UNRAVEL Task
Background
The UNRAVEL task is a cognitive testing paradigm introduced by Eric Altmann and colleagues in 2014 to measure an individual's 'placekeeping ability'— the capacity to execute complex multi-step procedural sequences in the correct order without skipping or repeating steps. It ensures that people perform every required step without skipping or repeating any actions. The purpose of placekeeping is to ensure smooth procedural task progression when tasks lack external progression cues. Placekeeping thus relies heavily on working memory (WM) and is highly vulnerable to distractions and interruptions. After interruptions, people may have trouble returning to the correct place in the sequence; they may either skip a step (omission errors) or repeat one (commission errors). The longer or complex interruptions are, the higher the cognitive load for 'placekeeping' and the more errors can be expected. Altman and colleagues showed in 2019 that placekeeping abilities go beyond WM abilities and significantly contribute to individual differences in fluid intelligence.
Each letter in the acronym UNRAVEL stands for one of 7 distinct categorization tasks that need to be performed in the exact same multi-step procedural sequences without external reminders of the target task at any one point - even after distractor tasks. Each of the tasks has designated response keys. The use of a particular response key is thus indicative of the task being performed at each point in the sequence:
U – Formatted character check (underlined vs. italicized) N – Letter position in the alphabet (near vs. far from the start) R – Colorful character check (red vs. yellow) A – Box position relative to the character (above vs. below) V – Letter type (vowel vs. consonant) E – Digit parity (even vs. odd) L – Digit value (< 5 vs. > 5)
Because the UNRAVEL paradigm relies on an English mnemonic acronym to help participants memorize the order of the cognitive operations, researchers in other languages may have to completely redesign the acronym and the corresponding ruleset to fit their own language. The German adaption by Tara Radovic and Dietrich Manzey (2022), e.g., runs 8 tasks using the acryonym 'WORTKLAU' ('word theft'), making the task slightly more challenging than the 7-task English version.
Task Procedure
On each trial participants see a character inside a box and another character outside of it (above or below the box).
The characters are presented in opposite corners (e.g. if one is presented on the left side of the box, the other is presented on the right side of the box). One of the characters is a letter (default letters used: A, B, V, U) and the other a digit (default digits: 1, 2, 8, 9). One of the characters is colorful (red or yellow), the other is white. One of the characters is formatted (underlined or italicized) and the other one isn't.
Participants are asked to work through seven categorization tasks in sequence without prompts telling them which task to perfrom on any given trial other than the acronym 'UNRAVEL' as a sequence guide:
- U: is the formatted character underlined (press U) or italicized? (press I)
- N: is the letter near (press N) or far (press F) the start of the alphabet?
- R: is the colorful character red (press R) or yellow (press Y)?
- A: is the character outside the box above it (press A) or below it (press B)?
- V: is the letter a vowel (press V) or a consonant (press C)?
- E: is the digit even (press E) or odd (press O)?
- L: is the digit less than 5 (press L) or more than 5 (press M)?
Because each task uses unique response keys, the choice of response key on any given trial indicates the type of task (and its place in the UNRAVEL sequence) performed. Randomly a distractor task (interruption) is presented: twice participants are asked to enter a displayed code into a textbox. Only if the code is entered correctly, is the participant returned to the current place in the UNRAVEL trial sequence. To keep going with the correct task in the sequence, participants need to hold the last performed task in working memory.
The script starts out with a tutorial that explains the task. Participants learn about the meaning of the acronym UNRAVEL while working through each task in sequence. During the tutorial, participants are told the correct responses to the task at hand and only those responses advance the tutorial.
After the tutorial, participants work through a practice session of 16 practice trials with 2 semi-randomly placed interruptions. During practice, error feedback in the form of a white flash is provided for incorrect responses and participants have to correct the incorrect response before advancing.
The actual test session consists of 4 blocks that run about 66 trials per block. Each block starts with the U task. Participants are never reminded of their place in the UNRAVEL sequence but may decide to view the rules during each trial by pressing the Tab-key. During each block, 10 interruption trials are run (on average every 6 trials). No more error feedback is provided during the test.
What it Measures
The UNRAVEL task measures 'placekeeping' abilities
Psychological domains
- Executive Control: Collection of "top-down" mental processes used to manage and regulate thoughts and actions
- Cognitive Flexibility: Continuously shifting to a new rule on each trial
- Sustained Attention: Maintaining focus over a repetitive series of trials without 'drifting'
- Divided Attention & Multitasking: Participants juggle the primary procedural sequence alongside unexpected secondary sub-tasks.
- Working Memory: Storing and constantly updating short term memory as well as selecting respective response buttons
- Fluid Intelligence: Ability to reason abstractly and solve novel problems independent of acquired knowledge
Main Performance Metrics
- Overall Proportion Sequence Errors: the proportion of sequence errors across all test trials; main measure of place keeping ability
Psychiatric Conditions
The UNRAVEL task is mostly used in cognitive research testing healthy populations (such as assessing individual differences in fluid intelligence or investigating the effects of severe sleep deprivation).
A task designed by Altman et al (2014) measuring the impact of short interruptions on placekeeping and procedural errors.
References
Search Google Scholar for peer-reviewed, published research using the Inquisit UNRAVEL Task.
Altmann, E., Trafton, J., Hambrick, D., & Gauthier, Isabel. (2014). Momentary Interruptions Can Derail the Train of Thought. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(1), 215-226.
Hambrick, D., & Altmann, Z. (2015). The role of placekeeping ability in fluid intelligence. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 22(4), 1104-1110.
Altmann, & Trafton. (2015). Brief Lags in Interrupted Sequential Performance: Evaluating a Model and Model Evaluation Method. International Journal of Human - Computer Studies, 79, 51-65.