Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Created: January 01, 2018
Last Modified: January 04, 2025 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC
Go/Nogo Tasks are used as behavioral measures of inhibition. The Emotional Go/No Tasks leverages this paradigm to investigate emotion processing, especially emotion recognition and emotion regulation. The implemented procedure is based on Trottenham et al (2011).
Tottenham, N., Hare, T.A. & and B. J. Casey, B.J. (2011). Behavioral assessment of emotion discrimination, emotion regulation, and cognitive control in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Frontiers in Psychology, doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00039.
10 minutes
Participants view images of fearful/happy/sad/angry or neutral facial expressions and are asked to Condition 1: press the spacebar when they see a fearful face ("go") and only then (nogo images: neutral faces) Condition 2: press the spacebar when they see a neutral face ("go") and only then (nogo images: fearful faces) Condition 3: press the spacebar when they see a happy face ("go") and only then (nogo images: neutral faces) Condition 4: press the spacebar when they see a neutral face ("go") and only then (nogo images: happy faces) Condition 5: press the spacebar when they see a sad face ("go") and only then (nogo images: neutral faces) Condition 6: press the spacebar when they see a neutral face ("go") and only then (nogo images: sad faces) Condition 7: press the spacebar when they see a angry face ("go") and only then (nogo images: neutral faces) Condition 8: press the spacebar when they see a neutral face ("go") and only then (nogo images: angry faces)
Trottenheim et al (2011, p. 2) used 10 adults (five females and five males) per facial expression.
The stimuli used in this scripts are placeholder stimuli only.
They can be edited under section Editable Stimuli.
The placeholder stimuli have the same image names as the following NIMSTIMS
for neutral (ne), happy (ha), sad (sa), fearful (fe) and angry (an) faces (all open mouth expressions)
female: 2, 5, 13, 14, 18
male: 21, 23, 24, 41, 42
practice stimuli (surprise (sp) and neutral (ne) expressions) are stand-ins for:
female: 1, 11, 15
male: 32, 39
The NIMSTIMS image files need to be converted to *png files
(or the *png extensions used in this script need to be converted to *bmp )
provided by Millisecond - can be edited in script 'emotionalgonogo_instructions_inc.iqjs'
File Name: emotionalgonogo_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 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 |
| hitRate | The overall Hit rate across all blocks ( Hit = pressing spacebar for go stimuli) |
| missRate | The overall Miss rate (1-hitRate) |
| faRate | The overall Commissionrate across all blocks (Commissionrate = pressing spacebar for nogo stimuli) overall Commissionrate-rate = overall Commission Error = measure of overall cognitive control (Tottenham et al, 2011, p.3) The higher the commission error rate, the more often the nogo-response was not inbibited and thus the lower cognitive control of the response. |
| corrRejectRate | The overall Correct Rejection rate (1-faRate) |
| zHitRate | The z-score of the overall Hitrate |
| zFaRate | The z-score of the overall Commissionrate rate |
| dPrime | Difference btw. (zHitRate - zFA): measure of Sensitivity This measure is the main measure for Emotion Recognition in this paradigm (Tottenham et al, 2011, p.3) The higher the value, the better signals (go stimuli) were overall separated from noise (nogo) stimuli. (d' = 0: chance performance) Thus: the higher the value, the better overall Emotion Recognition. |
| meanHitRT | The overall mean Hit response time (in ms) |
| sdHitRT | Standard deviation of the Hit response times across blocks (in ms) |
Nf (Same For All Other Conditions) |
|
| hitRateNF | The Hit rate in NF block (NF = NEUTRAL go, FEAR nogo) |
| missRateNF | The Miss rate in NF block |
| faRateNF | The Commissionrate in NF block |
| corrRejectRateNF | The Correct Rejection rate in NF block |
| zHitRateNF | The z-score of the NF Hitrate |
| zFaRateNF | The z-score of the NF Commissionrate-rate |
| dPrimeNF | Difference btw. (zHitRate - zFA) in NF block: measure of Sensitivity => The higher the value, the better signals (here: Neutral Faces) were overall distinguished from noise (here: Fear Faces) and thus the less distraction FEAR presented (d' = 0: chance performance; negative d-primes: participant treated nontargets as targets and targets as nontargets) |
| cNF | Criterium measure 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 (here: Neutral Faces) is present (liberal response style) may favor faster responding in speed-accuracy trade-off response paradigms positive: favoring caution (conservative response style) |
| hitRTNF | Mean Hit response time (in ms) in NF block |
Fn (Same For All Other Conditions) |
|
| hitRateFN | The Hit rate in FN block (FN = neutral go, fear nogo) |
| missRateFN | The Miss rate in FN block |
| faRateFN | The Commissionrate in FN block |
| corrRejectRateFN | The Correct Rejection rate in FN block |
| zHitRateFN | The z-score of the FN Hitrate |
| zFaRateFN | The z-score of the FN Commissionrate-rate |
| dPrimeFN | Difference btw. (zHitRate - zFA) in FN block: measure of Sensitivity |
| cFN | Criterium measure |
| hitRTFN | Mean Hit response time (in ms) in FN block |
| faRateEmotions | Commission Errors for erroneously responding to Nogo Emotion stimuli => can be used a measure for Emotion Regulation (Tottenham et al, 2011, p.3), in this paradigm operationalized as the ability to inhibit responses to emotionally valanced stimuli. => The higher the commission rate, the lower the ability to regulate emotions. |
File Name: emotionalgonogo_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 | Practice, NF, FN, NH, HN, NS, SN, NA, AN (first letter = go stim; second letter = nogo) |
| goFaces | "NEUTRAL" vs. "FEAR" vs. "happy" vs. "SAD" vs. "ANGRY" (current go faces) |
| noGoFaces | "NEUTRAL" vs. "FEAR" vs. "happy" vs. "SAD" vs. "ANGRY" (current nogo faces) |
| iti | Current intertrial interval (default: 0) |
| image | The presented image |
| response | The participant's response: Scancode of response key 57 = spacebar 0 = no response (21 = Y; 49 = N) |
| correct | Accuracy of response: 1 = correct response; 0 = otherwise |
| responseOutcome | 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 response latency (in ms) of the current trial (does not have to be a go, nogo trial) |
| responseTime | Response time (in ms) of current practice and test go/nogo trials, measured from onset of image ( if no response, 'RT' is empty) |
The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.
| Name | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
Sizing Parameters |
||
| fixationSize | Proportional sizing of fixation cross (relative to canvas height) | 10% |
| picSize | Proportional sizing of images (relative to canvas height) | 50% |
| runPractice | True: script runs a short practice session with item.practice as the go items false: script does not run a practice session | true |
Timing Parameters |
||
| practiceFeedbackDuration | The duration (in ms) of the practice Feedback | 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 |
| picDuration | The duration (in ms) of the images | 500 |
| responseDuration | The response timeout (in ms), measured from onset of image | 1500 |
Response Key |
||
| goKey | The go-key | " " |