Script Author: Stephane Dandeneau
Credits:
Script and stimuli generously shared by Dr. Stephane Dandeneau. Thank you!
This script is a helper script for sematrixtask.iqjs.
It provides the stimuli used for the experimental condition.
Last Modified: February 16, 2026 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC
This script runs the Self-Esteem Matrix Task by Dandeneau & Baldwin (2004), an Attentional Bias Modification Task (ABMT) for people suffering with low-self esteem using a visual search task.
Dandeneau, S.D., & Baldwin, M. W. (2004). The Inhibition of socially rejecting information among people with high versus low self-esteem: The Role of Attentional bias and the effects of bias reduction training. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, Vol. 23(4), 584-602.
Dandeneau, S. D., Baldwin, M. W., Baccus, J. R., Sakellaropoulo, M., & Pruessner, J. C. (2007). Cutting stress off at the pass: Reducing stress and hypervigilance to social threat by manipulating attention. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93(4), 651-666.
7 minutes
Participants view a 4x4 matrix of images and are instructed to find a target stim as fast as possible (visual search task). In the experimental condition, the target is a smiling face (all other images are frowny faces). In the control condition, the target is a 5-petal flower (all other images are 7-petal flowers).
2 conditions: experimental vs. control (assignment by parameters.taskType)
this script can be combined with script sematrixtaskbatch.iqjs to counterbalance groups by
group number assignment
Experimental Condition: 4x4 matrix with 16 images
• face stimuli
-> 1 target: smiling face
-> 15 distractors: frowny faces
Control Condition: 4x4 matrix with 16 images
• drawings of flowers
-> 1 target: 5 petal flower
-> 15 distractors: 7 petal flowers
General:
• 4 blocks of 28 trials = 112 trials; after each block there is a rest trial
• 16 different actors => each actor is provided as a target stim (smiling) and as a distractor stim (frowny)
• position of target randomly determined with the constraint that the targets appear in each cell equally often
(default: 7 times in each of the 16 cells)
• 16 different targets: randomly determined (7 repetitions of each target-> 112 trials)
• 15 distractors: all faces that are not used as the target are used as distractors; they are
randomly assigned to the remaining 15 cell positions
see section Editable Stimuli
see section Editable Instructions
File Name: sematrixtask_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 |
| taskType | 1 = experimental condition (with faces); 2 = control condition (with flowers) assignment is counterbalanced by groupnumber |
| trial.taskTrial.totalCount | Counts all trials taskTrial run by this script |
| trial.taskTrial.totalCorrectCount | Counts all initially correct taskTrials run by this script |
| trial.taskTrial.totalErrorCount | Counts all initially incorrect taskTrials run by this script |
| trial.taskTrial.totalPercentCorrect | Percent correct of initially correct taskTrials |
| trial.taskTrial.totalMeanLatency | Mean latency (in ms) of all taskTrials |
File Name: sematrixtask_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. |
| taskType | 1 = experimental condition (with faces) 2 = control condition (with flowers) assignment is counterbalanced by groupnumber |
| response | The participant's final (correct) response |
| correct | The correctness of the INITIAL response (1 = correct; 0 = incorrect) participants can only move on if they select the target, however, the accuracy of the initial selection is stored. |
| latency | The response latency of the final response (in ms) |
| picture.target.currentItem | The currently selected target |
| targetStim | Stores the itemnumber of the current target stimulus |
| targetPosition | Positions 1-16 in a 4 x 4 matrix Row1: 1-4 Row2: 5-8 Row3: 9-12 Row4: 13-16 |
| trial.taskTrial.totalCount | Counts all trials taskTrial run by this script |
| trial.taskTrial.totalCorrectCount | Counts all initially correct taskTrials run by this script |
| trial.taskTrial.totalErrorCount | Counts all initially incorrect taskTrials run by this script |
| trial.taskTrial.totalPercentCorrect | Percent correct of initially correct taskTrials |
| trial.taskTrial.totalMeanLatency | Mean latency (in ms) of all taskTrials |
The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.
| Name | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| stimSize | Sets the size of stim | 21.25% |
| leftMargin | Sets the screen positions of the left margin of the matrix relative to the canvas width | 10% |
| topMargin | Sets the screen positions of the top margin of the matrix relative to the canvas height | 10% |
| taskType | 1 = experimental stims 2 = control stims | 1 |