We are looking for cohabiting couples to take part in research on how you use digital technologies to manage and plan your home and work lives. Within a home context this thinking and decision making is often described as the cognitive or mental load. We are interested in the use of digital tools to manage the cognitive load in both home and work domains. More information is available on our website.
To participate, you must be:
- Aged 18+
- In a cohabiting couple (heterosexual or same sex) and both able and willing to take part
- Have caring responsibilities (with dependents aged 5+ or responsibility for the care of an adult relative)
- Work for 30+ hours
- Have access to the internet and digital devices
What is involved?
- The researchers will meet the couple online for a informal joint interview to talk about how you undertake this hidden work
- Interviews will be accompanied by short exercises which enable you to tell us more about your own experiences with the mental load (e.g. collage, diary)
- Lastly, we meet each participant individually for a second online interview so you have the opportunity to reflect, add context or clarify information sent to us.
The research is being undertaken by researchers at the University of Manchester (Professor Emma Banister and Dr Laura Jarvis-King, Alliance Manchester Business School), with full ethical approval and is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.
Take Part
If you are interested in taking part and meet the eligibility criteria, please complete this online form.
The form will collect some personal details (e.g. name, contact details, age, ethnicity and other demographic information) to process your application and you will be required to consent to the use of this personal information for this purpose.
More information is available on our website and the researchers can also be contacted directly via email.