___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ *Think/Not Think Task* ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Date: 06-29-2020 last updated: 04-20-2023 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Script Copyright © 04-20-2023 Millisecond Software ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ BACKGROUND INFO ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This script implements a Think/Not Think Task procedure to study the effect of thought suppression on memory. Reference Anderson, M.C. & Green, C. (2001). Suppressing unwanted memories by executive control. NATURE, 410, 366-369. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ TASK DESCRIPTION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Participants work through 3 phases: 1. Phase I: Learning of 40 random word pairs where the left word is going to be the recall cue of the right word. Recall is tested via textbox input in this script. 2. Phase II: Active Thought suppression instructions for some of these word pairs 3. Phase III: Re-testing all word pair learning ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DURATION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Phase 1: ~5-10min per round Phase 2: ~20 minutes Phase 3: ~5 minutes ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DATA FILE INFORMATION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The default data stored in the data files are: (1) Raw data file: 'thinknotthinktask_raw*.iqdat' (a separate file for each participant)* 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. countPhaseI: counts the number of phase I rounds run by this script pairNumber: the pairNumber of the currently presented word pair index_cueword: the itemnumber (item.words) of the cueword cueWord: the cue word index_recallword: the itemnumber (item.words) of the recall word recallWord: the recall word stimulusitem: the presented stimuli in order of trial presentation phase I: the word pair with the cue word on the left phase II: the cue word phase III: the cue word response: the participant's response correct: accuracy of response: 1 = correct response; 0 = otherwise latency: the response latency (in ms); measured from: onset of cue phaseII_firstcharlatency: the latency (in ms) of the first input into the textbox during phase 2 (even if response was later erased) => if latency > 0 => participant attempted to respond to item (2) Summary data file: 'thinknotthinktask_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) Phase I: countPhaseI: the number of phase1 rounds run in this script propCorrect_Phase1: the overall proportion correct recall performance during phase 1 Note: if performance < parameters.minPropRecall_phase1 => phase2/phase3 are not run in this script Phase III: propCorrect_Phase3: the overall proportion correct recall performance during phase 3 propCorrect_Phase3_0Recall: the proportion correct recall performance of baseline items randomly assigned to be the 'recall' condition comparison propCorrect_Phase3_0Suppression: the proportion correct recall performance of baseline items randomly assigned the 'suppression' condition comparison propCorrect_Phase3_1Recall: the proportion correct recall performance of items in the 'recall' condition that were presented only once during phaseII propCorrect_Phase3_1Suppression: the proportion correct recall performance of items in the 'suppression' condition that were presented only once during phaseII propCorrect_Phase3_8Recall: the proportion correct recall performance of items in the 'recall' condition that were presented 8 times during phaseII propCorrect_Phase3_8Suppression: the proportion correct recall performance of items in the 'suppression' condition that were presented 8 times during phaseII propCorrect_Phase3_16Recall: the proportion correct recall performance of items in the 'recall' condition that were presented 16 times during phaseII propCorrect_Phase3_16Suppression: the proportion correct recall performance of items in the 'suppression' condition that were presented 16 times during phaseII * 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 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 1. Phase I: Learning of 40 random word pairs where the left word is going to be the recall cue of the right word. (study-phase) 2. Phase II: Active Thought suppression instructions for some of these word pairs (suppression-phase) 3. Phase III: Re-testing all word pair learning (test-phase) The 40 word pair associations are divided into 4 major 'repeat' groups: - Repeat16: 10 word pairs are repeated during phaseII 16 times (5 are 'recall' pairs, 5 are 'suppression' pairs) - Repeat8: 10 word pairs are repeated during phaseII 8 times (5 are 'recall' pairs, 5 are 'suppression' pairs) - Repeat1: 10 word pairs are presented only once during phaseII (5 are 'recall' pairs, 5 are 'suppression' pairs) - Repeat 0: 10 word pairs are never presented during phaseII (=baseline pairs, 5 are 'recall' pairs, 5 are 'suppression' pairs) 'Recall' pairs: participants should recall the associated word given a particular cue word during phase II 'Suppression' pairs: participants should supress the associated word given a particular cue word during phase II 1) Word Pair Assignment: By default, this script runs preassigned fixed word pairs (the assignments were randomly generated). The word pairs can easily be edited by changing the assignment lists under section Editable Stimuli. The advantage of pre-fixed word pairs is that phaseI can be distributed across several sessions. 2) Phase I: PhaseI is divided into a study and a recall phase: a) Study: each word pair is presented for 5000ms (default; editable parameter) b) Recall: each word pair is tested via textbox input Phase I Termination: By default phaseI is terminated after 100% correct recall (editable parameter) on all 40 word pairs (= successful completion) OR after 10 unsuccessful (editable parameter) rounds. If (and only if) successful phaseI completion => phase2 is started 3) Phase II: 250 trials Participants are given the list of suppression cues during instructions. Each suppression and recall word pair is presented for 5000ms (editable parameter) together with a response textbox. Participants are instructed to view the (suppression) cues for the entire duration and to try NOT to think about the associated word pair. If participants respond to a 'suppression' cue word (responding that can be detected by computer: typing some input into the textbox even if it is erased), feedback is provided. The number of times as particular cue is presented differs according to 'repeat' group assignment. repeat1_recall pairs: 1 time (5 pairs presented once => 5 trials) repeat1_suppression pairs: 1 time (5 pairs presented once => 5 trials) repeat8_recall pairs: 8 times (5 pairs presented 8 times each => 40 trials) repeat8_suppression pairs: 8 times (5 pairs presented 8 times each => 40 trials) repeat16_recall pairs: 16 times (5 pairs presented 16 times each => 80 trials) repeat16_suppression pairs: 16 times (5 pairs presented 16 times each => 80 trials) => Total of 250 trials 4) Phase III: All 40 word pairs are re-tested once (via textbox input) ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ STIMULI ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 80 demo words provided by Millisecond Software - can easily be edited under section Editable Stimuli Note: the 80 demo words were randomly assigned to the 8 main experimental conditions: 4 (number of repeats during phase 2: 0, 1, 2, 3) x 2 suppression condition (recall vs. suppress) (also words were randomly assigned to be the cue or the recall word). Assignments can easily be edited under section Editable Stimuli ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ INSTRUCTIONS ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ provided by Millisecond Software - 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: