___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ VERBAL SELECTIVE REMINDING TASK (12 word list, 12 trials) ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Date: 04-18-2016 last updated: 03-02-2022 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Script Copyright © 03-02-2022 Millisecond Software ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ BACKGROUND INFO ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This script implements the a computerized version of the Verbal Selective Reminding Task; a list learning and free verbal recall test that allows the simultaneous analysis of long term and short term storage. The Verbal Selective Reminding Task presents a list of items and asks participant to freely recall as many of the items as possible. List items that were not recalled get a reminder. The Selective Reminding Task is similar to the Restrictive Reminding Task. The Selective Reminding Task, however, repeats a word anytime it wasn't recalled during the previous trial whereas the Restrictive Reminding Task only repeats a word if it has not been recalled at least once. References: Buschke, H. (1973). Selective reminding for analysis of memory and learning. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 12, 543-550. Buschke, H., & Fuld, P. A (1974). Evaluating storage, retention, and retrieval in disordered memory and learning. Neurology, 24, 1019-1025. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ TASK DESCRIPTION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Participants see a list of 12 words, presented to them one by one, and have to recall as many words as they can by typing all words into the keyboard. For those items that were not recalled during the current trial, the words are repeated and participants are again asked to recall as many of the original list words as they can. This procedure is repeated for 12 trials. The script automatically calculates per trial: - number of items with Long Term Storage (LTS) status - number of items retrieved from LTS (Long Term Retrieval, LTR), both consistent LTR and random LTR - number of items retrieved from Short term storage (Short Term Retrieval, STR) ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DURATION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 12 repetitions of list learning + free recall/Recognition Task: ~15 min Break: 30 min 1 delayed free test: ~2 min ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DATA FILE INFORMATION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The default data stored in the data files are: (1) Raw data file: 'verbalselectiveremindingtask_visual_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. response: the participant's response correct: the correctness of the response (1 = correct; 0 = incorrect) latency: the response latency (in ms) SRT_presentedWords: stores the words (reminders) that have been presented for the current trial SRT_countPresented: counts the number of words presented for the current trial prevMissed: number of items that were missed on the previous trial (used for debugging) SRT_recalledWords: stores all the list items that have been successfully recalled (as selected by test administrator) in the current trial SRT_countRecalled: counts the number of recalled items per SRT trial DR_recalledWords: stores the words entered during the Delayed Recall Task DR_countRecalledWords: counts the number of recalled items during the delayed recall trialestimatedWordCount: estimates the number of words presented based on number of spaces in response (autocorrects up if last input was a letter) estimatedWordCount: computer estimated word count countOthers: counts all 'recalls' of words that were not on the list counts all 'recalls' of words that were not on the list (sums them up across SRT trials and resets for DR task) MCR_words: stores all the words selected during the Multiple Choice SelectionRecognition Task (NOT in selection order) MCR_hits: counts the number of words correctly selected during the Multiple Choice SelectionRecognition Task MCR_FAs: counts the number of words incorrectly selected during the Multiple Choice SelectionRecognition Task skip1- /skip12: true = the corresponding word (itemnumber) does not need to presented again false = the corresponding word needs to be presented again during the next trial (2) Summary data file: 'verbalselectiveremindingtask_visual_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) Recall_trial1- Recall_trial12: store the number of Recalled items for trial 1 - trial 12 LTS_trial1- LTS_trial12: store the number of items with positive LTS (long term storage) status for trial 1 - trial 12 LTR_trial1- LTR_trial12: store the number of items with positive LTR (long term retrieval) status for trial 1 - trial 12 CLTR_trial1- CLTR_trial12: store the number of items with positive CLTR (consistent long term retrieval) status for trial 1 - trial 12 Note: CLTR status has to be reached before the last trial randLTR_trial1- randLTR_trial12: store the number of items with positive randLTR (random long term retrieval) status for trial 1 - trial 12 STR_trial1- STR_trial12: store the number of items with positive STR (short term retrieval) status for trial 1 - trial 12 SRT_countOthers: counts all 'Recalls' of words that were not on the list (sums them up across SRT trials) DR_countRecalledWords: counts the number of words correctly Recalled during the Delayed Recall Task DR_countOthers: counts all delayed 'Recalls' of words that were not on the list MCR_hits: counts the number of words correctly selected during the Multiple Choice SelectionRecognition Task MCR_FAs: counts the number of words incorrectly selected during the Multiple Choice SelectionRecognition Task Stimulus Info: SRT_presentedWords1- SRT_presentedWords12: store the words that have been presented for each trial (in the order presented) SRT_recalledWords1- SRT_recalledWords12: store all the Recalled list items for each trial (in the order Recalled) word1_recallPositions- word12_recallPositions: store the positions in which each word was Recalled across the 12 trials Example: word 1 was Recalled in the following positions in the first 3 trials "0(=not Recalled in trial1), 7 (=the 7th item Recalled in trial2), 4 (=the 4th item Recalled in trial3), etc" DR_recalledWords: stores the words entered during the Delayed Recall Task (in the order Recalled) MCR_words: stores all the words selected during the Multiple Choice SelectionRecognition Task ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (1) SRT: Selective Reminding Task - A word list of 12 items is used and tested across 12 trials. The words are always presented in the same order. - Participants are asked to recall as many words as they can from the original list by typing each word into the keyboard. - Only those items that are not actively recalled during the current trial are repeated on the subsequent trial This procedure is used to establish - number of items with Long Term Storage (LTS) status - number of items retrieved from LTS (=>LTR), both consistent LTR and random LTR - number of items retrieved from Short term storage (STR) per trial Algorithm implemented: Sum Recalled Items: total number of items recalled on a given trial. LTS: and item has positive LTS status if it is recalled on 2 subsequent trials (the second trial being unreminded of this item). Positive LTS status is retrospectively assigned to the item for the first of the two trials. Once an item is assigned positive LTS status, it keeps that status for all remaining trials whether or not it is actively retrieved. Script counts the number of items that have positive LTS status for each trial. Note: number of items with LTS status either increases or stays the same from trial to trial; the number cannot decrease. The number of items with LTS status, however, can surpass the number of actively recalled items. LTR: if an item has positive LTS status for the current trial AND is recalled, then the item is considered to be retrieved from LTR (=positive LTR status) for the purpose of the current trial. Script counts the number of items with positive LTR status per trial. Note: the number of items with LTR status in a given trial can vary from trial to trial. However, the number cannot surpass the number of actively recalled items. CLTR (consistent LTR): once an item is recalled consistently (that is without fail), it gets assigned positive CLTR status for the first trial that started the consistent recall. Script counts the number of items with positive CLTR status per trial. Note: the number of items with CLTR can only increase or stay the same from trial to trial. It cannot surpass the number of items with LTR status. Positive CLTR status has to be reached before the last trial randLTR (random LTR): all items with positive LTR status in a given trial that have not reached CLTR status yet are considered to be retrieved randomly from LTS. Note: the number of items with positive randLTR status in a given trial can vary from trial to trial. It cannot surpass the number of items with LTR status. STR: items that are recalled without LTS status are considered to be retrieved from short term storage. Number of items with STR = (Sum of all Recalled Items) - (number of items with positive LTR status). (2) MCR: Multiple Choice Recognition Task (optional) - presents the 12 targets and 12 distractor items in a 4x6 matrix (screen positions are randomly assigned) - participants can click on as many items as they want (once clicked the items turn blue; a second click unselects the items) until they click 'Submit' (3) DR: Delayed Recall Task (optional) - after a predetermined time frame, participants are asked to do a delayed recall task. - the computer plays a sound (that should be stopped with a spacebar press) to indicate that the delay time is up. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ STIMULI ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ see section Editable Stimuli (provided stimuli are from Buschke, 1973 and serve as demonstration stimuli only) ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ INSTRUCTIONS ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ see 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: /stim_fontsize: the size of the presented item in canvas hight percentages (default: 5%) /stimPresentation: the duration (in ms) the stim words stay on screen (default: 2000ms) /ISI: the interstimulus interval (in ms) (default: 0ms) /skipDelayedRecall: false: runs a delayed Recall session; true: skips the delayed Recall session /timeToRecall: intervall between last response and start of recall trial (in ms) (default: 1800000ms = 30min) /skipRecognitionTest: false: runs a multiple-choice Recognition Test; true: skips a multiple-choice Recognition Test