., Gallo, D. A., Margoliash, D., Roediger, H. L., & Nusbaum, H. C. (2009).
Reduced false memory after sleep. Learning and memory., 16(9), 509.
Fowler, M. J., Sullivan, M. J., & Ekstrand, B. R. (1973). Sleep and memory. Science.,
179(4070), 302-304.
Groch, S., Wilhelm, I., Diekelmann, S., & Born, J. (2012). The role of REM sleep in the
processing of emotional memories: Evidence from behavior and event- related
potentials. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 99, 1-9.
Howe, M. L., Candel, I., Otgaar, H., Malone, C., & Wimmer, M. C. (2010). Valence and the
development of immediate and long-term false memory illusions. Memory, 18(1), 58-
75.
Payne, J. D. (2011). Sleep on it!: stabilizing and transforming memories during sleep. Nature
neuroscience, 14(3), 272.
Payne, J. D., Schacter, D. L., Propper, R. E., Huang, L., Wamsley, E. J., Tucker, M. A., . . .
Stickgold, R. (2009). The role of sleep in false memory formation. Neurobiology of
Learning and Memory, 92(3), 327-334.
Sterpenich, V., Schmidt, C., Albouy, G. e., Matarazzo, L., Vanhaudenhuyse, A., Boveroux, P.,
. . . Maquet, P. (2014). Memory reactivation during rapid eye movement sleep promotes
its generalization and integration in cortical stores. Sleep, 37(6), 1061-1075.
Tucker, M., Hirota, Y., Wamsley, E., Lau, H., Chaklader, A., & Fishbein, W. (2006). A
daytime nap containing solely non-REM sleep enhances declarative but not procedural
memory. Neurobiology of learning and memory, 86(2), 241-247.
Wagner, U., Gais, S., & Born, J. (2001). Emotional memory formation is enhanced across
sleep intervals with high amounts of rapid eye movement sleep. Learning & memory
(Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.), 8(2), 112.
Westerberg, C. E., & Marsolek, C. J. (2003). Hemisphere asymmetries in memory processes as
measured in a false recognition paradigm. Cortex, 39(4-5), 627-642.

Aim(s) of the research project: The main aim of this research is to investigate the effect of a
short nap, and in particular the contribution of the distinct sleep stages, on veridical and false
memory for emotional and neutral stimuli, in both the left and right hemisphere.

Methodology and Analysis: Participants will be given an Edinburgh Handedness

Questionnaire (Oldfield, 1971) to assess whether they are left or right handed as evidence
indicates that there are differences in the coding of stimuli presented to the left and right
hemisphere dependent on handedness (Mevorach, Humphreys & Shalev, 2005). They will also
be asked to fill out a questionnaire regarding their mood, as previous studies have suggested
that the mood of participants can influence the number of false memories produced (Storbeck
& Clore, 2005). Furthermore, participants will also fill in a questionnaire regarding their sleep
habits to ensure that they have followed their usual sleep patterns for the days leading up to the
experiment and to ensure that they are not too tired prior to training, as well as a questionnaire
asking how much caffeine and alcohol they have consumed prior to the study, as a high
number of stimulants can affect memory performance and so needs to be controlled for.
Participants will then take part in the first half of the experiment, where they will view
emotional words or faces which elicit either negative or positive emotions, and/or neutral
words or faces presented on a computer screen. During this session, stimuli will be presented to
either the left and right visual field or the centre of the screen, and eye-tracking technology
may be used to ensure that participants stay focused on a central fixation cross on the screen.
Participants will then be randomly allocated to the sleep or wake group. The wake group will
be asked to complete a number of distractor tasks for 60 minutes before taking part in the
second half of the study. Those in the sleep group will be asked to nap for 60 minutes, during
which time their sleep stages will be monitored using EEG readings from a polysomnography
machine. Participants will then take part in a test phase. During this phase, participants will
view stimuli presented to either their left and right visual field, or the centre of the screen, and
will be tested on whether they remember stimuli seen in the first presentation. To do this,
participants will be instructed to press either ‘old’ or ‘new’ that will be labelled on a keyboard.
The emotional words/faces will be either emotionally negative or positive in nature (eg., words
of negative (e.g., sad, fat, ugly) or positive (e.g., happy, flower, beautiful) valence, and faces
with sad or happy expressions). However, the stimuli used will be similar to those encountered
during normal daily experiences, and so will not cause any adverse risk to participants.
Analysis will be on accuracy and response time data, as well as how their performance
correlated with the various sleep stages. Data will be analysed and stored separately from
personal information.

Mevorach, C., Humphreys, G., & Shalev, L. (2005). Attending to local form while ignoring
global aspects depends on handedness: Evidence from TMS. Nature Neuroscience, 8(3),
276-277.
Oldfield, R. C. (1971). The assessment and analysis of handedness: the Edinburgh inventory.
Neuropsychologia, 9(1), 97-113.
Storbeck, J., & Clore, G. L. (2005). With sadness comes accuracy; with happiness, false
memory mood and the false memory effect. Psychological Science, 16(10), 785-791.

Participant Information

What participants will be used in the study? Students at Lancaster University

How many will be used? 20 per experimental condition – approximately 300 overall

How will participants be recruited? Participants will be recruited via the Psychology
Department’s sona system, and will be paid for their time.

Will a DBS (formerly CRB) check be required? No

How will participants give consent? Participants will be given a consent form that outlines
that they have been told about the details of the study and have been given the chance to ask
any questions. The information sheet highlights that they have a right to withdraw themselves
and their data from the study with no adverse consequences before, during and for 2 weeks
after their participation. See Appendix C for consent form.
How will participants be debriefed? Participants will be told about the aim of the study and
the different conditions that are included in the study. They will be given an opportunity to
discuss and ask any questions about the study. See Appendix D for debrief sheet.

What steps will be taken to ensure the confidentiality of the data collected? Participants
will be assigned a participant number, and their data will be stored with no personally
identifiable information. Participant information data, including name, email address, age and
whether they are a native English speaker, will be stored separately in a locked filing cabinet.
Anonymised data will be stored on a password-protected computer, and will be made available
to the research team. At a later point, the anonymised data may be made available to other
researchers on request, subject to APA guidelines on data protection. Individuals will not be
identifiable from their data.
Please complete all sections by striking through the answer that does not apply.

1. Risks
Does this study involve a risk to participants’ physical well being (e.g.
use of substances such as alcohol or extreme situations such as sleep YES NO
deprivation)?
Does this study involve a psychological risk to participants (e.g. cause
YES NO
emotional upset, worry, stress, fatigue, or embarrassment?)
Does this study involve any social risk to participants (e.g. loss of
YES NO
privacy, status or reputation)?
Does this study require participants to disclose information of a personal
or sensitive nature (e.g. their ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, YES NO
political affiliation, or experience of violence or abuse)?
Does this study involve vulnerable participants or groups (e.g. prisoners,
YES NO
children, older or disabled people, victims of crime)?
Does this study require access to personal records or other sources of
YES NO
confidential information (e.g. medical, criminal, educational records)?
Does this study involve the use of intrusive interventions such as the
YES NO
administration of substances, or treatments such as hypnotherapy?
Does this study expose the participants or the researcher to any other
YES NO
risks different from those encountered in everyday life?

2. Consent
Will participants in this study be given written information outlining:
a) the purpose of the study, b) what participants will be expected to YES NO NA
do, c) individuals’ right to refuse or withdraw at any time?
Will participants be given the opportunity to ask questions about the
YES NO NA
study prior to agreeing to participate?
Will permission be sought from any other source, if required, before
YES NO NA
commencing the research (e.g. from school or hospital)?

3. Disclosure
Does this study involve covert methods? YES NO
Does this study involve the use of deception, either in the form of
withholding essential information about the study, or intentionally YES NO
misinforming participants about any aspects of the study?

4. Debriefing
Does this study include an opportunity for participants to ask
questions and/or obtain general feedback about the study after they YES NO NA
have concluded their part in it?
5. Anonymity and confidentiality

Is participation in the study anonymous? YES NO

If anonymity has been promised, do the general procedures ensure

that individuals cannot be identified indirectly (e.g. via other YES NO NA
information that is taken)?

Have participants been promised confidentiality? YES NO NA

If confidentiality has been promised, do the procedures ensure that

the information collected is truly confidential (e.g. that it will not be YES NO NA
quoted verbatim)?
Will data be stored in a secure place, which is inaccessible to anyone
YES NO NA
other than the researcher and members of the research team?
If participants’ identities are being recorded, will the data be coded to
YES NO NA
disguise identity before computer data entry?

6. Summary of ethical concerns

If you have answered ‘YES’ to any of the questions in Section 1 (Risks), please tick
the box

If you have answered ‘NO’ to any of the questions in Section 2 (Consent), please
tick the box

If you have answered ‘YES’ to any of the questions in Section 3 (Disclosure),

please tick the box

If you have answered ‘NO’ to any of the questions in Section 4 (Debriefing), please
tick the box

If you have answered ‘NO’ to any of the questions in Section 5 (Anonymity and
confidentiality), please tick the box

7. Further details
If you have ticked any of the boxes above in item 6 please identify and provide an account
for the particular ethical issue(s) arising out of the proposed research and outline how this
(these) concern(s) will be met in accordance with departmental ethical guidelines.
8. Declaration

Please confirm that you have read the BPS Code of Conduct and are willing to abide by it in
relation to the current proposal.

Student signature Date

XX 09/06/16

Project supervisor Date

___________________________________ _____15/6/16__________
 APPENDIX 2

Department of Psychology

Participant Information Sheet

Assessing Memory After a Short Nap

You are invited to take part in a research study as part of my PhD, whereby participation is
entirely voluntary. If for any reason throughout the study you do not wish to continue or you
do not wish for your data to be used, you maintain the right to withdraw from the study at any
time by notifying the researcher that you no longer wish to participate. If at any point up to two
weeks after your participation you no longer wish for you data to be included in the study, you
have the right to withdraw your data and do not have to provide a reason for withdrawing. You
may do this by emailing the researcher directly (please see the bottom of the information sheet
for contact details). There will be no adverse consequences to you for withdrawing from the
study before, during or after the study. All information you provide is strictly confidential and
you will remain anonymous throughout the study via the use of a participant number to
distinguish you. The data you provide will be used solely for research purposes and may be
included in the writing of research articles and/or presented at conferences.

Participation in this study initially involves completing a questionnaire to measure your

handedness (Edinburgh Handedness Inventory), and you will also be required to complete a
questionnaire regarding your mood, general sleep habits, sleep pattern and caffeine and alcohol
intake.

The study consists of three parts. During the initial presentation phase, words or faces will be
presented one at a time to the centre of the screen. You should pay attention to the stimuli and
attempt to remember them.
After this you will be randomly allocated to either the sleep or wake group. Those in the sleep
group will be connected to a polysomnography machine, which will record EEG readings via
electrodes that will be attached to the scalp using a gel solution and tape. Once this is
completed, you will be asked to take a short nap in the lab for approximately 60 minutes. The
researcher will not be in the lab with you during this time, and you will be given an alarm
clock to wake you up when you have had 60 minutes to sleep. Those in the wake group will be
provided with simple tasks to complete for 60 minutes.
Finally, you will then take part in the third part of the study. During this part of the study,
stimuli will be presented to the left or right of the screen, and you will be asked a series of
recognition questions based on what you saw in the presentation phase.

You have the right to stop the test at any time and withdraw yourself from the study with no
explanation needed and no adverse consequences to you. The study should take no longer than
two hours in total and you will be paid for you time.
If you have any questions as a result of reading this information sheet, you should ask the
researcher before the study begins. If you would like any more information after the study ends
or if you are interested in the outcome of the study, either myself or my supervisor would be
happy to answer any questions or queries. If you have any concerns about this study, please
contact myself, my supervisor, or the Head of Department. You may contact us via email:

Researcher: Mr X (email address)

Supervisor: Prof Y (email address)
Head of Department: psychology.hod@lancaster.ac.uk)
 APPENDIX 2

Appendix B
Participant Information Sheet
Assessing Memory After a Short Nap
You are invited to take part in a research study as part of my PhD, whereby participation is
entirely voluntary. If for any reason throughout the study you do not wish to continue or you
do not wish for your data to be used, you maintain the right to withdraw from the study at any
time by notifying the researcher that you no longer wish to participate. If at any point up to two
weeks after your participation you no longer wish for you data to be included in the study, you
have the right to withdraw your data and do not have to provide a reason for withdrawing. You
may do this by emailing the researcher directly (please see the bottom of the information sheet
for contact details). There will be no adverse consequences to you for withdrawing from the
study either before, during or for 2 weeks after the study. All information you provide is
strictly confidential and you will remain anonymous throughout the study via the use of a
participant number to distinguish you. The data you provide will be used solely for research
purposes and may be included in the writing of research articles and/or presented at
conferences.

Participation in this study initially involves completing a questionnaire to measure your

handedness (Edinburgh Handedness Inventory), and you will also be required to complete a
questionnaire regarding your mood, general sleep habits, sleep pattern and caffeine and alcohol
intake.

During the initial presentation phase, words or faces will be presented one at a time to either
the left or right of the screen. You should stay focused on the centre of the screen, whilst trying
to remember the words that appear. During this session, eye-tracking technology will be used
to ensure that you remain focused on a fixation cross that will be in the centre of the screen.
After this you will be randomly allocated to either the sleep or wake group. Those in the sleep
group will be connected to a polysomnography machine, which will record EEG readings via
electrodes that will be attached to the scalp using a gel solution and tape. Once this is
completed, you will be asked to take a short nap in the lab for approximately 60 minutes. The
researcher will not be in the lab with you during this time, and you will be given an alarm
clock to wake you up when you have had 60 minutes to sleep. Those in the wake group will be
provided with simple tasks to complete for 60 minutes.
Finally, you will then take part in the third part of the study. During this part of the study,
stimuli will be presented to the centre of the screen, and you will be asked a series of
recognition questions based on what you saw in the presentation phase.

You have the right to stop the test at any time and withdraw yourself from the study with no
explanation needed and no adverse consequences to you. Each session will take no longer than
two hours in total and you will be paid for you time.

If you have any questions as a result of reading this information sheet, you should ask the
researcher before the study begins. If you would like any more information after the study ends
or if you are interested in the outcome of the study, either myself or my supervisor would be
happy to answer any questions or queries. If you have any concerns about this study, please
contact myself, my supervisor, or the Head of Department. You may contact us via email:

Researcher: Mr X (email address)

Supervisor: Prof Y (email address)
Head of Department: psychology.hod@lancaster.ac.uk)
 APPENDIX 4

Department of Psychology
Group:
Participant Number:

Participant Consent Form

Assessing Memory After a Short Nap
Name:

Age:

E-mail Address:

Do you speak English as your first language?

Please read the following statements and sign below to acknowledge and agree:

1.) I agree to participate in this research on sleep and memory abilities.

2.) I understand my participation is completely voluntary.
3.) I have been given the opportunity to ask any questions at any time.
4.) I understand I have the right to withdraw from the study at any time without giving a reason
and with no adverse consequences.
5.) I have been given full information about what the study entails.
6.) I have been given contact information for the researchers.
7.) I understand my responses will be treated confidentially.

I agree to participate in the study on memory as described. I understand that my responses will
be treated confidentially and that I can withdraw from the experiment at any time.

Signature: ……………………………………………… Date: ……………….

If you have any questions as a result of reading this consent form, please do not hesitate to ask.

If you have any questions regarding the study after it ends, myself or my supervisor would be
happy to answer your queries. If you have any concerns regarding the study, you may also
contact the Head of Department. You can contact us via email:

Researcher: Mr X (email address)

Supervisor: Prof Y (email address)
Head of Department: psychology.hod@lancaster.ac.uk)
 APPENDIX 4

Department of Psychology

Participant Debrief Sheet

The Effects of Short Term Sleep on Hemispheric Processing of Emotional and Neutral False
Memories

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a short nap on memory for emotionally negative
or positive, as well as non-emotional words and/or faces. Furthermore, we aimed to investigate whether
there was a difference in memory accuracy for words and faces presented to either the left or right of a
computer screen, which means the stimuli were processed initially by the right or left hemisphere of
your brain. False memories are distortions in memory that lead us to falsely remember events or
information that did not actually occur. In this study, some of the stimuli you saw in the second session
were similar to stimuli from the first session, but that you did not actually see. If you falsely said that
you recognised this stimuli, this is known as a false memory.

Previous research indicates that the right hemisphere is more likely to elicit false memories, as is stimuli
of an emotional nature, and this effect may be enhanced by sleep. However little is known about the
specific contribution of different sleep stages to the formation of emotional and neutral false memories
in the two hemispheres. No study to date has combined these three factors to understand the effects they
may have on false memories.

Therefore, we compared memory for related but unseen stimuli for people who either slept or stayed
awake. Those who slept were connected to a polysomography machine in order to measure specific
sleep stages. We also tested positive, negative and neutral emotion to see if those stimuli were
remembered differently, as well as presenting stimuli to both the left and right visual fields to measure
any hemispheric differences.

If you do not wish for your data to be considered for analysis you have the right to withdraw your
results for up to two weeks after taking part in this study. To do so, you should contact the researcher,
Chloe Newbury, directly on the email address provided below.

Your data will remain confidential and will be stored anonymously at all times through the use of a
participant number associated with your data.

If you wish to read more about research surrounding this study please read:

Payne, J. D., Schacter, D. L., Propper, R. E., Huang, L. W., Wamsley, E. J., Tucker, M. A., Walker, M.
P. & Stickgold, R. (2009). The role of sleep in false memory formation. Neurobiology of
Learning and Memory, 92(3), 327-334.
Marchewka, A., Brechmann, A., Nowicka, A., Jednoróg, K., Scheich, H., & Grabowska, A. (2008).
False recognition of emotional stimuli is lateralised in the brain: An fMRI study. Neurobiology
of learning and memory, 90(1), 280-284.
Monaghan, P., Shaw, J. J., Ashworth Lord, A., & Newbury, C. R. (2016). Hemispheric processing of
memory is affected by sleep. Brain & Language.

If you have any questions regarding the study please feel free to contact myself or my supervisor. If you
have any concerns regarding this study you may also contact the Head of Department. You can contact
us via email:

Researcher: Mr X (email address)

Supervisor: Prof Y (email address)
Head of Department: psychology.hod@lancaster.ac.uk)
 APPENDIX 5

Department of Psychology

Risk Assessment

The form should be written in clear language, easily understandable by a non-specialist.

The completed forms must be stored by the principal investigator/ project supervisor.

Department: Psychology

Process/Operation: Running an experimental study

(1) Risks to the researcher

 There is no risk to the researcher

(2) Risks to the participants

 There is a risk that participants may feel uncomfortable with sleeping in a room on
campus with only one researcher present.
- Solution – The researcher will not be present in the room whilst participants are
asleep, and participants will be given an alarm clock to wake them up at the required
time. Furthermore, participants will be reminded throughout the study that they are
free to withdraw at any point with no adverse consequences.

 There is a small risk of allergic reaction to the cleaning fluid or EEG cement.
- Solution – We will inform participants of the ingredients in the chemicals so
that they can withdraw from the study if they are allergic.

Therefore, is the residual risk High, Medium or Low? Low

Low

If High or Medium, what further action is necessary to control the risk?

Assessor:______________________________________________________