Identification Test

Technical Manual

Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Created: January 18, 2022

Last Modified: January 04, 2025 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC

Background

This script implements a choice reaction time ('identification task') as a measure of psychomotor function and attention. The task is inspired by Maruff et al (2009).

The task uses playing cards as targets and is developed for touchscreens but will adapt to mouse use on non-touchscreens.

Note the script runs with proportional sizing by default. Researchers can select to run the task with an absolute screen size to ensure that distances stay the same across devices. See section Defaults for more info.

References

Maruff P, Thomas E, Cysique L, Brew B, Collie A, Snyder P, Pietrzak RH. Validity of the CogState brief battery: relationship to standardized tests and sensitivity to cognitive impairment in mild traumatic brain injury, schizophrenia, and AIDS dementia complex. Arch Clin Neuropsychol. 2009 Mar;24(2):165-78. doi: 10.1093/arclin/acp010. Epub 2009 Mar 25. PMID: 19395350.

Duration

3 minutes

Description

Participants get presented with a deck of cards consisting of red jokers and black jokers. The cards are turned over one by one with randomly selected delays. Once a joker card is turned over, participants are instructed to press a YES response button as quickly as possible IF the uncovered joker is a red joker. In any other case (that is for black jokers) they should press the NO response button.

Once the response is made, an animation is started that 'returns' the card back to the stack. The next trial is initiated once participants press a 'Home Button'. The 'Home Button' is implemented to ensure that response fingers are roughly equally distanced from the response buttons for each trial.

Procedure

Test:
by default this script runs 1 testblock (Editable Parameter) with 30 trials each (Editable Parameter)
using the same two (red and black) joker cards. By default, half the uncovered jokers are red joker targets
(Editable Parameter). The script randomly samples a joker delay from 500-5000ms (Editable Parameter)
The script provides a brief resttrial (self-paced) after each block.


Trial Information:
-> each trial starts with a HomeButton press (reminder presented after 2s)
-> pressing the home button starts the delay period
(if the home button is released during this time for more than 250ms, participants
are asked to return to the home button and a new iti is randomly selected)
-> after the delay period is over, the joker card is turned over,
and the script waits for response (there is no time limit for making a response)
-> card animation for 1000ms
(if the home button is pressed at the end of the card animation, the next trial starts immediately
with the delay period)

Stimuli

provided by Millisecond - can be edited under section 'Editable Stimuli'

Instructions

provided by Millisecond - can be edited under section 'Editable Instructions'

Summary Data

File Name: ms_onecardlearningtest_summary*.iqdat

Data Fields

NameDescription
inquisit.version Inquisit version number
computer.platform Device platform: win | mac |ios | android
computer.touch 0 = device has no touchscreen capabilities; 1 = device has touchscreen capabilities
computer.hasKeyboard 0 = no external keyboard detected; 1 = external keyboard detected
startDate Date the session was run
startTime Time the session was run
subjectId Participant ID
groupId Group number
sessionId Session number
elapsedTime Session duration in ms
completed 0 = Test was not completed
1 = Test was completed
canvasHeightMM The width of the play area in mm
canvasWidthMM The height of the play area in mm
distanceHomeButtonResponseButtonMM The calculated distance (in mm) between center of homeButton and center of one of the response buttons
Accuracy
propCorrect Proportion correct responses (across target and nontarget trials)
Overall Reaction Time Data - Response Time Measured Relative To Target Onset Across Correct And Incorrect Responses
meanRT Mean response time (in ms)
sdRT Standard deviation of response times (in ms)
medianRT Median response time (in ms)
minRT Minimum response time (in ms)
maxRT Maximum response time (in ms)
Correct Reaction Time Data
meanCorrRT Mean response time (in ms)
sdCorrRT Standard deviation of response times (in ms)
medianCorrRT Median response time (in ms)
minCorrRT Minimum response time (in ms)
maxCorrRT Maximum response time (in ms)
Incorrect Reaction Time Data
meanIncorrRT Mean response time (in ms)
sdIncorrRT Standard deviation of response times (in ms)
medianIncorrRT Median response time (in ms)
minIncorrRT Minimum response time (in ms)
maxIncorrRT Maximum response time (in ms)
Delay Data
meanDelay Mean delay time (in ms)
sdDelay Standard deviation of delay times (in ms)
medianDelay Median delay time (in ms)
minDelay Minimum delay time (in ms)
maxDelay Maximum delay time (in ms)

Raw Data

File Name: ms_onecardlearningtest_raw*.iqdat

Data Fields

NameDescription
build Inquisit version number
computer.platform Device platform: win | mac |ios | android
computer.touch 0 = device has no touchscreen capabilities; 1 = device has touchscreen capabilities
computer.hasKeyboard 0 = no external keyboard detected; 1 = external keyboard detected
date Date the session was run
time Time the session was run
subject Participant ID
group Group number
session Session number
canvasHeightMM The width of the play area in mm
canvasWidthMM The height of the play area in mm
distanceHomeButtonResponseButtonMM The calculated distance (in mm) between center of homeButton and center of one of the response buttons
blockcode The name the current block (built-in Inquisit variable)
blocknum The number of the current block (built-in Inquisit variable)
trialcode The name of the currently recorded trial (built-in Inquisit variable)
trialnum The number of the currently recorded trial (built-in Inquisit variable)
trialnum is a built-in Inquisit variable; it counts all trials run
even those that do not store data to the data file.
cardItemNumber The itemnumber of the currently presented card
card The filename of the currently presented card
delay The current delay (in ms)
corrRsp The correct response for the current card ("yes" or "no")
response The response of participant (button pressed)
By design, this script will store the FINAL (corrected) response
correct Correctness of response (1 = correct, 0 = error)
By design, 'correct' refers to the FIRST response made (see values.firstResponse)
latency Response latency (in ms); measured from: onset of card (NOT from last response)
until FINAL (corrected) response

Parameters

The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.

NameDescriptionDefault
Design Parameters
blocksPerTest Number of blocks per test1
trialsPerBlock Number of trials per block30
proportionTargets Proportion of target (red joker) cards
parameters.proportionTargets * parameters.trials_perblock => should result into an integer
The script will calculate the number of target trials and round to the nearest integer
0.5
Timing Parameters
minDelayMs The minimum delay (in ms) with which the joker can be be uncovered500
maxDelayMs The maximum delay (in ms) with which the joker can be be uncovered5000
homeButtonBufferDurationMs The max. time (in ms) that participants can stray from the home button
before joker appears (otherwise trial gets repeated)
250
Color Parameter
canvasColor Display color of the actively used portion of the screen (the 'canvas')
if set to a color other than the screenColor, you can distinguish the active canvas
from the inactive portion of the screen
black
screenColor Color of the screen not used by the canvas ('inactive screen')black
defaultTextColor Default color of text itemswhite
Sizing Parameters
cardSizePct The height of the cards in canvas height percentage40%