Behavioural Laterality Battery Dichotic Listening Task

Technical Manual

Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Created: January 19, 2021

Last Modified: January 31, 2023 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC

Background

This script implements a Dichotic Listening Task similar to the one used by the Behavioural Laterality Battery (Parker et al, 2020). This task assesses the lateralisation of language processing.

References

Behavioural Laterality Battery:
Adam J. Parker , Zoe V. J. Woodhead , Paul A. Thompson & Dorothy V. M. Bishop (2020): Assessing the reliability of an online behavioural laterality battery: A pre-registered study, Laterality, DOI: 10.1080/1357650X.2020.1859526 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/1357650X.2020.1859526

https://gorilla.sc/openmaterials/104636

Dichotic Listening Tasks:

Bless, J. J., Westerhausen, R., Arciuli, J., Kompus, K., Gudmundsen, M., & Hugdahl, K. (2013). Right on all Occasions?” – On the Feasibility of Laterality Research Using a Smartphone Dichotic Listening Application. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 42. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00042

Hugdahl, K., & Andersson, L. (1986). The “Forced-Attention Paradigm” in Dichotic Listening to CV-Syllables: A Comparison Between Adults and Children. Cortex, 22, 417-432. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0010-9452(86)80005-3

Duration

5 minutes

Description

Participants hear two syllables (selected from: ba, da, ga, ka, pa, ta) through their left and right ear and are asked to indicate which syllable their heard best.

Procedure

(1) Intro + Demo
- all 6 mono sounds are introduced, order is determined randomly
- each sound can be played multiple times

(2) Practice: 9 trials
- all 6 mono sounds + (da-ba, ga-ta, ka-pa); order is randomly determined
=> each sound is played equally often during practice

(3) 4 test blocks (see Editable Parameters) of 36 trials
- order of trials is randomly determined for each block

Stimuli

the stimuli are provided by the Behavioural Laterality Battery (Parker et al 2020)
and can be downloaded at:
https://osf.io/4bqe6/

if used, please cite reference articles for Dichotic Listening Task as given above.

Instructions

provided by Millisecond. The instructions are based on the ones used by
the Behavioural Laterality Battery (Parker et al 2020).
The instructions can edited in the provided htm-files.

Summary Data

File Name: blb_dichoticlistening_summary*.iqdat

Data Fields

NameDescription
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

Raw Data

File Name: blb_dichoticlistening_raw*.iqdat

Data Fields

NameDescription
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
index Itemnumber of the selected soundfile
soundFile The selected soundfile
leftSound The sound played through the left ear
rightSound The sound played through the right ear
dualSound 1 = the left sound is different than the right sound
0 = the same sound is played in both ears
response The participant's response (selected response button)
choice Left/right/other (= the selected ear; if an incorrect sound was selected it says 'other')
(in case of mono sounds: if the correct sound was selected it will always say 'left')
correct Accuracy of response
1 = correct response (either the left or right sound was selected)
0 = otherwise (a different sound was selected)
latency The response latency (in ms); measured from: onset of sound
the soundfiles are ~500ms long.
Any latencies smaller than that => participant responded before the entire soundfile was played

Parameters

The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.

NameDescriptionDefault
fixationHeight The proportional height of the fixation cross 10%
fixationDuration The duration (in ms) of the fixation cross 500
numberTestBlocks The number of test blocks to run ( each test block runs 36 trials)4