Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Created: January 06, 2016
Last Modified: January 16, 2023 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC
This script implements a variant of the Stereotype Activation Paradigm that measures stereotype activation/inhibition using reaction times to words (either control words or stereotype-relevant words) that follow the presentation of stereotype relevant imagery.
The procedure is closely related to a basic priming paradigm. 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'.
In this script, the basic priming procedure is 'spread out' across two seemingly unrelated tasks. Task 1 presents the primes as images; Task 2 (a lexical decision task) presents the target words.
The implemented procedure is based on:
Moskowitz, G.B. & Li, P.(2011). Egalitarian goals trigger stereotype inhibition: A proactive form of stereotype control. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 103–116.
Millisecond thanks Dr. Gordon Moskowitz and Joe Vitriol for their collaboration on this script!
12 minutes
Participants work on 2 tasks that immediately follow one another: Trial1 (Task1) -> Trial2 (Task2) -> Trial3 (Task1) -> Trial4 (Task2) -> etc.
(1) Priming Task: participants see (a) an image of a black or white, male face (the target primes) OR an object (control primes) either above or below the fixation cross and (b) opposite to the prime (either below of above the fixation cross), a pair of letter strings (either words or nonWords) that are either the same (e.g. 'matter' 'matter') or different (e.g. 'across' 'policy'). The task is to decide as fast as possible whether the letter strings are the 'same' or 'different' while trying to ignore the distracting image (cover story).
(2) Lexical Decision Task: after the priming task, participants view a string of letters (the target) and have to decide whether the letters form a word or not.
For the critical trials in this task, participants see Black and White male faces as primes that are paired with a pair of identical nonWords in phase1. For task2, the Black and White primes (from task 1) each are followed by 8 stereotypic and 8 ctrl words.
Practice: 16 trials total
- 8 trials with white faces:
4 with words in phase 2 (phase1: 1 with same words, 1 with different words, 1 with same nonWords, 1 with different nonWords)
4 with nonWords (phase1: 1 with same words, 1 with different words, 1 with same nonWords, 1 with different nonWords)
- 8 trials with objects:
4 with words in phase 2 (phase1: 1 with same words, 1 with different words, 1 with same nonWords, 1 with different nonWords)
4 with nonWords (phase1: 1 with same words, 1 with different words, 1 with same nonWords, 1 with different nonWords)
Error feedback during practice: red X presented for 500ms
Test: 2 test blocks: each run 56 trials -> 112 trials total
- each block runs:
• 16 critical trials:
4 trials – Black faces paired with identical non-words in phase 1 and stereotypic words in phase 2
4 trials -- White faces paired with identical non-words in phase 1 and stereotypic words in phase 2
4 trials – Black faces paired with identical non-words in phase 1 and control words in phase 2
4 trials -- White faces paired with identical non-words in phase 1 and control words in phase 2
•40 filler trials with 28 non-words and 12 words in phase 2 (since the critical trials above had 16 words)
12 white faces paired with non-words in phase 2 (4 same word, 4 different word, 4 different non-word in phase 1)
12 objects paired with filler words (4 same word, 4 different word, 4 different non-word in phase 1)
16 objects paired with non-words (4 same word, 6 different word, 6 different non-word in phase 1)
- the order of the trials is randomized
- all words/nonWords used in phase 2 are run twice
Trial Sequence:
Phase 1: FixationCross (2000ms) -> Image + Word Pair (presented for max.5000ms, above and below fixation cross) -> Response (Response Window: 1000ms, same as primeDuration) -> ITI: 400ms
Phase 2: Target Word/NonWord (stay on until Response or for max. 1500ms)
by default, the vertical position of the primes are selected randomly with replacement for each trial.
Response Button Assignment:
same (Phase1) + word (Phase2): same response key
different (Phase1) + nonWord (Phase2): same response key
The assignment of the two response buttons (default: Q (left), P (right) -> can be edited under section Editable Parameters)
is counterbalanced across groupnumbers.
odd groupnumbers: same/word -> Q; different/nonWord -> P
even groupnumbers: same/word -> P; different/nonWord -> Q
face stimuli: script uses placeholders as of now - pictures of black and white male faces can be downloaded from
from the Chicago Face Database: https://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/bernd.wittenbrink/cfd/index.html
Go to section 'Editable Stimuli' and replace the file names for the face primes.
object stimuli as well as word/nonWord stimuli: generously shared by Dr. Gordon Moskowitz
provided by Millisecond - can be edited under section "Editable Stimuli"
File Name: stereotypeactivation_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 |
| propCorrect | Overall proportion correct (Lexical Decision Task) |
| meanRT | Overall mean correct latency (in ms) (Lexical Decision Task) |
| sd | Standarddeviation of correct latencies (in ms) |
| propCorrectBPrimeCtrl | Proportion correct (Lexical Decision Task) for ctrl words following a Black prime face |
| propCorrectBPrimeStereotypic | Proportion correct (Lexical Decision Task) for stereotypic words following a Black prime face |
| propCorrectWPrimeCtrl | Proportion correct (Lexical Decision Task) for ctrl words following a White prime face |
| propCorrectWPrimeStereotypic | Proportion correct (Lexical Decision Task) for stereotypic words following a White prime face |
| meanRTBPrimeCtrl | Mean latency (in ms) of correct responses (Lexical Decision Task) for ctrl words following a Black prime face |
| meanRTBPrimeStereotypic | Mean latency (in ms) of correct responses (Lexical Decision Task) for stereotypic words following a Black prime face |
| meanRTWPrimeCtrl | Mean latency (in ms) of correct responses (Lexical Decision Task) for ctrl words following a White prime face |
| meanRTWPrimeStereotypic | Mean latency (in ms) of correct responses (Lexical Decision Task) for stereotypic words following a White prime face |
| diffScoreCtrl | Difference in mean latencies for ctrl targets after B primes and W primes (meanRTBPrimeCtrl - meanRTWPrimeCtrl) |
| diffScoreStereotypic | Difference in mean latencies for stereotypic targets after B primes and W primes (meanRTBPrimeStereotypic - meanRTWPrimeStereotypic) => positive scores: Inhibition => negative scores: Activation/Facilitation corrected mean latencies: removes all latencies that are 3 standard deviations (SD) or more away from the overall mean (meanRT) |
| corrMeanRTBPrimeCtrl | Corrected mean latency (in ms) of correct responses (Lexical Decision Task) for ctrl words following a Black prime face |
| corrMeanRTBPrimeStereotypic | Corrected mean latency (in ms) of correct responses (Lexical Decision Task) for stereotypic words following a Black prime face |
| corrMeanRtWPrimeCtrl | Corrected mean latency (in ms) of correct responses (Lexical Decision Task) for ctrl words following a White prime face |
| corrMeanRtWPrimeStereotypic | Corrected mean latency (in ms) of correct responses (Lexical Decision Task) for stereotypic words following a White prime face |
| corrDiffScoreCtrl | Difference in mean latencies for ctrl targets after B primes and W primes (corrmeanRTBPrimeCtrl - corrmeanRTWPrimeCtrl) |
| corrDiffScoreStereotypic | Difference in mean latencies for stereotypic targets after B primes and W primes (corrmeanRTBPrimeStereotypic - corrmeanRTWPrimeStereotypic) => positive scores: Inhibition => negative scores: Activation/Facilitation |
File Name: stereotypeactivation_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 |
| test | 0 = practice phase; 1 = test phase |
| trialType | 1 (critical) vs. 2 (filler) |
| phase | 1 (priming task); 2 (lexical decision task) |
| prime | 1 (Black faces); 2 (White faces); 3 (objects) |
| pairIdentity | 1 (same/identical); 2 (different) (phase1) |
| wordType | 1 = phase 1 WORDS; 2 = phase 1 NonWordS |
| target | 1 (lexical decision task WORD); 2 (lexical decision task NON WORD) |
| valence | 0 (filler words in phase2), 1 (ctrl target words in phase2); 2 (stereotypic target words in phase2) |
| primeStim | The currently presented prime stimulus |
| letterString1 | Phase 1 letter string 1 |
| letterString2 | Phase 1 letter string 2 |
| targetStim | The currently presented target stimulus |
| targetStimNr | The itemnumber of the presented target stimulus |
| primeY | Stores the y-coordinate (in %) of the current prime |
| letterStringY | Stores the x-coordinate (in %) of the current letter string pair letterString1 sits 2% above this location, letterString2 sits 2% below this location |
| response | The participant's response (scancode of response button) 16 = Q 25 = P 57 = spacebar 0 = no response |
| responseCategory | Stores the response classification Phase 1: same or different Phase 2: word or nonWord |
| correct | The correctness of the response (1 = correct; 0 = incorrect) |
| latency | The response latency (in ms) phase1: measured from onset of letter strings phase2: measured from onset of target words |
The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.
| Name | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| leftKey | The left keyboard scancode | "Q" |
| rightKey | The right keyboard scancode Timing Parameters | "P" |
| fixationDuration | The duration of the fixation cross | 2000ms |
| maxPrimeDuration | The max. duration of task 1 in ms | 1000ms |
| iti | The duration of the intertrial interval btw. task 1 and task 2 in ms | 400ms |
| rwPhase2 | The response window for phase 2 (lexical decision task) in ms Sizing Parameters | 1500ms |
| fixationSize | The proportional screen size of the fixation cross | 5% |
| pairFontSize | The proportional screen size of the pair words in task 1 | 3% |
| targetFontSize | The proportional screen size of the target string of letters in task 2 | 5% |
| primeSize | The proportional screen size of the prime image | 30% |
| topY | The placement above the fixation cross in canvas screen percentages (50% = center) | 30% |
| bottomY | The placement below the fixation cross in canvas screen percentages (50% = center) | 70% |