___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ MENTAL ROTATION for CHILDREN (test only; keyboard version) ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Date: 02-10-2015 last updated: 08-10-2023 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Script Copyright © 08-10-2023 Millisecond Software ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ BACKGROUND INFO ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This script implements a Mental Rotation Test for children. This script is run with keyboard input. If this script is run on a touchscreen without attached keyboard, the necessary response keys will automatically be provided. The implemented procedure is based on: Wiedenbauer, G. & Jansen-Osmann, P. (2008). Manual training of mental rotation in children. Learning and Instruction, 18, 30-41. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ TASK DESCRIPTION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Participants are presented 2 pictures of the same animal: on the left, participants see the animal with a 0° rotation (the base stimulus) and on the right, participants see a rotated animal (8 different rotation angles: ~22.5°, ~67.5°, ~112.5°, ~157.5°; clock and counterclockwise). The rotated pic is either derived from the base stimulus or it is derived from the mirror image of the base. Keyboard version: Participants are asked to press the left 'A' key if the two animals are the same and the right 'L' key if they are different ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DURATION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ the default set-up of the script takes appr. 7 minutes to complete ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DATA FILE INFORMATION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The default data stored in the data files are: (1) Raw data file: 'mentalrotation_children_testonly_keyboard_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. Test1- Test6: store the 6 animals assigned to the test (in itemnumbers from item.testanimals) baseItemNumber: stores the current base animal item number being tested (1 = bear....24 = turtle, in alphabetical order) compItemNumber: stores the current comp animal item number Note: if Sameness = 1 then the comp item number should equal the base itemnumber if Sameness = 2 then the comp item number be different from the base itemnumber direction 1 = base looks left; 2 = base looks right angle: stores the current rotation angle being tested sameness: 1 = comp is the same as base; 2 = comp is mirror image of base(looks in opposite direction) stimulusitem.1: the image presented as the base stimulusitem.2: the image presented as the comp Note: rotation is done on the comp image during runtime; no need for a different image file response: the participant's key response (scancode of response key) 'A' (same key) 'L' (mirror key) responseCategory: 1 = same; 2 = mirror correct: the accuracy of the response (1 = correct; 0 = incorrect) latency: the response latency (in ms); measured from onset of stimuli (2) Summary data file: 'mentalrotation_children_testonly_keyboard_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) Test1- Test6: store the 6 animals assigned to the test (in itemnumbers from item.testanimals) propCorrect_overall: overall proportion correct (across all test trials) mean_corrRT_overall: overall mean response time of correct responses (across all test trials) ///Main Effect: Sameness propCorrect_same: proportion correct for all Same trials (across all angles) mean_corrRT_same: mean response time of correct responses to Same trials (across all angles) propCorrect_mirror: proportion correct for all Mirror trials (across all angles) mean_corrRT_mirror: mean response time of correct responses to Mirror trials (across all angles) ///Main Effect: Angle propCorrect_angle1: proportion correct for all angle1 (here: 22.5deg) (across same/mirror trials) mean_corrRT_angle1: mean response time of correct responses to all angle1 (here: 22.5deg) trials (across same/mirror trials) propCorrect_angle2: proportion correct for all angle2 (here: 67.5deg) (across same/mirror trials) mean_corrRT_angle2: mean response time of correct responses to all angle2 (here: 67.5deg) trials (across same/mirror trials) propCorrect_angle3: proportion correct for all angle3 (here: 112.5deg) (across same/mirror trials) mean_corrRT_angle3: mean response time of correct responses to all angle3 (here: 112.5deg) trials (across same/mirror trials) propCorrect_angle4: proportion correct for all angle1 (here: 157.5.5deg) (across same/mirror trials) mean_corrRT_angle4: mean response time of correct responses to all angle1 (here: 157.5deg) trials (across same/mirror trials) ///Interaction: Sameness x Angle propCorrect_same_angle1: proportion correct for all same Angle1 (here: 22.5deg) trials mean_corrRT_same_angle1: mean response time of correct responses to all same Angle1 (here: 22.5deg) trials propCorrect_same_angle2: proportion correct for all same Angle2 (here: 67.5deg) trials mean_corrRT_same_angle2: mean response time of correct responses to all same Angle2 (here: 67.5deg) trials propCorrect_same_angle3: proportion correct for all same Angle3 (here: 112.5deg) trials mean_corrRT_same_angle3: mean response time of correct responses to all same Angle3 (here: 112.5deg) trials propCorrect_same_angle4: proportion correct for all same Angle4 (here: 157.5deg) trials mean_corrRT_same_angle4: mean response time of correct responses to all same Angle4 (here: 157.5deg) trials propCorrect_mirror_angle1: proportion correct for all Mirror Angle1 (here: 22.5deg) trials mean_corrRT_mirror_angle1: mean response time of correct responses to all Mirror Angle1 (here: 22.5deg) trials propCorrect_mirror_angle2: proportion correct for all Mirror Angle2 (here: 67.5deg) trials mean_corrRT_mirror_angle2: mean response time of correct responses to all Mirror Angle2 (here: 67.5deg) trials propCorrect_mirror_angle3: proportion correct for all Mirror Angle3 (here: 112.5deg) trials mean_corrRT_mirror_angle3: mean response time of correct responses to all Mirror Angle3 (here: 112.5deg) trials propCorrect_mirror_angle4: proportion correct for all Mirror Angle4 (here: 157.5deg) trials mean_corrRT_mirror_angle4: mean response time of correct responses to all Mirror Angle4 (here: 157.5deg) trials ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Practice: * 24 trials = 2 animals * 6 rotation angles * 2 presentations (one with same comparison animal, the other with mirror comparison animal) Note: the animals presented during practice are not used for any test condition * 2 pictures of the same animal presented for each trial: left is the base (0° rotation); on the right is the rotated comparison stimuli * 6 rotation angles: 15°, 90°, 165° degrees clockwise and counterclockwise (Note: Wiedenbauer & Jansen-Osmann, 2008, don't specify the number of animals nor the practice angles used) * half the base animals look to the left, the other to the right * half the trials are 'same' trials (the other half present the mirror image as the comparison animal) * random sampling without replacement * positive and negative feedback is given by smiley/frowny faces Test * 6 animals are randomly selected from 24 possible ones * 96 trials= 6 animals * 8 angles (4 angles clock and counterclockwise) * 2 presentations (one with same comparison animal, the other with mirror comparison animal) * 2 pictures of the same animal presented for each trial: left is the base (0° rotation); on the right is the rotated comparison stimuli * 8 rotation angles: ~22.5°, ~67.5°, ~112.5°, ~157.5° (clock and counterclockwise) - can be edited under section Editable Parameters * half the bases look to the left, the other to the right * half the trials are 'Same' trials (the other half present the mirror image as the comp animal) * random sampling without replacement * no feedback Trial Sequence: Fixation Cross (500ms) -> Base/Comp Stimuli (until response) ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ STIMULI ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Stimuli are animals from the 'Snodgrass and Vanderwart 'Like' Objects' introduced by Rossion, B., & Pourtois, G. (2004). Revisiting Snodgrass and Vanderwart's object set: The role of surface detail in basic-level object recognition. Perception, 33, 217-236. The complete stimuli set can be downloaded at: http://wiki.cnbc.cmu.edu/Objects (Note: original link published in Rossion & Pourtois (2004) does not work as of Feb 2015) 2 Practice Stimuli: fish, frog 24 Test Stimuli (6 randomly selected for the test) alligator, bear, bunny, camel, cat, cow, deer, dog, donkey, elephant, fox, goat, horse leopard, lion, monkey, mouse, pig, racoon, rhino, sealion, sheep, tiger, turtle ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ INSTRUCTIONS ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Instructions are not original to the task. They are provided by Millisecond Software as htm/html pages and can be edited by changing the provided htm/html 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: /fontsize_fixation: fontsize of the fixation mark in screen height percentages (default: 15%) /readyDuration: duration (in ms) of the get-ready-trial (default: 5000ms) Note: applies only to keyboard version /fixationduration: presentation duration (in ms) of the fixation stimulus (default: 500ms) test Angles (used clock and counterclockwise) /rotationAngle1: the smallest rotation angle (here: 22.5deg) /rotationAngle2: the second smallest rotation angle (here: 67.5deg) /rotationAngle3: the second largest rotation angle (here: 112.5deg) /rotationAngle4: the largest rotation angle (here: 157.5deg)