Script made available for academic research purposes only
Script has been edited and updated by Millisecond
Last Modified: January 12, 2023 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC
This script implements a Sorting Paired Feature Task, an indirect attitude measure. The Sorting Paired Feature Task is a variant of the Implicit Association Task (IAT). Like the IAT it is based on the assumption that it is easier to respond to items if they are associated in the mind. Unlike the IAT, items of two categories are presented as actual pairs on the computer screen (e.g. as a picture of George Bush with the adjective friendly attached to it) and have to be sorted into 4 main categories (the four possible combinations a paired item can belong to). Hypothesis 'congruent' and 'incongruent' pairs can thus be presented in a mixed format.
Bar-Anan, Nosek, & Vianello (2009). The sorting paired features task: A measure of association strengths. Experimental Psychology.
This script corresponds to the implicit measurement portion of Study 3.
8 minutes
The Sorting Paired Feature Task provides 4 main sorting categories in the four corners of the screen. The 4 main sorting categories are categories that combine two concepts. In this script the 4 main sorting categories are: "George Bush & Bad", "George Bush & Good", "John Kelly & Bad", "John Kelly & Good", . In this script, the separate categories "George Bush", "John Kelly", "Good", "Bad" are also used (= 8 different sorting categories)
Participants are given items to sort, one at a time in the middle of the screen. Using 8 different keys, they are asked to sort the items into one of the 8 categories as fast as possible. Error responses result in error feedback and participants have to correct the response before a new trial can start.
2 main tasks:
POLALL: 3 blocks
the sorting paired feature task providing the main 4 sorting categories: Democrat-Bad, Democrat-Good, Republican-Bad, Republican-Good
as well as 4 additional sorting categories: Democrat, Republican, Good, Bad
• Only correct responses advance a trial (=> error penalty automatically added to latencies)
• each block runs 64 trials
• 2 different spatial arrangements of sorting categories are tested across participants (Polall1 vs. Polall2);
the assignment is done by groupnumber. Odd groupnumbers run Polall1; even groupnumbers run Polall2.
summary variables are added by Millisecond and are only calculated based on sorting latencies
of trials belonging to the main 4 sorting categories.
SPF3: sorting paired feature task with 3 categories
a) Democrat-Bad, Democrat-Good, single item category
b) Republican-Bad, Republican-Good, single item category
the SPF3 task is currently skipped by the default set-up of this script.
See editable parameters.skipSPF under section Editable Parameters
can be edited under section Editable Stimuli
can be edited under section Editable Instructions
File Name: sortingpairedfeatures_summary*.iqdat
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| inquisit.version | Inquisit version number |
| computer.platform | Device platform: win | mac |ios | android |
| 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 |
| count300 | Number of trials with response latencies < 300ms |
| count4000 | Number of trials with response latencies > 4000ms the following summary variables only apply to trials from the 4 main sorting categories (Democrat-Bad, Democrat-good, Republican-Bad, Republican-good) in the Polall block with 300ms <= response latencies <= 4000ms |
| nPolallMain4Conditions | Number of main trials run (with 300ms <= response latencies <= 4000ms) |
| polallRTMain4Conditions | Mean response latency (in ms) across the 4 main categories in the Polall block (with 300ms <= response latencies <= 4000ms) |
| polallSDMain4Conditions | Standard deviation (in ms) of latencies across the 4 main categories in the Polall block (with 300ms <= response latencies <= 4000ms) |
| polallRTDBad | Mean response latency (in ms) of sorting combined 'Democrat-Bad' stimuli (with 300ms <= response latencies <= 4000ms) |
| polallSDDBad | Standard deviation (in ms) of latencies sorting combined 'Democrat-Bad' stimuli (with 300ms <= response latencies <= 4000ms) |
| polallRTDGood | Mean response latency (in ms) of sorting combined 'Democrat-Good' stimuli (with 300ms <= response latencies <= 4000ms) |
| polallSDDGood | Standard deviation (in ms) of latencies sorting combined 'Democrat-Good' stimuli (with 300ms <= response latencies <= 4000ms) |
| polallRTRBad | Mean response latency (in ms) of sorting combined 'Republican-Bad' stimuli (with 300ms <= response latencies <= 4000ms) |
| polallSDRBad | Standard deviation (in ms) of latencies sorting combined 'Republican-Bad' stimuli (with 300ms <= response latencies <= 4000ms) |
| polallRTRGood | Mean response latency (in ms) of sorting combined 'Republican-Good' stimuli (with 300ms <= response latencies <= 4000ms) |
| polallSDRGood | Standard deviation (in ms) of latencies sorting combined 'Republican-Good' stimuli (with 300ms <= response latencies <= 4000ms) Difference Scores for the 4 main conditions subtracting the overall reaction time mean of the 4 main sorting categories from the individual mean of each sorting category and then standardizing this difference by dividing it by the overall standard deviation of the latencies of those 4 main sorting conditions positive D-scores = participants responded slower than on average negative D-scores = participant responded faster than on average D_DB (democrat bad) D_DG (democrat good) D_RB (republican bad) D_RG (republican good) |
File Name: sortingpairedfeatures_raw*.iqdat
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| build | Inquisit version number |
| computer.platform | Device platform: win | mac |ios | android |
| date | Date the session was run |
| time | Time the session was run |
| subject | Participant ID |
| group | Group number |
| session | Session number |
| blockCode | Name of the current block |
| blockNum | Number of the current block |
| trialCode | Name of the current trial |
| trialNum | Number of the current trial |
| mainCategory | 1 = the current trial is considered one of the four main categories in the Polall Block main 4 categories: combined categories Democrat-Bad, Democrat-good, Republican-Bad, Republican-good |
| response | The participant's response (scancode of response key pressed) Key Response stores the final correct response |
| correct | The correctness of the response (1 = correct; 0 = incorrect) acc stores the accuracy of the initial (=uncorrected) response |
| latency | The response latency (in ms) of the final correct response |
The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.
| Name | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| runSPF3 | True (1): the SPF3 blocks are run by this script False (0): the SPF3 blocks are skipped by this script (default) | |
| minRT | Sets the minimum latency (in ms) considered for summary variables | |
| maxRT | Sets the maximum latency (in ms) considered for summary variables |