Research Info

Introduction

Thank you for your interest in our study! In order to participate in the study, we ask that you read the following information carefully. It will inform you of your rights as a participant and our responsibilities as study administrators.

The study is conducted by the Educational Psychology and Technology Research Group (Prof. Dr. Nikol Rummel) at Ruhr-Universität Bochum and the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy (Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christof Paar).

The goal of this study is to test whether the developed hardware reverse engineering game ("ReverSim") can be played by people without extensive prior knowledge or experience in fields such as computer science, IT security, or electrical engineering. Therefore, we need participants with little prior knowledge as well as intermediates and experts. Also, we are interested in wether it is possible to perform basic cognitive tests in the game environment. Your participation will help us to optimize the game mechanics, evaluate the solvability of different game levels, and to design follow-up studies. This study is intended for individuals who are at least 18 years old.

Procedure of the study

The study takes place online, so you can participate from home. In total, the study will take approximately 60 minutes to complete, but no more than 90 minutes. A desktop or laptop PC, a mouse, and an Internet connection are mandatory for participation. For technical reasons, participation via smartphone or tablet is not possible.

The study starts with a survey on demographics and prior knowledge.

Immediately afterwards, you will play a short cognitive speed test in which you have to click on numbers from 1 to 90 in sequence. Then you will play a tutorial, which is an integral part of the game. During the tutorial you will get to know all game elements as well as the objectives of the game and you will be able to solve first smaller levels. After completing the tutorial, you will solve the main levels of ReverSim.

After completing the main levels of the game, we still ask for your feedback.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact the investigators displayed at the top of this page.

Voluntariness

Participation in the study is voluntary. You may withdraw from participation in this study at any time without giving any reason and without incurring any disadvantage.

Data protection and right to data deletion

Your solution process, including your clicks on various game elements (switches in the game levels as well as clicks on all buttons) and your required solution time per level will be saved in the form of anonymized, text-based log files, which will be linked to the survey answers. These log files are stored during the cognitive test, the tutorial, as well as during the solution of the main levels. Furthermore, we save your drawings created with the drawing tools within the game levels. Anonymization is achieved by creating a random identifier for your session consisting of numbers and letters, which is not connected to your person.

The data collected and personal communications in the course of this study will be treated confidentially (Section 28 of the State Law on the Use of Data for Scientific Purposes; § 28 Landesgesetz zur Nutzung von Daten für wissenschaftliche Zwecke). Thus, those project staff members who have direct contact with you are subject to the obligation of confidentiality. Furthermore, the publication of the results of the study will be in anonymous form, i.e., without any data than can be associated to your person.

According to the General Data Protection Regulation (DS-GVO) you have the following rights:

• Information about processing of personal data, Section 15 (Auskunft über Verarbeitung personenbezogener Daten, Art 15)
• Withdrawal of consent given, Section 7 (Widerruf einer erteilten Einwilligung, Art 7)
• Rectification, Section 16 (Berichtigung, Art 16), Erasure; Section 17 (Löschung, Art 17)
• Restriction of processing, Section 18 (Einschränkung der Verarbeitung, Art 18)

In addition, you can contact the data protection officer of the Ruhr University Bochum (Dr. Kai-Uwe Loser; ) and a data protection supervisory authority with questions at any time. The State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (www.ldi.nrw.de) is the authority responsible for the Ruhr University Bochum.

Your random identifier will be removed from the data no later than 12/31/2024. This means that it is no longer possible for anyone to associate the data collected with your identifier. Once the the identifier is removed from the dataset, we can no longer identify your record. Therefore, we can only comply with your request to delete your dataset as long as the identifier is not removed from the dataset.

Introduction

Thank you for your interest in our study! In order to participate in the study, we ask that you read the following information carefully. It will inform you of your rights as a participant and our responsibilities as study administrators.

The study is conducted by the Educational Psychology and Technology Research Group (Prof. Dr. Nikol Rummel) at Ruhr-Universität Bochum and the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy (Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christof Paar).

The goal of this study is to test whether the developed hardware reverse engineering game ("ReverSim") can be played by people without extensive prior knowledge or experience in fields such as computer science, IT security, or electrical engineering. Therefore, we need participants with little prior knowledge as well as intermediates and experts. Also, we are interested in wether it is possible to perform basic cognitive tests in the game environment. Your participation will help us to optimize the game mechanics, evaluate the solvability of different game levels, and to design follow-up studies. This study is intended for individuals who are at least 18 years old.

Procedure of the study

The study takes place online, so you can participate from home. In total, the study will take approximately 60 minutes to complete, but no more than 90 minutes. A desktop or laptop PC, a mouse, and an Internet connection are mandatory for participation. For technical reasons, participation via smartphone or tablet is not possible.

The study starts with a survey on demographics and prior knowledge.

Immediately afterwards, you will play a short cognitive speed test in which you have to click on numbers from 1 to 90 in sequence. Then you will play a tutorial, which is an integral part of the game. During the tutorial you will get to know all game elements as well as the objectives of the game and you will be able to solve first smaller levels. After completing the tutorial, you will solve the main levels of ReverSim.

After completing the main levels of the game, we still ask for your feedback.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact the investigators displayed at the top of this page.

Voluntariness

Participation in the study is voluntary. You may withdraw from participation in this study at any time without giving any reason and without incurring any disadvantage. In the event of withdrawal, compensation for the study will be adjusted to reflect the proportion of the study completed.

Data protection and right to data deletion

Your solution process, including your clicks on various game elements (switches in the game levels as well as clicks on all buttons) and your required solution time per level will be saved in the form of anonymized, text-based log files, which will be linked to the survey answers and therefore your Prolific ID. These log files are stored during the cognitive test, the tutorial, as well as during the solution of the main levels. Furthermore, we save your drawings created with the drawing tools within the game levels.

The data collected and personal communications in the course of this study will be treated confidentially (Section 28 of the State Law on the Use of Data for Scientific Purposes; § 28 Landesgesetz zur Nutzung von Daten für wissenschaftliche Zwecke). Thus, those project staff members who have direct contact with you are subject to the obligation of confidentiality. Furthermore, the publication of the results of the study will be in anonymous form, i.e., without any data than can be associated to your person.

According to the General Data Protection Regulation (DS-GVO) you have the following rights:

• Information about processing of personal data, Section 15 (Auskunft über Verarbeitung personenbezogener Daten, Art 15)
• Withdrawal of consent given, Section 7 (Widerruf einer erteilten Einwilligung, Art 7)
• Rectification, Section 16 (Berichtigung, Art 16), Erasure; Section 17 (Löschung, Art 17)
• Restriction of processing, Section 18 (Einschränkung der Verarbeitung, Art 18)

In addition, you can contact the data protection officer of the Ruhr University Bochum (Dr. Kai-Uwe Loser; ) and a data protection supervisory authority with questions at any time. The State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (www.ldi.nrw.de) is the authority responsible for the Ruhr University Bochum.

Your Prolific ID will be removed from the data no later than 12/31/2024. This means that it is no longer possible for anyone to associate the data collected with your identifier. Once the the identifier is removed from the dataset, we can no longer identify your record. Therefore, we can only comply with your request to delete your dataset as long as the identifier is not removed from the dataset.

Introduction

Thank you for your interest in our research. To participate in the study, we would like to ask you to read the following information carefully. It will inform you about your rights as a participant and our obligations as study administrators.

The following contents deal with a pilot study on the topic "Simulation of Hardware Reverse Engineering in an Online Gaming Environment". The pilot study is conducted at the department of Educational Psychology at the Ruhr University Bochum (Prof. Dr. Nikol Rummel) and at the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy (Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christof Paar).

The goal of this pilot study is to validate the technical implementation of our hardware reverse engineering simulation (HRE simulation). This will help us to optimize the game mechanics, discover and remedy potential software errors. This study is intended for individuals who are at least 18 years old.

Procedure of the study

The study takes place online, so you can participate from your personal device. In total, participation in the pilot study will take approximately 30-60 minutes. You can participate as many times as you like. A laptop or PC and an Internet connection are mandatory for participation. For technical reasons, participation via smartphone or tablet is not possible.

The pilot study starts with two so-called training and qualification phases, which are an integral part of the HRE simulation and are thus also conducted online. During the training and qualification phases you will get to know all game elements as well as the objectives of the game and you will be able to solve first smaller levels. After completing the training and qualification phases, we would like you to solve the main levels of the HRE simulation.

Your solution paths, your clicks on various game elements (switches in the game levels as well as clicks on all buttons) and your required solution time per level will be saved in the form of anonymous, text-based log files. These log files are stored during the training and qualification phases as well as during the solution of the main levels. Furthermore, we save your drawings created with the painting tools within the game levels. If you decide to play our game multiple times, we will create a new, independent log file each time you play.

After completing the main levels of the HRE simulation, we ask you to participate in a short survey in which we give you the opportunity to give us feedback on the HRE simulation.

Voluntariness

Participation in this pilot study is voluntary. You can terminate your participation in this study at any time and without giving reasons, without incurring any disadvantages.

Data protection and right to data deletion

All data collected as part of the study will be treated confidentially. The data collected in this study will be stored and analyzed anonymously. Anonymization is achieved by assigning each session a unique identifier consisting of numbers and letters for participation in the study materials.

You have the right to request the deletion of your data from the questionnaires and the log files at any time. This will then be carried out immediately. In this case, please contact René Walendy or Steffen Becker, stating your unique session identifier, at or .

We do not collect any personal data as part of the simulation; for example, we do not store your IP address. We ask you to refrain from inserting personal data into our feedback forms. If we encounter such data, we will delete it immediately.

All data collected as part of the study will be used for scientific purposes only and stored on a server that complies with data protection laws. The results and parts of the data of this study may be published as a scientific publication. This will be done in aggregated form, i.e., we will never publish data from individual sessions. Beyond this use, we will never share data of this pilot study with others.

Thus, this study follows the recommendations of the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the German Psychological Society (DGPs) for quality assurance in research.

If you have any further questions about this study, please feel free to contact René Walendy or Steffen Becker at the e-mail address above.

Responsible data protection officer:
Dr. Kai-Uwe Loser
E-Mail: