Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Created: January 15, 2018
Last Modified: January 17, 2025 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC
Go/Nogo Tasks are used as behavioral measures of inhibition and cognitive control. This script implements a Go/Nogo Task procedure to study inhibition in the context of valenced stimuli. The implemented procedure is based on Chuang et al (2017).
Chuang, Jie-Yu et al (2017). Adolescent Major Depressive Disorder: Neuroimaging Evidence of Sex Difference during an Affective Go/No-Go Task. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 8, 1-12.
Gregg, A. & Sedikides, C. (2010). Narcissistic Fragility: Rethinking Its Links to Explicit and Implicit Self-esteem, Self and Identity, 9:2, 142-161 (p.148)
15 minutes
Participants view positive, negative or neutral words and are asked to: Condition 1: press the space bar when they see a positive word ("go") and only then (nogo words: neutral words) Condition 2: press the space bar when they see a neutral word ("go") and only then (nogo words: positive words) Condition 3: press the space bar when they see a positive word ("go") and only then (nogo words: negative words) Condition 4: press the space bar when they see a negative word ("go") and only then (nogo words: positive words) Condition 5: press the space bar when they see a negative word ("go") and only then (nogo words: neutral words) Condition 6: press the space bar when they see a neutral word ("go") and only then (nogo words: negative words)
Practice: optional (see parameters.runPractice)
• 10 trials (5 go, 5 nogo)
• script uses 'living things' as GO stimuli and 'non-living things' as NOGO stimuli
• provides feedback
Test:
• 3 rounds of testing
• each round consists of 6 Conditions ( this script does not run the 7th condition run by Chuang et al):
order of conditions is randomly determined
HN: go = positive/happy; nogo = neutral (by default: positive words are repeated twice after reset; neutral words are repeated once)
NH: go = neutral; nogo = positive (by default: neutral words are repeated twice after reset; positive words are repeated once)
HS: go = positive/happy; nogo = negative (by default: positive words are repeated twice after reset; negative words are repeated once)
SH: go = negative/sad; nogo = positive (by default: negative words are repeated twice after reset; positive words are repeated once)
SN: go = negative/sad; nogo = neutral (by default: negative words are repeated twice after reset; neutral words are repeated once)
NS: go = neutral; nogo = negative (by default: neutral words are repeated twice after reset; negative words are repeated once)
• Each condition runs 20 trials (10 go trials, 10 nogo trial); trial order of go-nogo trials is generated at random
(go: nogo ratio can be changed under section BLOCKS)
• each condition runs all 10 stimuli of the GO and NOGO category once
Default Trial Sequence:
word (450ms) -> clearScreen (750ms): response timeout after 1200ms
-> iti = 0 (see list.iti) (iti presents clearScreen)
provided by Millisecond - can be edited/exchanged under section Editable Stimuli
words selected from:
Bradley, M.M., & Lang, P.J. (1999). Affective norms for English words (ANEW): Instruction
manual and affective ratings. Technical Report C-1, The Center for Research in
Psychophysiology, University of Florida.
The words are roughly matched in mean valence and mean length
10 negative words (scale: 1-9): mean valence: 1.47 (range: 1.25-1.61), mean length: 6.8
10 neutral words (scale: 1-9): mean valence: 5 (range: 4.95-5.05), mean length: 6.1
10 positive words (scale: 1-9): mean valence: 8.57 (range: 8.39-8.82), mean length: 7
see script 'affectivegonogo_instructions_inc.iqjs'
provided by Millisecond - see script 'affectivegonogo_instructions_inc.iqjs'
NH (neutral GO, positivehappy NOGO) see condition HN for variable explanation
HS (positive/happy GO, negativesad NOGO) see condition HN for variable explanation
SH (negative/sad GO, positivehappy NOGO) see condition HN for variable explanation
SN (negative/sad GO, neutral NOGO) see condition HN for variable explanation
NS (neutral GO, negativesad NOGO) see condition HN for variable explanation
File Name: affectivegonogo_summary*.iqdat
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| inquisit.version | Inquisit version number |
| computer.platform | Device platform: win | mac |ios | android |
| computer.touch | 0 = device has no touchscreen capabilities; 1 = device has touchscreen capabilities |
| computer.hasKeyboard | 0 = no external keyboard detected; 1 = external keyboard detected |
| 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 = Test was not completed 1 = Test was completed |
| hitRate | The overall Hit rate across all blocks (hit = pressing space bar for go stimuli) |
| missRate | The overall Miss rate across all blocks (1-hitRate) |
| faRate | The overall False Alarm rate across all blocks (FA = pressing space bar for nogo stimuli) |
| corrRejectRate | The overall Correct Rejection rate acroos all blocks (1-faRate) |
| zHitRate | The z-score of the overall hitrate |
| zFARate | The z-score of the overall FA rate hit and false alarm rate are corrected for signal detection measures as outlined in Gregg & Sedikides (2010, p.148) |
| dPrime | Difference btw. (zscore of hitrate - zscore of FArate): measure of Sensitivity => Range (in this script) -5.1516586840152740479 <= dprime <= 5.1516586840152740479 (=perfect performance) => The higher the value, the better signals were overall distinguished from noise (d' = 0: chance performance; negative d-primes: participant treated nontargets as targets and targets as nontargets) |
| c | C-criterion in signal detection:The absolute value of c provides an indication of the strength of the response bias/response style negative: participant more likely to report that signal is present (liberal response style) may favor faster responding in speed-accuracy trade-off response paradigms positive: favoring caution (conservative response style) |
| meanHitRT | The overall mean hit response time (in ms) |
| sdHitRT | Standard deviation of the hit response times across blocks (in ms) |
| hitRateHN | The Hit rate in HN block (go: positive/happy words, nogo: neutral words) |
| missRateHN | The Miss rate in HN block (1-hitRateHN) |
| faRateHN | The False Alarm rate (commission rate) in HN block |
| corrRejectRateHN | The Correct Rejection rate in HN block (1-faRateHN) |
| zHitRateHN | The z-score of the HN Hit rate |
| zFARateHN | The z-score of the HN FA rate |
| dPrimeHN | Difference btw. (zHitRate - zFARate) in HN block: measure of Sensitivity |
| cHN | C-criterion for block HN |
| hitRTHN | Mean hit response time (in ms) in HN block |
File Name: affectivegonogo_raw*.iqdat
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| build | Inquisit version number |
| computer.platform | Device platform: win | mac |ios | android |
| computer.touch | 0 = device has no touchscreen capabilities; 1 = device has touchscreen capabilities |
| computer.hasKeyboard | 0 = no external keyboard detected; 1 = external keyboard detected |
| date | Date the session was run |
| time | Time the session was run |
| subject | Participant ID |
| group | Group number |
| session | Session number |
| blockcode | The name the current block (built-in Inquisit variable) |
| blocknum | The number of the current block (built-in Inquisit variable) |
| trialcode | The name of the currently recorded trial (built-in Inquisit variable) |
| trialnum | The number of the currently recorded trial (built-in Inquisit variable) trialnum is a built-in Inquisit variable; it counts all trials run even those that do not store data to the data file. |
| condition | HN: go = positivehappy; nogo = neutral (by default: positive words are repeated twice after reset; neutral words are repeated once) NH: go = neutral; nogo = positive (by default: neutral words are repeated twice after reset; positive words are repeated once) HS: go = positivehappy; nogo = negative (by default: positive words are repeated twice after reset; negative words are repeated once) SH: go = negativesad; nogo = positive (by default: negative words are repeated twice after reset; positive words are repeated once) SN: go = negativesad; nogo = neutral (by default: negative words are repeated twice after reset; neutral words are repeated once) NS: go = neutral; nogo = negative (by default: neutral words are repeated twice after reset; negative words are repeated once) |
| goStim | "NEUTRAL" vs. "HAPPY" vs. "SAD" (current go words) |
| noGoStim | "NEUTRAL" vs. "HAPPY" vs. "SAD" (current nogo words) |
| iti | Current intertrial interval in ms (default: 0) |
| word | The currently presented word |
| response | Scancode of the pressed response key (Example:) 57 = space bar 0 = no response (21 = Y; 49 = N) |
| correct | Accuracy of response: 1 = correct response; 0 = otherwise |
| responseCategory | Go trials: HIT (correctly pressing response key), MISS (response key was not pressed) nogo trials: FA (false alarm = incorrectly pressing response key), CR (correct rejection: response key was not pressed) |
| latency | The latency (in ms) of the current trial (does not have to be a go, nogo trial) |
| respRT | Response time (in ms) of current practice and test gonogo trials, measured from onset of word until response ( if no response, 'response RT' is empty) |
The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.
| Name | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| fixationSize | Proportional sizing of fixation cross (relative to canvas height) | 10% |
| wordSize | Proportional sizing of words (relative to canvas height) | 8% |
| runPractice | True: script runs a short practice session with item.practice as the go items false: script does not run a practice session | true |
| practiceFeedbackDuration | The duration (in ms) of the correct practice Feedback error feedback terminates by space bar press | 1000 |
| getReadyDuration | The duration (in ms) of the 'ready' trial | 5000 |
| startFixation | The duration (in ms) of the first fixation cross in a block | 2500 |
| endFixation | The duration (in ms) of the last (red) fixation cross in a block | 2000 |
| stimDuration | The duration (in ms) of the words | 450 |
| responseDuration | The response timeout (in ms), measured from onset of word for a stim duration of 500ms, a blank screen is presented for the remaining 1000ms | 1200 |
| goKey | Go-key | " " |