Ethics+at+the+Cognitive+LOA

Human animals

 * Review from previous discussions of ethics**

[|Summary] of guidelines from the British Psychological Association

[|Try this quick quiz on ethics] - what do you know?

[|Standard 4: Privacy and Confidentiality]
 * American Psychological Association (APA)**

[|Standard 8: Research and publication] (Informed consent)

=Introduction=

Your introduction should identify WHY ethical considerations are important.
 * respect dignity
 * respect for quality of life

Paragraph 1: Areas of confidentiality
Source: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/bioethics/guidelines/ethical4.html
 * (vi) //Privacy, anonymity and confidentiality//:** Information on the extent of privacy, anonymity and confidentiality that will be provided to participant(s). This must include, at least, the firm commitment that privacy, anonymity and confidentiality of data identifying participants will be strictly maintained. In case the data identifying participants is to be shared with or made available to **individuals/organisations** not in the research team, information about **them** (their names, addresses etc.) should be provided.


 * ==Illustration==
 * Clive Wearing - case study**
 * patient with anterograde and retrograde amnesia
 * his name was publicized because his wife has shared his story
 * in this case, the wife has waived the right to anonymity, publishing a book to share the experience - 'Forever Today'


 * HM **
 * patient with anterograde amnesia, and slight retrograde amnesia
 * HM died in 2008, and his name has since been released
 * Until that point, to protect his privacy, his name was not publicly known
 * He donated his brain to science, and [|the findings of the dissections are now being publicized] literally as they are being done.
 * Since HM was never able to remember that he had participated in research, it could be argued that voluntary informed consent was not actually given
 * Researchers have argued that the benefits gained from studying HM outweigh this consideration - could be argued that 'the ends justify the means' is a dangerous path to take. However, there is no denying that HM's case has led to huge steps in the understanding of the localization of memory and the roles of the hippocampus and amygdala. Ssurgeons never again chose to treat epilepsy in that particular way, because of the impact it had.


 * Considerations of any long-term research (particularly relevant to case studies) **
 * Often a relationship is built between researcher and subject and self-disclosure is part of any growing relationship
 * It can be very difficult to be objective, particularly when personal information is shared.
 * Equally, researchers can become too involved in the subject's life ||

Paragraph 2: Emotional situations
Any study that involves connections to emotional situations must be aware that this can cause distress The APA and BPA explicitly state that if psychological harm is expected, then deception is not justified. Obviously, this can be a 'grey area'. What is psychological harm? How do you deal with the fact that what is distressing for one person is not necessarily distressing for another?
 * Experimental studies on eyewitness testimony**
 * Staging of criminal scenes - Ihlebaek et al, 2003
 * 2 robbers with handguns in **a live condition**
 * Investigation of the weapons effect - Johnson and Scott (1976 - the original experiment)
 * participants heard a discussion in the room next to them
 * a man comes out of the room with a paperknife covered in blood
 * is it ethical to distress people in this way?
 * "[|Maass and Kohnen (1989) carried out a field experiment in which participants were approach by a woman holding either a pen or a syringe. Participants in the 'pen' condition were able to supply more accurate descriptions of the woman. Studies like these give support to the suggestion that witnesses' attention tends to be drawn towards a weapon, thereby preventing them from taking in other details about the situation. However, this theory rests on the assumption that the weapon represents a threat.]" - Is it ethical to create a situation where you feel threatened?

Neisser and Harsch's (1992) study on flashbulb memory involving the Challenger disaster. The questionnaire was administered to 106 participants the day after the explosion, and then again 2.5 years later Such questions can cause emotional distress
 * Questionnaires about emotional events such as disasters**

=Paragraph 3 - Ethics of social interaction=

Interviews
Studies that involve interviews must always be careful to take into consideration the ethics of social interaction
 * maintain confidentiality
 * be aware that participants may regret sharing sensitive information and either wish to terminate the interview, or have their information removed from the study


 * (vii) //Future use of information//:** The future possible use of the information and data obtained, including use as a database, archival research or recordings for educational purposes, as well as possible use in unanticipated circumstances, like its use as secondary data should be made known to participants. Such use should be only of anonymous or abstracted information and data, and should in no way conflict with or violate the maintenance of privacy, anonymity and confidentiality of information identifying participants.


 * (viii) //Right not to participate and withdraw//:** Participants should also be informed about their right to decline participation outright, or to withdraw consent given at any stage of the research, without undesirable consequences, penalty and so on. The participants should be informed that they are free to object to and refuse to allow the use of data gathering devices, such as camera, tape recorder, etc.

Considerations here are all concerned with protecting the participants:
 * proper training of interviewers
 * need to watch for distress during the interviews
 * need to debrief
 * need to make sure interviewees can terminate the interview at any point

Ethical considerations specifically connected to Brain-scanning procedures
See Kilts study and Montague study (Crane and Hannibal page 87) (Or any other brain scanning study - eg. Maguire) Researchers need to inform participants that such scans are time-consuming and can be very uncomfortable. Participants need to be fully briefed in terms of what to expect, and allowed to terminate the procedure if they wish to do so MRIs have been associated with development or exacerbation of claustrophobia and researchers need to be aware of this, and to monitor the participants carefully for signs of distress.
 * Kilts investigated role of brain in product preference
 * volunteers self-selected
 * each one was put in the MRI, rated products when looking at pictures of items, scanner monitored brain activity
 * Montague scanned 70 participants in a blind taste-test of Pepsi and Coca-cola
 * MRIs found activity in the ventral putamen (part of the brain's pleasure center)