___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ *WHITE BEAR THOUGHT SUPPRESSION PROCEDURE* ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Date: 06-03-2020 last updated: 03-03-2022 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Script Copyright © 03-03-2022 Millisecond Software ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ BACKGROUND INFO ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This script implements a computer adapted 'White Bear Thought Suppression Procedure' (Wegner et al, 1987); a procedure to investigate the paradoxical effect of attempting to suppress of conscious thought. References Wegner, D.M, Schneider, D.J, Carter, S.R, & White, T.L (1987). Paradoxical Effects of Thought Suppression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 53, 5–13. Giuliano, R.J., & Wicha, N.Y. (2010). Why the white bear is still there: electrophysiological evidence for ironic semantic activation during thought suppression. Brain research, 1316, 62–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2009.12.041 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ TASK DESCRIPTION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Participants work through three phases of thought vocalizations: Phase1: Participants are instructed to vocalize their thoughts for 5 minutes (editable) straight. -> Inquisit records and provides a soundfile for this phase Phase2: Participants are instructed to vocalize their thoughts for 5 minutes (editable) while being instructed to NOT think of a 'White Bear'. If they think of a 'White Bear', they are instructed to press the Spacebar. -> Inquisit records and provides a soundfile for this phase as well as counts the number of spacebar presses Phase3: Participants are instructed to vocalize their thoughts for 5 minutes (editable). If they happen to think of a 'White Bear', they are instructed to press the Spacebar -> Inquisit records and provides a soundfile for this phase as well as counts the number of spacebar presses Note: if the task is performed on devices that have keyboards attached, the spacebar presses are easily in the recorded soundfiles. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DURATION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ the default set-up of the script takes appr. 18 minutes to complete ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DATA FILE INFORMATION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The default data stored in the data files are: (1) Raw data file: 'whitebearthoughtsuppression_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. stimulusitem: the presented stimuli in order of trial presentation response: the participant's response (scancode of response buttons) 57 = spacebar countResponses: counts the number of spacebar presses made during phase2 and phase3 latency: the response latency (in ms); measured from: onset of trial (2) Summary data file: 'whitebearthoughtsuppression_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) phase2Responses: counts the number of spacebar-presses made during phase2 (thought suppression phase) phase3Responses: counts the number of spacebar-presses made during phase3 * separate data files: to change to one data file for all participants (on Inquisit Lab only), go to section "DATA" and follow further instructions (3) 3 Sound files per participant ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Participants work through three phases of thought vocalizations: Phase1: Participants are instructed to vocalize their thoughts for 5 minutes (editable) straight. -> Inquisit records and provides a soundfile for this phase Phase2: Participants are instructed to vocalize their thoughts for 5 minutes (editable) while being instructed to NOT think of a 'White Bear'. If they think of a 'White Bear', they are instructed to press the Spacebar. -> Inquisit records and provides a soundfile for this phase as well as counts the number of spacebar presses Phase3: Participants are instructed to vocalize their thoughts for 5 minutes (editable). If they happen to think of a 'White Bear', they are instructed to press the Spacebar -> Inquisit records and provides a soundfile for this phase as well as counts the number of spacebar pressesse ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ INSTRUCTIONS ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ provided by Millisecond Software - can be edited under section Editable Instructions The instructions are taken from: Giuliano & Wicha (2010) ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 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: