In this study, you will interpret descriptions of an abstract pattern that you observe in colored grids. Sometimes, you will write descriptions of these patterns and sometimes you will use descriptions to solve a puzzle.

Research Consent Summary. You are being asked for your consent to take part in a research study. This document provides a concise summary of this research. The complete informed consent can be found here. It describes key information that we believe most people need to decide whether to take part in this research. Please read this document carefully before deciding whether or not you wish to continue.

What should I know about this research? Taking part in this research is voluntary. Whether or not you decide to take part is up to you. If you don't take part, it won't be held against you. You can take part now and drop out later, and it won't be held against you.

How long will I be in this research? Each research session will take approximately 60 minutes. You may be able to participate more than once.

Why is this research being done? The purpose of this research is to understand how individuals communicate and solve problems.

What happens to me if I agree to take part in this research? If you decide to take part in this research, you will be asked to play a puzzle game. Your performance on the game will be recorded. You will see communication generated by other humans.

Could being in this research hurt me? The risks of taking part in this research are extremely minimal, on the order of what you would expect if you played any multiplayer puzzle game for 60 minutes.

Will being in this research benefit me? It is not expected that you will benefit from this research. This research does not intend to diagnose, treat, or prevent any disease or condition.

Summary. The researchers who have requested your participation will not receive any personal identifying information about you. If you have questions about this research, please contact the research team. By clicking 'I AGREE' you indicate your consent to participate in this study.

Please complete this study on a computer in either Chrome or Safari.

If I gave you this grid:

And I told you:

"You should see a 3x3 grid with a colored dot in the middle. Create a 5x5 grid that is filled with the middle color."

Would you be able to make this transformation? Would you create the correct output shown below?

(hover over to show answer)

This is a simple example of the kind of tasks you will solve in this study. You will be given a description of a transformation, and you will have to use that description to create the correct output.

It is important that you use as few attempts as possible. The more tasks you complete, and the fewer attempts you take on each, the bigger reward you will get.

This study will take 60 minutes. You will be paid $6.50 for completing the session and you will receive additional bonuses for high-quality work.

Answer these questions to ensure that you understand the instructions.

Great! You successfully completed the quiz. Now, you will be given a description to solve on your own.

Great job finishing the tutorial.

You will now be given tasks until you do 60 minutes of work. For each task, you will be given credit towards completion. If we expect a task to take 5 minutes, you will get 5 minutes of credit, no matter how long you take.

We expect you to take longer to get tasks correct. So, if you fail a task, you will get less credit towards completion.

You will be paid $6.50 for completing the session.

You will be paid an additional $0.50 each time another participant uses your description to solve the puzzle correctly ($2.00 max per description).

You will be paid an additional $0.10 each time you solve a task with another participant's description.

Note: Bonuses are not guaranteed. They are subject to the quality of participants' solutions and the random allocation of puzzles and solutions.

We are currently collecting data from Prolific. So, your responses will be recorded to a seperate database because you are not on Prolific.

If you are on Prolific and this is a mistake, please email the research team.

We have finished collecting data for this study.