___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ *Simple Auditory Reaction Time Task (Keyboad Input)* ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Date: 06-04-2018 last updated: 02-28-2022 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Script Copyright © 02-28-2022 Millisecond Software ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ BACKGROUND INFO ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This script implements a Simple Auditory Reaction Time Task loosely based on: Fry, D.B. (1975). Simple Reaction-Times to Speech and Non-Speech Stimuli. Cortex, 11, 355-360. Note: the original study was conducted with tape recorders. This script adapts the original procedure to the computer. Voice responses are omitted in this script. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ TASK DESCRIPTION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Participants hear two different sounds and are asked to respond to the sounds by pressing the spacebar By default, the sounds are tested in a mixed design (can be changed to a blocked design under section Editable Parameters) ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DURATION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ the default set-up of the script takes appr. 5 minutes to complete __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DATA FILE INFORMATION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The default data stored in the data files are: (1) Raw data file: 'simpleauditoryreactiontimetask_raw*.iqdat' (a separate file for each participant)* build: The specific Inquisit version used (the 'build') that was run computer.platform: the platform the script was run on (win/mac/ios/android) date, time: date and time script was run subject, group: with the current subject/groupnumber session: with the current session id blockcode, blocknum: the name and number of the current block (built-in Inquisit variable) trialcode, trialnum: the name and number of the currently recorded trial (built-in Inquisit variable) Note: trialnum is a built-in Inquisit variable; it counts all trials run; even those that do not store data to the data file such as feedback trials. Thus, trialnum may not reflect the number of main trials run per block. countTestBlocks: counts the number of test blocks run blocktrialcount: custom variable to count the trials run in a given block countValidBlockResponses: counts the number of valid responses per block (valid = response started after onset of stim) phase: "practice" vs. "pretest" (the first 5 trials in each test block) vs. "test" sound: 1 = sound1 (here: 'a'); 2 = sound2 (here: telephone ring) delay: stores the randomly selected sound delay (in ms) - relative to onset of trial response: the participant's response (57 = spacebar press) correct: accuracy of response (1 = correct; 0 = otherwise) latency: the response latency (in ms); measured from: onset of trial (NOT onset of sound), see 'Sound RT' below validResponse: 0 = invalid (should be repeated); 1 = valid trialTimestamp: the script elapsedTime (in ms; measured from script start) of the current trial onset sound.tone.timestamp: the script elapsedTime (in ms; measured from script start) of the last presented sound onset Note: if the tone has not been played yet, the variable contains a randomly selected number RT_timestamp: the elapsedTime of the current response relative to start of script (in ms) Note: calculated as timestamp of trial onset + latency; timestamp of trial is measured from start of script, latency is measured from start of trial RT_stimonset: the elapsed time of the current response relative to onset of sound stim (= RESPONSE TIME TO SOUND; in ms) (when the sound stim timestamp is still the same as the one from the previous trial at time of response, Sound RT = "Early Response" as no new sound has been played yet) Note: calculated as the difference from 'RT_timestamp - timestamp of sound onset' (both are measured from onset of script) (2) Summary data file: 'simpleauditoryreactiontimetask_summary*.iqdat' (a separate file for each participant)* inquisit.version: Inquisit version run computer.platform: the platform the script was run on (win/mac/ios/android) startDate: date script was run startTime: time script was started subjectid: assigned subject id number groupid: assigned group id number sessionid: assigned session id number elapsedTime: time it took to run script (in ms); measured from onset to offset of script completed: 0 = script was not completed (prematurely aborted); 1 = script was completed (all conditions run) testtrials_total: total number of test trials run (across blocks) countEarlyResponses_total: total number of early responses (across blocks) propEarlyResponses_total: proportion early responses across all test trials Note: early responses are excluded from mean/standard deviation calculations. Only responses that were recorded AFTER the onset of the sound stimulus are considered for mean and standard deviation calculations testtrials_sound1: calculates number of test trials run in Sound1 condition meanRT_sound1: mean response latency (in ms) to the sound stimulus in Sound1 condition (here: space bar press to 'a') SD_sound1: standard deviation of response latencies (in ms) in Sound1 condition countEarlyResp_sound1: counts all "early responses" (responses BEFORE sound onset) in sound1 condition propEarlyResponses_sound1: proportion early responses of all test trials run in Sound1 condition (here: space bar press to 'a') testtrials_sound2: calculates number of test trials run in Sound2 condition meanRT_sound2: mean response latency (in ms) to the sound stimulus in Sound2 condition (here: space bar press to 'telephone ring') SD_sound2: standard deviation of response latencies (in ms) in Sound2 condition countEarlyResp_sound2: counts all "early responses" (responses BEFORE sound onset) in Sound2 condition propEarlyResponses_sound2: proportion early responses of all test trials run in Sound2 condition (here: space bar press to 'telephone ring') * separate data files: to change to one data file for all participants (on Inquisit Lab only), go to section "DATA" and follow further instructions ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Default Design: 2 different sounds are tested in a within participant,mixed design: (can be changed to a blocked design; see section Editable Parameters) Mixed Design Option: 10+ Practice Trials: - minimum of 5 practice trials per sound - sound order is randomly determined 50 + Test Trials - minimum of 25 test trials per sound (If parameters.repeatEarlyResponseTrials is set to 'true' then the 'early response' trials get repeated at the end of the block and thus there will be 25 valid test trials per sound at script conclusion) - sound order is randomly determined Blocked Design Option: Per block: 10+ Practice Trials: - minimum of 10 practice trials (no repeats of incorrect practice trials) 25 + Test Trials - minimum of 25 test trials (If parameters.repeatEarlyResponseTrials is set to 'true' then the 'early response' trials get repeated at the end of the block and thus there will be 25 valid test trials per sound at script conclusion) Sound Delays: at the beginning of each sound trial, a sound delay is randomly sampled (with replacement) from list.delay Delays: 2400ms-3700ms with increments of 100ms (change delays under section Editable Lists) ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ STIMULI ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ sound file for the letter 'a' from: http://soundbible.com/2009-A-Z-Vocalized.html#A-Z%20Vocalized%20Sound sound file for telephone ring from: http://free-mobi.org/ringtones/sound-effects/telephone-ring both sound files were cut to 450ms and their peak amplitude set at 1.0dB by Millisecond Software in Audacity. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ INSTRUCTIONS ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ provided by Millisecond Software all text stimuli can be edited under section Editable Instructions ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ EDITABLE CODE ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ check below for (relatively) easily editable parameters, stimuli, instructions etc. Keep in mind that you can use this script as a template and therefore always "mess" with the entire code to further customize your experiment. The parameters you can change are: /readyDuration: the default duration (in ms) of the get-ready trial (default: 2000ms) /earlyResponseFeedback: the duration (in ms) of the "Early Response" Feedback (default: 1000ms) /repeatEarlyResponseTrials: true (1) = early response trials get immediately repeated (default) => at conclusion of script, there are 30 valid response measures in all 4 blocks false (0) = early response trials do not get repeated /showRTfeedback: true (1) = response time feedback is provided for valid responses (default) false (0) = no response time feedback is provided /RTfeedbackDuration: duration (in ms) of response time feedback (default: 500ms) Note: the response time feedback adds additional 500ms to the task for each trial /mixedDesign: true (default)= the 2 sound stimuli are presented within the same block false = the 2 sound stimuli are tested within a blocked design