___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 'Me-not Me' Reaction Time Task ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Date: 09-20-2017 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 the the 'Me-not me' reaction time task; a task to study self-concept particularly in the context of relationships. The implemented procedure is similarly to the one described in: Aron, A, Tudor, M, Aron, E, & Nelson, G. (1991). Close relationships as including other in the self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60(Feb 91), 241-253. Slotter, E.B. ; Gardner, W.L. & Simpson, J. (2009). Where Do You End and I Begin? Evidence for Anticipatory, Motivated Self–Other Integration Between Relationship Partners. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol.96(6), pp.1137-1151 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ TASK DESCRIPTION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Participants are presented a series of trait descriptors, one at a time in the middle of the screen, and are asked to sort the traits as fast as possible via a keypress into category 'me' (-> applies to me a lot) or 'not me' (-> doesn't really apply to me). ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DURATION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ the default set-up of the script takes appr. 2 minutes to complete ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DATA FILE INFORMATION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The default data stored in the data files are: (1) Raw data file: 'menotme_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. countCategorizationBlocks: running total of all test categorization blocks countCategorizationTrials: running total of the trials within each categorization block stimulusitem: the presented stimuli in order of trial presentation valence: valence of the presented trait: "positive" vs. "negative" vs. "neutral" response: scancode of the selected response key (e.g. 18 = E; 23 = I) responseCategory: response category selected: "me" vs. "not me" latency: the response latency (in ms); measured from: (2) Summary data file: 'menotme_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) meanRT_me: mean latency (in ms) of 'me' categorization across all trait words meanRT_notme: mean latency (in ms) of 'notme' categorization across all trait words meanRT_me_positive: mean latency (in ms) of 'me' categorization across all positive trait words meanRT_me_negative: mean latency (in ms) of 'me' categorization across all negative trait words meanRT_me_neutral: mean latency (in ms) of 'me' categorization across all neutral trait words meanRT_notme_positive: mean latency (in ms) of 'not me' categorization across all positive trait words meanRT_notme_negative: mean latency (in ms) of 'not me' categorization across all negative trait words meanRT_notme_neutral: mean latency (in ms) of 'not me' categorization across all neutral trait words * 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 Block: 5 practice traits are presented to practice the procedure The practice block turns into the test block without further instructions (2) Test Block: * by default the test blocks runs once (see editable parameters.nrCategorizationBlocks) * by default, each test block runs 45 items (15 positively valenced descriptors, 15 neutral descriptors, 15 negatively valenced descriptors) => number of traits presented adapts automatically to the number of traits listed under item.traits (see section Editable Stimuli) * order of traits is selected randomly Trial Sequence: trait presented until categorization response -> ITI (default:1000ms) ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ STIMULI ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ trait words for this script were selected from: Anderson, N. H. (1968). Likableness ratings of 555 personality-trait words. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 9, 272-279. Positive Traits: likeability score > 450 Neutral Traits: 350 > likeability score > 250 Negative Traits: 150 > likeability score (the likeability scores of the default practice traits in this script fall outside these ranges) The traits can easily be adapted 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: Response Keys: /leftKey: the left response key (here: E) /rightKey: the right response key (here: I) /leftcategory: 1 = category 'me'; 2 = category 'not me' (left category is assigned 'me' category) /leftcategory: label of left category ('me') /rightcategory: 1 = category 'me'; 2 = category 'not me' (right category is assigned 'not me' category) /rightcategory: label of right category ('not me') /traitSize: size of trait descriptor proportional to canvas height (default: 8%) /iti: intertrial duration (in ms) (default: 1000ms) /readyDuration: duration (in ms) of the 'get ready' trial (default: 5000ms) /nrCategorizationBlocks: number of times the categorization blocks runs (default: 1)