Last Modified: January 10, 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 probability based cued Go / No-Go Task that presents a) cues that predict go trials with a high probability ('go cue') and b) cues that predict nogo trials with a high probability ('nogo cue'). In general, commission errors are of particular interest in all Go/Nogo tasks as a measure of cognitive control. In cued Go/Nogo tasks, go-cues are thought to generate a response prepotency that speed up correct responses in go-trials but add an additional difficulty to overcome in subsequent nogo trials and therefore increase the likelihood of commission errors. As a result, the cued go/nogo paradigm provides a sensitive measure of cognitive control.
The implemented procedure is based on:
Fillmore, M. T., Rush, C. R., & Hays, L. (2006). Acute effects of cocaine in two models of inhibitory control: implications of non-linear dose effects. Addiction, 101, 1323–1332.
10 minutes
Participants are asked to press the Spacebar when they see a green rectangle (=go) but refrain from pressing the Spacebar when they see a blue rectangle (=nogo). The blue and green rectangles can be vertical or horizontal. The vertical rectangle has a high probability of being green (a go trial) and the horizontal rectangle has a high probability of being blue (a nogo trial). Participants get information about the orientation of the rectangle (=cue) shortly before the color of the rectangle is revealed.
Factorial design with
5 x SOA (100,200,300,400,500)
2 x Cue (1=vertical,2=horizontal)
2 x Target (Go, No-Go)
Vertical cue go / no-go ratio is 4:1 (80% go trials, 20% no-go trials) => higher probability of go trials after vertical cue
Horizontal cue go / no-go ratio is 1:4 (20% go trials, 80% no-go trials) => higher probability of nogo trials after horizontal cue
Minimum number of trials required to fulfill the above conditions is 50.
Task runs 250 trials, i.e., each factor combination is repeated 5 times.
=> 100 vertical cue-go targets (20 for each SOA); 25 vertical cue-nogo targets (5 for each SOA)
=> 100 horizontal cue-nogo targets (20 for each SOA); 25 horizontal cue-go targets (5 for each SOA)
see section Editable Stimuli
see section Editable Instructions
File Name: cuedgonogo_summary*.iqdat
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| errorRate | Overall error rate (omission + commission errors) |
| hitRate | Hit rate in go-trials (participant correctly pressed Spacebar) |
| omissionRate | Error rate in go-trials (participant missed to press Spacebar) |
| commissionRate | Error rate in nogo trials (participants hit the Spacebar) |
| corrRejectRate | Correct rejection rate in nogo trials (participants correctly refrained from pressing the Spacebar) Signal Detection Measures |
| zHitRate | Z-score of the hitRate |
| zFARate | Z-score of the falseAlarm/commission rate *Adjustments to z-scores as recommended by 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) => Adjustments are made if the FArate (hitRate) = 0 (increased to 0.005) or 1 (decreased to 0.995)* |
| dPrime | Computes d' (parametric measure of discriminability btw. signals and noise) => Range (in this script) -5.1516586840152740479 <= dprime <= 5.1516586840152740479 (=perfect performance) => The higher the value, the better signals (go stims) were distinguished from noise (nogo stims) (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 (go stims) is present (liberal response style) may favor faster responding in speed-accuracy trade-off response paradigms positive: favoring caution (conservative response style) |
Gocue (Vertical) |
|
| errorRateGoCue | Error rate for trials in which cue = GoCue (vertical) - combined omission+commission errors |
| hitRateGoCue | Hit rate for trials in which cue = GoCue (vertical) and target = go stim |
| omissionRateGoCue | Error rate for trials in which cue = GoCue (vertical) and target = go stim |
| commissionRateGoCue | Error rate for trials in which cue = GoCue (vertical) and target = nogo stim (DV of interest) |
| correctRejectRateGoCue | Proportion correct (no responses) responses for trials in which cue = GoCue (vertical) and target = nogo stim |
| zHitRateGoCue | Z-score of the hitRate for go trials with go-cue |
| zFARateGoCue | Z-score of the falseAlarm/commission rate for nogo trials with go-cue |
| dPrimeGoCue | D' (measure of sensitiGoCueity) |
| cGoCue | Response bias measure (c-criterium) |
Nogocue (Horizontal) |
|
| errorRateNoGoCue | Error rate for trials in which cue = NogoCue (horizontal) - combined omission+commission errors |
| hitRateNoGoCue | Hit rate for trials in which cue = NogoCue (horizontal) and target = go stim |
| omissionRateNoGoCue | Error rate for trials in which cue = NogoCue (horizontal) and target = go stim (Misses) |
| commissionRateNoGoCue | Error rate for trials in which cue = NogoCue (horizontal) and target = nogo stim (False Alarms) |
| corrRejectRateNoGoCue | Proportion correct (no responses) for trials in which cue = NogoCue (horizontal) and target = nogo stim |
| zHitRateNoGoCue | Z-score of the hitRate for go trials with nogo-cue |
| zFARateNoGoCue | Z-score of the falseAlarm/commission rate for nogo trials with nogo-cue |
| dPrimeNoGoCue | D' (measure of sensitiNogoCueity) |
| cNoGoCue | Response bias measure (c-criterium) |
Responsetimes |
|
| hitRT | Overall mean hitRT (in ms) in go trials (correctly pressing the spacebar) |
| hitRTGoCue | Mean hitRT (in ms) for go trials with go Cue (vertical) and target = go |
| hitRTNoGoCue | Mean hitRT (in ms) for go trials with nogo Cue (horizontal) and target = go |
File Name: cuedgonogo_raw*.iqdat
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| trialCount | Current trialCount |
| cueType | 1 = vertical cue (high probability of preceding a go-trial ~ a go cue) 2 = horizontal cue (high probability of preceding a nogo-trial ~ a nogo cue) |
| targetType | 1 = vertical go 2 = vertical nogo 3 = horizonal go 4 = horizonal nogo |
| targetCondition | 1 = go target 2 = nogo target |
| soa | Current stimulus onset asynchrony |
| cuepic | The image file presented as the cue |
| targetpic | The image file presented as the target |
| response | Response made (either 57 = Spacebar or "" for no response) |
| correct | The accuracy of response (1 = correct; 0 = error) |
| latency | The latency (in ms) of the response (or if no response: trialduration); measured from onset of target |
The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.
| Name | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| fixationduration | Duration of the fixation cross in ms | 800 |
| cueDelay | Interstimulus interval between offset of fixation and onset of cue in ms | 500ms |
| responsetimeout | Responsetimeout in ms | 1000 |
| iti | Intertrial interval in ms | 700 |