Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Created: January 22, 2018
Last Modified: January 10, 2025 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC
This script implements a basic computer-adapted Paired Associates Learning Task inspired by the one used by the Wechsler Memory Scale, Fourth Edition (Wechsler, 2009) Verbal Paired Associates I & II as summarized in Thiruselvam et al (2015). This implementation presents the list visually and accepts written input.
Thiruselvam, I., Vogt, E.M, & James B. Hoelzle, J.B. (2015). The Interchangeability of CVLT-II and WMS-IV Verbal Paired Associates Scores: A Slightly Different Story. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 30, 248–255.
Adjustments to z-scores as described by: Gregg, A. & Sedikides, C. (2010). Narcissistic Fragility: Rethinking Its Links to Explicit and Implicit Self-esteem, Self and Identity, 9:2, 142-161 (p.148)
Recall 1-4: ~10minutes Break: ~20 minutes Delayed Recall: ~3 minutes Delayed Recognition: ~2 minutes Delayed Free Recall: ~2 minutes
Participants are presented a list of 14 word pairs (fixed sequence), one word pair at a time, on the computer screen. Once the list has finished, the first word of each word pair is presented as a prompt together with a textbox. Participants are asked to enter the missing second word of the word pair into the box. Feedback is provided during the immediate recall trials. The list learning/recall task is repeated 3 more times before a break (default: 15min). After the break, participants work through an optional delayed recall test (no feedback provided) and a recognition task: 28 words are presented to them, one by one, and participants have to decide whether the word was part of the original list (if so, press Y) or not (if so, press N). 14 of the words are list words, the other ones are new distractor words. The test ends with an optional free recall test of the original list word pairs.
(I) 4 blocks: List Learning/Recall Task
- the words of a word pair are each presented for 1s (wordA is presented on the left for 1s, then word B is presented on the right for 1s)
- the interstimulus interval btw. pairs is 2s
- the order of the words is randomized for each round, both for the learning and recall portion
go to section Editable Lists to customize the presentation/recall order of the items
for each of the rounds
- after an editable delay (default: no delay), the immediate recall starts (self-paced)
- feedback provided
Duration: ~10 minutes
(II) Break (default: 20min)
(III) optional: Delayed Recall Task (no feedback provided)
Duration: ~3 minutes
- the order of the words is randomized
go to section Editable Lists to customize the recall order of the items
(IV) optional: Delayed Recognition Task
- 14 old word pairs and 14 new word pairs are presented randomly
go to section Editable Lists to customize the order of the items
- the words of a word pair are each presented for 1s (wordA is presented on the left for 1s, then word B is presented on the right for 1s)
- self-paced
Duration: ~2 minutes
(V) optional: Delayed Free Recall Task
Duration: ~ 2 minutes
The current stimuli lists are provided by Millisecond as demo lists.
Currently, 14 unassociated word pairs are provided for the initial study list.
An additional 14 unassociated words pairs are provided for the recognition test to serve as the
unfamiliar (unstudied) word pairs.
The word pairs as well as their semantic associations can easily be edited
in script verbalpairedassociatestest_instructions_inc.iqjs
are provided by Millisecond - edit in script verbalpairedassociatestest_instructions_inc.iqjs
File Name: verbalpairedassociatestest_summary*.iqdat
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| 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 |
Overall |
|
| recallScore | Sum of all correctly recalled items (wordsB) across the 4 IMMEDIATE cued-recall rounds (Max: 56) |
| delayedRecallScore | Number of correctly recalled items (words B) during delayed cued-recall (Max: 14) |
| recognitionScore | The number of words correctly identified (Max: 28) combines 'hits' and 'correct rejections' |
| freeRecallScore | The number of correctly recalled word pairs from original list (max. 14) during free recall both words of a pair have to be entered (but not necessarily in order) |
Immediate Recall |
|
| meanRecall | Mean of the estimated number of words recalled (IMMEDIATE RECALL only)- independent of recall accuracy |
| meanRecall | Mean number of correctly recalled words per list (IMMEDIATE RECALL only) |
| recall1 | Proportion correctly recalled words during immediate recall round 1 |
| recall2 | Proportion correctly recalled words during immediate recall round 2 |
| recall3 | Proportion correctly recalled words during immediate recall round 3 |
| recall4 | Proportion correctly recalled words during immediate recall round 4 |
| propWord1Recall-propWord14Recall | Stores the recall proportion of each 14 words across the number of IMMEDIATE recall rounds (Max: 4/4 for each item) Notes * numbers refer to the itemnumber of the word in item.wordsB * for a sequential presentation of words during list learning, the itemnumber would also refer to the position of the word in the presented list (the default presentation order is randomized) Example: word 1(here: market) => market was remembered x out of 4 times during immediate recall |
| round1RecalledWords-round4RecalledWords | Stores the list of the recalled words for round1, round2, round3, round4 (IMMEDIATE RECALL) |
Delayed Recall |
|
| delayedRecallRecalledWords | Stores the list of the recalled words for the delayed recall rounds (IMMEDIATE + DELAYED RECALL, not free recall) |
| intrusions | A storage variable that stores all recall intrusion words across the 4 immediate (+ delayed) recall rounds check for misspelled words here and adjust scores accordingly |
Free Recall |
|
| delayedFreeRecallRecalledWords | Stores the words entered for the free recall trial |
| freeRecallWordEstimate | Stores the computer-derived estimate of the number of words recalled in the free recall trial see below of algoritm implemented. Algorithm does not check whether the recalled words are actual words. |
| countCorrectFreeRecall | Tracks the number of correctly recalled words for the free recall trial |
| countCorrectFreeRecallA | Tracks the number of correctly recalled words A for the free recall trial |
| countCorrectFreeRecallB | Tracks the number of correctly recalled words B for the free recall trial |
| countCorrectFreeRecallPairs | Tracks the number of correctly recalled complete word pairs for the free recall trial |
| nrOtherFreeRecalledWords | Stores the number of words not from the word pair list recalled during the free recall trial (based on FreeRecallEstimate) |
| nrRecogIntrusions | Stores the number of new words from the recognition test that were recalled during the free recall trial |
| freeRecallIntrusions | Stores all the words entered during the free recall trial that were not part of the list |
Recognition |
|
| rHitsRecognition | Hit rate during recognition (hit => participant categorized old word as 'old') |
| rMissesRecognition | Miss rate during recognition (miss => participant categorized old words as 'new') |
| rFAsRecognition | False alarm rate during recognition (false alarm => participant categorized new word as 'old') |
| rCRsRecognition | Correct rejection rate (cr => participant categorized new word as 'new') |
| zHrRecognition | Z-score of hit rate |
| zFrRecognition | Z-score of false alarm rate |
| dPrimeRecognition | Computes d' (parametric measure of discriminability) |
| cRecognition | C-criterion in signal detection:The absolute value of c provides an indication of the strength of the response bias/response style negative: participant more likely to report that signal (go stims) is present (liberal response style) may favor faster responding in speed-accuracy trade-off response paradigms positive: favoring caution (conservative response style) |
File Name: verbalpairedassociatestest_raw*.iqdat
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| 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. |
| countImmediateRecallRounds | Counts the number of immediate cued-recall trials run |
| countAllRecallRounds | Counts the number of ALL (immediate + delayed) cued-recall trials run |
| familiarity | 1 = old word (word on list); 0 = new word (during recognition) |
| pairassociation | 1 = strong association between the words of a pair; 2 = weak association between the words of a pair |
| firstWord | The first presented stimuli in order of trial presentation |
| secondWord | The second presented stimuli in order of trial presentation (for recognition test) |
| correctResp | The correct response recall: the correct 2nd word recognition: scancode of correct response key (21 = Y (old), 49 = N (new)) |
| response | The participant's response recall trials: textbox input recognition trial: 21=Y (old); 49 = N (new) |
| correct | The correctness of the response (1 = correct; 0 = incorrect) |
| latency | The response latency (in ms); measured from recall: onset of textbox until submit recognition: onset of word pair until response button is hit |
| recall | Stores the recall text input (with single commas to separate the different words) per recall round |
| countCorrectRecall | Tracks the number of correctly recalled words per recall round (resets after each round) |
| word1Recall-word14Recall | Stores the number of times each of the 14 words has been recalled across the four immediate cued-recall rounds Note * numbers refer to the itemnumber of the word in item.wordsB * for a sequential presentation of words during list learning, the itemnumber would also refer to the position of the word in the presented list (the default presentation order is randomized) |
| intrusions | A storage variable that stores all recall intrusion words across the 4 immediate (+ delayed) cued-recall trials check for misspelled words here and adjust scores accordingly |
| recognitionScore | The number of words correctly identified (Max: 28) combines 'hits' and 'correct rejections' |
| delayedFreeRecallRecalledWords | Stores the words entered for the free recall trial |
| freeRecallWordEstimate | Stores the computer-derived estimate of the number of words recalled in the free recall trial Algorithm does not check whether the recalled words are actual words. |
| countCorrectFreeRecall | Tracks the number of correctly recalled words for the free recall trial |
| countCorrectFreeRecallA | Tracks the number of correctly recalled words A for the free recall trial |
| countCorrectFreeRecallB | Tracks the number of correctly recalled words B for the free recall trial |
| countCorrectFreeRecallPairs | Tracks the number of correctly recalled complete word pairs for the free recall trial |
| nrOtherFreeRecalledWords | Stores the number of words not from the word pair list recalled during the free recall trial (based on FreeRecallEstimate) |
| nrRecogIntrusions | Stores the number of new words from the recognition test that were recalled during the free recall trial |
| freeRecallIntrusions | Stores all the words entered during the free recall trial that were not part of the list |
The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.
| Name | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
Design |
||
| runDelayedRecall | Optional delayed recall task after the break true (1): delayed recall task is run false (0): delayed recall task is skipped | true |
| runDelayedFreeRecall | Optional delayed free recall task after the break true (1): delayed free recall task is run false (0): delayed free recall task is skipped | true |
| runRecognitionTask | Optional recognition task after the break true (1): recognition task is run false (0): recognition task is skipped if both the delayedRecall Task AND the recognition Task are skipped, the break is skipped as well | true |
Sizing Parameters |
||
| wordSize | Proportional sizing of study words relative to canvas height) | 6% |
Timing Parameters |
||
| stimDuration | The duration (in ms) that each word of a pair is presented | 1000 |
| pairISI | The time (in ms) in between pairs | 2000 |
| recallDelay | The delay (in ms) between last presented study list word and the recall trial | 0 |
| minDelay | The minimum delay (in ms) between end of last immediate recall trial and the delayed recall/recognition task | 1200000 |