Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Credits:
Millisecond thanks Timo Brockmeyer for collaborating on this script!
Created: April 07, 2016
Last Modified: July 14, 2026 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC
This script implements a simple computerized Scrambled Sentences Task (e.g. Hedlung & Rude, 1995), a test to measure cognitive (interpretation) biases.
Hedlund, S., & Rude, S. S. (1995). Evidence of latent depressive schemas in formerly depressed individuals. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 104, 517–525.
Wenzlaff, R. M., & Bates, D. E. (1998). Unmasking a cognitive vulnerability to depression: How lapses in mental control reveal depressive thinking. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 1559–1571
Everaert, J., Duyck, W., & Koster, E. H. W. (2014). Attention, interpretation, and memory biases in subclinical depression: A proof-of-principle test of the combined cognitive biases hypothesis. Emotion, 14(2), 331–340
Sanchez, A. et al (2015). Life is . . . great! Emotional attention during instructed and uninstructed ambiguity resolution in relation to depressive symptoms. Biological Psychology, 109 (2015), 67–72.
12 minutes
Participants are given scrambled sentences (e.g. "born winner am loser a I") with 6 words and are asked to unscramble them using 5 of the 6 given words by clicking/touching the sentence fragments in the desired order.
Half the scrambled sentences are "Emotional" ('winner' vs. 'loser') half the scrambled sentence are valence-neutral. An (optional) cognitive load test is run at the beginning of the test: participants are asked to memorize a 6-digit number for a later recall test.
5 practice sentences
20 emotional statements (taken from Wentzlaff & Bates, 1998*). * slightly altered to avoid ambiguous sentence
structures as much as possible
constraints on the order of the scrambled words:
• half the scrambled sentences present the positive word before the negative
• target words never start or end a scrambled sentence
• target words do not appear directly next to each other in the scrambled sentences
20 neutral statements (provided by Millisecond as demo sentences only)
(same constraints as for the Emotional sentences)
edit all stimuli under section Editable Stimuli in script 'scrambledsentencestask_stimuli_inc.iqjs'
Instructions are not original to any study- they are based on Wentzlaff & Bates (1998) and
can be edited under section Editable Instructions in script 'scrambledsentencestask_instructions_inc.iqjs'
File Name: scrambledsentencestask_summary*.iqdat
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| 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 |
| completed | 0 = Test was not completed 1 = Test was completed |
| propCorrectSolutions | Proportion correct solutions (correct = either the 'positive'/control1 or the 'negative'/control2 solution) |
| meanRTSolutions | Mean latency (in ms) of entering the 5 digits for a correct solution |
| propCorrectSolutionsE | Proportion correct solutions in condition 1 (Emotional) |
| meanRTE | Mean latency (in ms) of entering the 5 digits for a correct solution in condition 1 (Emotional) |
| negativityBiasIndex | Proportion negative solutions (based on correct solutions entered) in condition 1 (Emotional) |
| countNegSolutions | Number of correct negative-valenced solutions |
| countPosSolutions | Number of correct positive-valenced solutions |
| meanRTNeg | Mean latency (in ms) of entering the 5 digits for negative solutions in condition 1 (Emotional) |
| meanRTPos | Mean latency (in ms) of entering the 5 digits for positive solutions in condition 1 (Emotional) |
| propCorrectSolutionsC | Proportion correct solutions in condition 2 (Control) |
| meanRTC | Mean latency (in ms) of entering the 5 digits for a correct solution in condition 2 (Control) |
| clCondition | Cognitive load condition 1 = runs cognitive load task 2 = does not run cognitive load task |
| clCorrect | 1 = cognitive load task correct 0 = cognitive load task incorrect N/A = if no cognitive load condition was run |
File Name: scrambledsentencestask_raw*.iqdat
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| date | Date the session was run |
| time | Time the session was run |
| subject | Participant ID |
| group | Group number |
| session | Session number |
| 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 |
| 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. |
| sentenceCondition | 0 = demo 1 = Emotional 2 = Control |
| clCondition | Cognitive load condition 1 = runs cognitive load task 2 = does not run cognitive load task |
| index | Itemnumber of current sentence |
| scrambledSentence | The currently presented scrambled sentence |
| positiveSolution | Stores the positive (pseudopositive for control) solution for the currently scrambled sentence |
| negativeSolution | Stores the negative solution (pseudonegative for control) for the currently scrambled sentence |
| numericSentence | Stores the cumulative numeric response |
| sentenceResponse | The entered unscrambled sentence (as translated from the numericSentence) |
| responseCategory | The emotional category of the response: "positive", "negative", "neutral" (for correct responses), "other" (for incorrect responses) |
| numericResponse | Helper variable: stores the current numeric response based on scancode of response button |
| correct | Accuracy of response (1 = correct; 0 = otherwise) |
| cumulativeRT | Stores the cumulative latencies (in ms) of selecting the numbers of the current cumulative numeric response |
The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.
| Name | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
Design |
||
| runCognitiveLoadCondition | True = a 6-digit number is presented at the start of the test that needs to recalled at the end false = no 6-digit number is presented | true |
Sizing Parameters |
||
| wordSize | The size of the word stimuli in canvas height percentages | 1.8% |
| digitSize | The size of the cognitive load digits in canvas height percentages | 5% |
Duration Parameters |
||
| fixationDuration | Duration (in ms) fixation cross is presented by itself | 2000 |
| maxAssemblyTime | The max. duration (in ms) allowed to assembly each sentence | 10000 |
| iti | Intertrial interval (in ms) = blank screen between trials before next fixation cross is presented | 1000 |
| clDigitDuration | Cognitive Load digit presentation duration (in ms) | 7000 |