___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ MILLISECOND LETTER-NUMBER-SEQUENCING TEST (VISUAL) ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Date: 03-31-2016 last updated: 02-24-2022 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Script Copyright © 02-24-2022 Millisecond Software ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ BACKGROUND INFO ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This script implements a computerized version of a Letter-Number-Sequencing Test to test visual Short Term Memory Capacity and Attention similarly to the one used in the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS). This script presents randomly generated letter-number sequences visually and accepts written input. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ TASK DESCRIPTION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Participants receive growing series of alternating letters and digits (set sizes: 2-8). In this script, the sequences always start with a letter. 2 Recall Conditions: LNS-Forward: Participants have to recall the letters and digits in the order presented LNS-Reordered: Participants have to recall first the digits from smallest to largest and then the letters in alphabetical order ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DURATION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ upper duration for the LNF task: about 8 minutes upper duration for the LNR task: about 10 minutes ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DATA FILE INFORMATION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The default data stored in the data files are: (1) Raw data file: 'msletternumbersequencingtest_visual_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 such as feedback trials. Thus, trialnum may not reflect the number of main trials run per block. condition: "LNF" vs "LNR" setSize: number of stimuli in the current sequence (2-8) attempt: number of attempts at a given set size (max. 3) presentedSequence: stores the presented sequence of letters and numbers length: length of presented stimuli (debug check) correctResponse: stores the correct response response: built-in Inquisit response variable: the participant's entered response currentResponse: custom response variable: stores the response after 'cleanup' (after removal of possible empty spaces, comas or semicolons; lower case letters are converted to upper case letters) correct: the correctness of the response (1 = correct; 0 = incorrect) setACC: 1 = at least one correct response for the current set size; 0 = otherwise latency: the response latency (in ms) TotalPoints_LNF: sums up all the points for condition LNF (Range: 0-21) TotalPoints_LNR: sums up all the points for condition LNR (Range: 0-21) totalPoints: combined total points across the two tasks (Range: 0-42) (2) Summary data file: 'msletternumbersequencingtest_visual_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) maxSetSize_LNF: stores the last successful set size for condition LNF maxSetSize_LNR: stores the last successful set size for condition LNR TotalPoints_LNF: sums up all the points for condition LNF (Range: 0-21) TotalPoints_LNR: sums up all the points for condition LNR (Range: 0-21) totalPoints: combined total points across the two tasks (Range: 0-42) ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ * 2 conditions: LNF, LNR: order is counterbalanced (determined by groupnumber). odd groupnumbers: LNF -> LNR even groupnumbers: LNR -> LNF By default, each condition runs one practice/demo trial with 4 characters and receives performance feedback (practice set size can be edited). * Set Sizes tested: 2-8 stimuli; every stim is presented for 1000ms (editable parameter) * 3 trials at each level (1 point per correct response for a maximum of 21) * needs to get at least 1 correct to advance to next set size ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ STIMULI ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ letters: all 26 letters of the English alphabet (change selection under section Editable Stimuli) digits: 1-9 (change under section Editable Stimuli) Note: 0 was excluded due to its resemblance with 'O' The size of the letters can be set under section Editable Parameters. Sequence Generation: * the letters and digits are randomly drawn for each sequence (no repeats) * letters and digits alternate and sequences always start with a letter ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ INSTRUCTIONS ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Instructions are provided by Millisecond Software. They can be edited under section "Instructions" and in the provided html-instruction files. 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: /stimDuration: the presentation duration (in ms) of each stimulus (default: 1000ms) /stimSize: the stim Size in canvas height percentages (default: 10%) /SRI: the interval (in ms) between offset of last stim and onset of recall textbox (default: 1000ms) /ITI: intertrial interval (in ms); time btw. last response and onset of next sequence (default: 1000ms) /practiceSetSize: the setSize used for demo/practice trial (default: 4) /debugmode: true (1): the sequence is presented for debugging purposes false (0): the sequence is not presented (default)