Script Author: Vivian Zayas, Ph.D. (vz29@cornell.edu)
Last Modified: January 11, 2025 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC
This script implements a sequential priming paradigm that assesses positive and negative evaluations elicited by significant others.
In general, priming procedures are simple response-timed binary categorization tasks of items from two target categories (e.g. positive vs. negative adjectives). Priming Procedures are based on the assumption that people respond faster if the target category was already 'mentally activated' by briefly presenting items (called 'primes') that are closely connected in one's mind. Thus, a person should be faster to quickly categorize the target word 'good' as 'positive' after the brief presentation of the prime word 'ice-cream' than after the brief presentation of the prime word 'famine'. If the primes are presented with a temporal duration that can be consciously processed, the primes are called 'supraliminal'. If the duration of the primes is so short that they are outside one's conscious awareness the primes are called 'subliminal'.
In this script, target categories GOOD vs. BAD are primed by supraliminal information collected about one's significant other (such as names) and resulting response times are analyzed (Zayas & Shoda, 2015).
Zayas, V. & Shoda, Y. (2015). Love you? Hate you? Maybe it's both: Significant persons trigger bi-valent priming. Social Psychological and Personality Science.
Fazio, R., Sanbonmatsu, D., Powell, M., & Kardes, F. (1986). On the automatic activation of attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 229–238.
15 minutes
After seeing a prime word (either a neutral word such as 'chair' or the name of the current significant other) participants are asked to categorize adjectives as positive or negative using the 'E' and 'I' key on their keyboards.
Version EXPT 1: UP: Unpleasant (on the left) vs. Pleasant (on the right) (Neutral Word: Table)
Version EXPT 2: PU: Pleasant (on the left) vs. Unpleasant (on the right) (Neutral Word: Chair)
Participants are assigned to each version by groupnumber selection
• Primes are partner name and neutral word.
• Target stimuli are pleasant/unpleasant words.
• Discrimination is UNPLEASANT - PLEASANT or PLEASANT - UNPLEASANT.
BLOCK 3 = practice (16 trials) practice is repeated if mean response time > 1500ms and/or accuracy < 0.8
BLOCK 4,5 = DATA (80 trials each, in total 160 trials- 40 for each critical block,
i.e., partner-pleasant, partner-unpleasant, neutral-pleasant, neutral-unpleasant)
provided by V. Zayas (Name of Significant Other entered by participant)
provided by V. Zayas
File Name: significantotherspp_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 |
| propCorrectPartnerPleasant | Proportion correct responses for trials in which partner name preceded a positive target |
| meanRTPartnerPleasant | Mean correct response time (in ms) in trials in which partner name preceded a positive target |
| propCorrectPartnerUnpleasant | Proportion correct responses for trials in which partner name preceded a negative target |
| meanRTPartnerUnpleasant | Mean correct response time (in ms) in trials in which partner name preceded a negative target |
| propCorrectNeutralPleasant | Proportion correct responses for trials in which Neutral object preceded a positive target |
| meanRTNeutralPleasant | Mean correct response time (in ms) in trials in which Neutral object preceded a positive target |
| propCorrectNeutralUnpleasant | Proportion correct responses for trials in which Neutral object preceded a negative target |
| meanRTNeutralUnpleasant | Mean correct response time (in ms) in trials in which Neutral object preceded a negative target |
| diffRTPartner | The difference 'corrRT(unpleasant targets) - corrRT(pleasant targets)' for partner condition positive difference: it took longer to classify negative targets after partner's name than positive ones => partner's name primed positive items negative difference: it took longer to classify positive targets after partner's name than negative ones => partner's name primed negative items |
| diffRTNeutral | The difference 'corrRT(unpleasant targets) - corrRT(pleasant targets)' for neutral condition => control condition: the difference is expected to be around 0 the neutral prime words should neither prime positive nor negative targets |
File Name: significantotherspp_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. |
| response | The participant's response (scancode of response key) 18 = E 23 = I |
| responseCat | The interpreted key re sponse:"good" vs. "bad" |
| correct | Accuracy of response: 1 = correct response; 0 = otherwise |
| latency | The response latency (in ms); measured from: onset of target |
| stimulusItem.1 | For the practice/test trials: contains the prime word |
| stimulusItem.2 | For the practice/test trials: empty |
| stimulusItem.3 | For the practice/test trials: contains the target word |