Process Dissociation Procedure

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

Created: January 14, 2015

Last Modified: January 02, 2023 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC

Background

This script runs the Process Dissociation Procedure by Yonelinas et al (1995). The Process Dissociation Procedure is a procedure to help separate the contributions of automatic (here: familiarity) and intentional (here: recollection) processes on cognitive tasks (here: recognition memory).

References

Yonelinas, A.P. & Jacoby, L.L. (1995). The relation between remembering and knowing as bases for recognition: Effects of size congruency. Journal of Memory and Language, 34, 622-643.

Duration

25 minutes

Description

Participants study 2 lists of geometrical shapes. The shapes are presented in 2 different sizes. The geometrical shapes of both lists as well as an equal number of new shapes are used for a later recognition test (Half of the shapes of list 1 and list 2 are presented in their original sizes; half of them change size. Participants are instructed that the size doesn't matter only the shape itself is of importance).

2 types of instructions are used for the recognition tests:

1) Was presented shape part of list 1? Say 'Yes' if it was or if it looks familiar but you don't recall whether it's from list 1 or list 2. Say 'No' if you know the item is new or you know it is a shape from list 2.

2) Was presented shape part of list 2? Say 'Yes' if it was or if it looks familiar but you don't recall whether it's from list 1 or list 2. Say 'No' if you know the item is new or you know it is a shape from list 1.

Participants work through 4 study-test blocks: 2 blocks with instruction 1 ('list1 instructions') and 2 blocks with instruction 2 ('list2 instructions').

Procedure

2 congruence (congruent, incongruent study-test shape sizes) x 2 types of instructions (list 1 instructions; list 2 instructions)
tested within subjects.

Blocks:
4 Study (list1 -> list2) - Recognition Test Blocks:
-> 2 with instructions 1 (see above)
-> 2 with instructions 2 (see above)
=> order of blocks randomly determined for each participant

Study Trials:
• 1 between-list trial: 5s (automatically starts list 2)
• 20 trials each:
-> list shapes are randomly presented for 5s (default; editable parameter) each
-> half the shapes are presented big (by default: image is sized to be 80% of the screen height);
the other half small (by default: image is sized to be 20% of the screen height)

Test Trials:
• 1 instruction trial: 5s (automatically starts the list)
• 60 trials each: 20 list1 shapes; 20 list2 shapes; 20 new shapes ('list3')
-> half the shapes of each list are presented big (by default: image is sized to be 80% of the screen height);
the other half small (by default: image is sized to be 20% of the screen height)
-> for list1/list2 shapes: half of the shapes are presented in the same size as during the study phase (congruent); the
other half is presented in the opposite size (incongruent)


a) before each study-test phase, 20 shapes are randomly assigned to each of the 3 lists.
The shapes are randomly drawn from the pool of 240 shapes (initially) without replacement
=> all 240 shapes will be used over the course of this experiment
=> the assignments will be different for each participant
b) Response key (yes/no) assignment to left and right response keys is counterbalanced by groupnumber

Stimuli

provided/generated by Millisecond.
240 (20 shapes per list x 3 number of lists/block x 4 blocks) geometric shapes were computer generated by
randomly selecting 5 points out of 100 possible ones and connecting them.
The size of the 'big' and 'small' shapes can be set under section 'Editable Values'

Instructions

Instructions are not original to the task. They are provided by Millisecond
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).

once the study phase starts, the process (including instructions) are started automatically.
Timing can be controlled via editable parameters (see section "Editable Values")S

Summary Data

File Name: processdissociation_summary*.iqdat

Data Fields

Raw Data

File Name: processdissociation_raw*.iqdat

Data Fields

Parameters

The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.