___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Sustained Auditory Attention Ability Test (SAAAT) - an auditory continuous performance test for children- ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Date: 12-06-2023 last updated: 12-11-2023 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Script Copyright © 12-11-2023 Millisecond Software ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ BACKGROUND INFO ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This script implements Millisecond Software's computerized version of the Sustained Auditory Attention Ability Test (SAAAT), a variant of an auditory continuous performance test to measure auditory vigilance and sustained attention (Lemos & Feniman, 2010). The SAAAT was originally developed for children (age group: 6-11 years old). Reference: Lemos, I.C.C. & Feniman, M.R. (2010). Sustained Auditory Attention Ability Test (SAAAT) in seven year- old children with cleft lip and palate. Braz J Otorhinolaryngol, 76(2): 199-205. José, M. R., Mondelli, M. F. C. G., Correia, J. B., Bohn, V., Lauris, J. R. P., Zeigelboim, B. S., & Feniman, M. R. (2021). Adult Perfomance on the Sustained Auditory Attention Skill Test. International Archives of Otorhinolaryngology, 25(2), e249–e254. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0040-1712481 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ TASK DESCRIPTION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Participants hear a sequence of words with a new word being played every 1second. Anytime participants hear the word 'no', they are instructed to press the Spacebar. For any other word, they are instructed to simply wait for the next word. The test runs a total of 600 word without a break (6 blocks of 100 trials each). ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 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: 'saaat_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: with the current subject id group: with the current group id 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. phase: practice vs. test blockCounterPerPhase: counts the number of blocks run in the current phase trialCounterPerBlock: counts the number of trials run in the current block trialType: "target" vs. "noTarget" stim: stores the itemnumber of the presented soundfile stimulusitem: presented soundfile response: the response of participant respCategory: "hit", "omission", "correctReject", "commission" corrResp: stores the correct response for the current trial correct: correctness of response (1 = correct, 0 = error) latency: response latency (in ms); measured from: onset of trial (2) Summary data file: 'saaat_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) omissionErrors_overall: total number of times participant made an omission Error -> missed response to a target 'no' (out of a total of 120 targets = 6blocks * 20targetsPerBlock) => Lemos & Feniman (2010): measure of inattention commissionErrors_overall: total number of times participant made a commission Error -> response to a non-target (out of 480 nontargets) => Lemos & Feniman (2010): measure of impulsivity totalErrors_overall: sum of all errors (out of 600) vigilanceReduction: the difference in (hits from block1 - hits in block6) => Lemos & Feniman (2010): measure of sustained attention ///per block: propCorrect1: proportion correct responses in block1 omissions1: number of omission errors made in block1 (missed responses to targets); Note: out of 20 targets commissions1: number of commission errors made in block1 (responses to non-targets); Note: out of 80 nontargets errors1: sum of omission and commission errors in block1 hitRT1: mean hit response time (in ms) in block1 (same for block2-block6) ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (1) Practice: 1 block of 50 trials (max number of practice blocks: 2) - 10 go-trials (with word 'NO') - 40 nogo trials (each of the 20 nogo stim is presented 2 times) If performance is lower than parameters.minPracticeACC (default: 85% correct) at the end of the final practice block, the script prematurely terminates. Participants receive error feedback during practice. (2) Test: 6 blocks of 100 trials (words) with no break - each block runs 20 'no' trials (go-stims) and 80 nogo-trials (each of the 20 nogo stim is presented 4 times) - the word SOA is 1000ms (response window equals SOA) - editable parameter - Word Sequence: - this script provides the following 2 options Option1: the same fixed but randomly-generated sequence of the words is used for each block (see list.stimSequence) Option2: each block randomly presents a new order of the words see parameters.randomStimOrder Trial Sequence: word1 (1000ms) -> word2 (1000ms) ->....word100 (1000ms) ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ STIMULI ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The test contains 21 monosyllabic words taken from Lemos & Feniman (2010) with the exception of the word 'flower' and 'now'. The word 'flower' (two syllables) was replaced with the word 'fall' and the word 'now' (too close to no) was replaced by the word 'soon' by Millisecond Software. All soundfiles were played binaurally. All words were recorded with the English Google Translate Fairy by Millisecond Software and converted to *wav files in Audacity - can 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: