___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ *Contextual Cueing Task* ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Date: 04-29-2020 last updated: 02-21-2022 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Script Copyright © 02-21-2022 Millisecond Software ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ BACKGROUND INFO ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This script implements the Contextual Cueing Task, a task that aims to understand how contextual information influences visual attention. Reference Chun, M.M. and Jiang, Y. (1998) Contextual cueing: implicit learning and memory of visual context guides spatial attention. Cognit. Psychol., 36, 28–71 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ TASK DESCRIPTION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Participants see displays of 11 "L" and one "T" (the target). The 12 items are presented within a 8x6 matrix in in four different colors (red, green, blue, yellow). Distractor items can be rotated by 0, 90, 180 or 270degrees. The target T can be rotated by 90deg (-> points to the right) or by 270degrees (-> points to the left). Participants have to press a left key (here: A) if the T points to the left and a right key (here: L) when the T points to the right. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DURATION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ the default set-up of the script takes appr. 40 minutes to complete ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DATA FILE INFORMATION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The default data stored in the data files are: (1) Raw data file: 'contextualcueingtask_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. targetlocations_OLD: string variable that stores all the target locations used for the OLD scenes targetlocations_NEW: string variable that stores all the target locations used for the NEW scenes blockCount: custom test block counter epoch: 1-6 (Note: each set of 5 consecutive test blocks make up one epoch) trialCount_perblock: custom trial counter for each block category: 0 = practice trial; 1 = OLD scene; 2 = NEW scene old: 1-12 angleT: 90 vs. 270 (the randomly generated angle of the target T) //DV: response: the participant's response (scancode of response button) 30 = A 38 = L correct: accuracy of response: 1 = correct response; 0 = otherwise latency: the response latency (in ms); measured from: onset of display //scene information: configuration: stores the ordered locations of the currently presented scene (Note: each location uses 2 digits) repeatConfiguration: 1 = flag: the current spatial configuration is a repeat of a previous one (should not happen and if so very rarely) 0 = the current spatial configuration is unique //The positions (1-48) assigned to the Target and the 11 Distractors: positionT, positionD1, positionD2, positionD3, positionD4, positionD5, positionD6, positionD7, positionD8, positionD9, positionD10, positionD11, //the colors assigned to the Target and the 11 Distractors: colorT, colorD1, colorD2, colorD3, colorD4, colorD5, colorD6, colorD7, colorD8, colorD9, colorD10, colorD11, //the angles assigned to the Target and the 11 Distractors: angleT, angleD1, angleD2, angleD3, angleD4, angleD5, angleD6, angleD7, angleD8, angleD9, angleD10, angleD11, //remaining variables stored in the datafile used for internal debugging purposes (2) Summary data file: 'contextualcueingtask_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) propCorrect_OLD_overall: proportion correct for OLD scenes across all test blocks meanCorrRT_OLD_overall: mean correct response time (in ms) for OLD scenes across all test blocks //separate summary variables for the 6 epochs propCorrect_OLD_epoch1, meanCorrRT_OLD_epoch1, propCorrect_OLD_epoch2, meanCorrRT_OLD_epoch2, propCorrect_OLD_epoch3, meanCorrRT_OLD_epoch3, propCorrect_OLD_epoch4, meanCorrRT_OLD_epoch4, propCorrect_OLD_epoch5, meanCorrRT_OLD_epoch5, propCorrect_OLD_epoch6, meanCorrRT_OLD_epoch6, propCorrect_NEW_overall: proportion correct for NEW scenes across all test blocks meanCorrRT_NEW_overall: mean correct response time (in ms) for NEW scenes across all test blocks //separate summary variables for the 6 epochs propCorrect_NEW_epoch1, meanCorrRT_NEW_epoch1, propCorrect_NEW_epoch2, meanCorrRT_NEW_epoch2, propCorrect_NEW_epoch3, meanCorrRT_NEW_epoch3, propCorrect_NEW_epoch4, meanCorrRT_NEW_epoch4, propCorrect_NEW_epoch5, meanCorrRT_NEW_epoch5, propCorrect_NEW_epoch6, meanCorrRT_NEW_epoch6, * 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) Practice - 24 trials (practice trials show unique scenes) (2) Test: 30 blocks (a set of 5 consecutive blocks is grouped into one 'epoch' -> a total of 6 epochs is run) - each block runs 12 OLD scenes and 12 NEW scenes (24 trials) - at the end of each block participants are given a minimum of 10s to rest Trial Sequence: - fixation cross for 500ms - display 'scene' until response - correct/errorfeedback via soundfiles - intertrial interval for 1000ms Explanation of scene (and their generation): Scene: - 12 items (1 target + 11 distractors) located in a 8x6 matrix (each generated scene uses a UNIQUE spatial configuration for the items) => items appear in each 8x6 location, slightly jittered from the center - 4 colors: red, green, blue, yellow (each color appears 3 times in each scene) - target (T) is either oriented 90degress to the left (=270degrees) or 90degrees to the right (randomly determined for each trial) - distractors (L) can be rotated by 4 angles (0, 90, 180, 270deg) Old Scenes: - 12 old scenes generated at beginning of the script - they are repeatedly used throughout the experiment - the target appears in a different position for each of the 12 scenes - the target appears equally often in each color - The old scenes stay the same each time they are presented throughout the experiment: same locations for targets/distractors, same color for targets/distractors, same angles for distractors EXCEPT for the angle of the target (that is randomly decided each time the scene is presented) New Scenes: - targets appear in 12 dedicated locations => the same 12 target locations for NEW targets are used in each block (the colors of the targets in those locations also stay the same across the experiment) (Note: 12 locations are assigned to OLD scenes, different 12 locations are assigned to NEW scenes) - distractor positions change from scene to scene (this is the defining difference to OLD scenes) - distractor colors change from scene to scene Algorithm to generate unique scene locations/configurations: - establish the target location - then randomly sample the distractor locations out of the remaining 47 possible locations - order the locations from smallest to largest - check if this 'configuration' has been used before - if used before: repeat process until a unique spatial configuration has been found OR 1000 unsuccessful attempts have been made (in this case values.repeatConfigurations will be set to 1) Color Assignment (red, green, yellow, blue): - across one block: the target appears in each color three times in the New configurations - across one block: the target appears in each color three times in the Old configurations => across one block of 24 trials: the target appears in each color 6 times Angle Assignment: - Targets: for each trial it is randomly (with replacement) decided whether the target angle is 90 degree (left) or 270 degrees (right); this is the case for Old and New configurations (Note: the target can have different rotation angles in the same Old scene) - Distractors: each distractor gets randomly (with replacement) assigned angle of 0, 90, 180, or 270 degrees => each angle has the same probability to be sampled (frequencies of angles will likely vary) ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ STIMULI ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ provided by Millisecond Software - can be edited under section Editable Stimuli ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ INSTRUCTIONS ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ provided by Millisecond Software - can be edited under section Editable Instructions Instructions are not original to the task. They are provided by Millisecond Software as htm/html pages. To edit htm/html-files: open the respective documents in simple Text Editors such as TextEdit (Mac) or Notepad (Windows). ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 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: