___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ *SENTENCE VERIFICATION TASK* ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Date: 07-29-2016 last updated: 02-28-2022 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Script Copyright © 02-28-2022 Millisecond Software ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ BACKGROUND INFO ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This script implements the Sentence Verification Task, a speeded-reasoning task using speed and accuracy to study the interplay of 'naive' intuitions (e.g. the 'sun moves around the earth') and contradictory scientific knowledge (e.g. 'the earth moves around the sun'). The implemented procedure is based on: Shtulman, A. & Valcarcel, J. (2012). Scientific knowledge suppresses but does not supplant earlier intuitions. Cognition, 124, 209–215. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ TASK DESCRIPTION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Participants are presented a variety of statements across several knowledge domains and have to decide as fast as possible if these statements are true or false by selecting 'E' for true and 'I' for false. Some of these statements differ in whether they are would be judged as 'true' according to a 'naive' or a 'scientific' understanding/theory of the subject matter. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DURATION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ the default set-up of the script takes appr. 15 minutes to complete ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DATA FILE INFORMATION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The default data stored in the data files are: (1) Raw data file: 'sentenceverificationtask_raw*.iqdat' (a separate file for each participant)* build: The specific Inquisit version used (the 'build') that was run computer.platform: the platform the script was run on (win/mac/ios/android) date, time: date and time script was run subject, group: with the current subject/groupnumber session: with the current session id blockcode, blocknum: the name and number of the current block (built-in Inquisit variable) trialcode, trialnum: the name and number of the currently recorded trial (built-in Inquisit variable) Note: trialnum is a built-in Inquisit variable; it counts all trials run; even those that do not store data to the data file such as feedback trials. Thus, trialnum may not reflect the number of main trials run per block. domain: domain name tested stimConcept: concept tested naiveCorrect: 1 = true by naive theory; 0 = otherwise scientificCorrect: 1 = true by scientific theory; 0 = otherwise truthConsistency: 1 = naive understanding and scientific theory are consistent (= would evoke the same response); 0 = otherwise (=potential conflict if scientific knowledge has been learned) stimulusitem: the presented stimuli in order of trial presentation here: the statement response: the participant's response (scancode of responsekey)- built-in variable 18 = E (true) 23 = I (false) responseCat: the interpreted key response-custom variable 1 = participant indicated 'true'; 0 = participant indicated 'false' correct: the correctness of the response 1 = response correct by scientific theory; 0 = incorrect otherwise latency: the response latency (in ms); measured from onset of statement (2) Summary data file: 'sentenceverificationtask_summary*.iqdat' (a separate file for each participant)* inquisit.version: Inquisit version run computer.platform: the platform the script was run on (win/mac/ios/android) startDate: date script was run startTime: time script was started subjectid: assigned subject id number groupid: assigned group id number sessionid: assigned session id number elapsedTime: time it took to run script (in ms); measured from onset to offset of script completed: 0 = script was not completed (prematurely aborted); 1 = script was completed (all conditions run) Summary Data: correct = correct response according to scientific theory propCorrect: overall proportion correct responses meanRT: overall mean latency (in ms) of correct responses SD: overall standard deviation (in ms) of latencies to correct responses ///consistent = naive intuition and scientific knowledge result in same response propCorrect_truthConsistent: proportion correct responses of consistent statements meanRT_truthConsistent: mean latency (in ms) of correct responses of consistent statements SD_truthConsistent: standard deviation (in ms) of latencies to correct responses of consistent statements ///inconsistent = naive intuition and scientific knowledge result in different response propCorrect_truthInconsistent: proportion correct responses of inconsistent statements meanRT_truthInconsistent: mean latency (in ms) of correct responses of inconsistent statements SD_truthInconsistent: standard deviation (in ms) of latencies to correct responses of inconsistent statements RTDiff: the difference btw. "mean corrRT Inconsistent" - "mean corrRT Consistent" (in ms) positive value: it took longer to correctly categorize Inconsistent statements => evidence of conflict btw. naive intuition and scientific knowledge 0: there was no advantage of Consistent statements => no evidence of conflict btw. naive intuition and scientific knowledge negative value: it took longer to correctly categorize Consistent statements Within the given framework, there is no satisfactory explanation for this behavior * separate data files: to change to one data file for all participants (on Inquisit Lab only), go to section "DATA" and follow further instructions ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 10 domain blocks with 20 trials: 200 trials total - order of blocks randomized - each block tests one subject matter domain with 5 concepts x 4 questions per concept (see STIMULI below) (domain is announced in the instructions presented before each block) - order of questions within a block randomized - half the questions are truth-consistent (same response for naive and scientific theory) - by default, task is untimed Note: if fewer than 10 blocks should be run, go to section EXPERIMENT and follow instructions ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ STIMULI ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ taken from the published supplemental material of Shtulman & Valcarcel (2012): 10 domains with 5 concepts. Each concept is tested with 4 questions: - one question is true across scientific and naive theory - one question is false across scientific and naive theory - one question is true by the naive theory but false by the scientific theory - one question is false by the naive theory but true by the scientific theory Items can be viewed and edited under section STIMULI below ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ INSTRUCTIONS ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Instructions are not original; they are provided by Millisecond Software and can be edited under section Editable Instructions. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ EDITABLE CODE ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ check below for (relatively) easily editable parameters, stimuli, instructions etc. Keep in mind that you can use this script as a template and therefore always "mess" with the entire code to further customize your experiment. The parameters you can change are: /trueResponsekey: the label for the 'true' responsekey (default: E); left response key /falseResponsekey: the label for the 'false' responsekey (default: I); right response key /fontsize: the fontsize of the statements in canvas height percentage (default: 5%)