Judgment of Line and Position Task - JLAP

Technical Manual

Script Author: Sean Draine, Ph.D. (seandr@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Last Modified: January 26, 2023 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC

Background

This script implements a computerized Judgment of Line Angle and Position (JLAP-15) task; a measure of visuospatial ability known to reveal sex differences.

The implemented procedure is based on:

Collaer, M., Reimers, L., & Manning, S. (2007). Visuospatial Performance on an Internet Line Judgment Task and Potential Hormonal Markers: Sex, Sexual Orientation, and 2D:4D. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 36(2), 177-192.

Duration

3 minutes

Description

Participants are given 20 lines (one at a time), presented at a specific angle, and have to select their equals out of 15 line options within 10s per line.

Procedure

- 15 different angles/lines (though angle/lines 1 and 15 are essentially treated the same)
- 20 line judgment trials, each presented for a max of 10s (editable parameters)
- by default the lines are tested in sequence (same sequence as published by Collaer et al, 2007)
(edit under section Editable Lists)

Stimuli

The lines are provided as images.

Instructions

provided by Millisecond as html-files. The html files (see script folder) can be directly edited to
change instructions. Use a simple text editor such as Notepad (windows) or TextEdit (Mac).

Summary Data

File Name: jlap15_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
totalCorrect Total number of correct judgments
totalErrors Total number of erroroneous judgments
sumDiffErrors Sum of the differences between the target and judgment indices
meanAngleDif Mean absolute difference between the computed angle of response and targetAngle
(for all selected lines)
Notes
A) if the area under line 1 is selected, the response Area is determined to be '15'
and responseAngleDegrees are negative btw. ~-168 > x > -180
=> the script converts the responseAngleDegrees to the equivalent difference to 180
in order to calculate the meanAngleDifference
e.g. -178 => converted to 182
B) line 1 and line 15 are both correct responses for line 1 or 15.
The calculated angle difference takes this into consideration

Raw Data

File Name: jlap15_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, group, With the current subject/groupnumber
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 TrialCount (custom variable)
targetLine Number of the current target line
targetAngle The angle of the target line
selectedLine Number of the selected comparison line (0 = no reponse given; timed-out)
line 1 and line 15 are both correct responses for line 1 or 15.
correctResponse:1 if judgment is correct, 0 if not
latency Response time (in ms); measured from onset of trial until line is clicked or trial times out
Angle Degree Data
trial.jlap.responseX Horizontal pixel of touch/mouse response
trial.jlap.responseY Vertical pixel of touch/mouse response
responseAngleDegrees Computed angle of response
angleDiff The absolute difference between the computed angle of response and targetAngle
A) if the area under line 1 is selected, the response Area is determined to be '15'
and responseAngleDegrees are negative btw. ~-168 > x > -180
=> the script converts the responseAngleDegrees to the equivalent difference to 180
in order to calculate the meanAngleDifference
e.g. -178 => converted to 182
B) line 1 and line 15 are both correct responses for line 1 or 15.
The calculated angle difference takes this into consideration

Parameters

The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.

NameDescriptionDefault
timeout Sets the response deadline (in ms) for each judgment 10000ms = 10s
feedback True (1): provides performance feedback after each trial
false (0): no performance feedback after each trial is provided (default)