___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ *Letter Wheel Task* (Note: this runs the Letter Wheel with instructions for a 2nd session) ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Date: 12-07-2020 last updated: 08-01-2023 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Script Copyright © 08-01-2023 Millisecond Software Millisecond Software thanks Dr. Eric Altmann and his lab for collaborating on this script! ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ BACKGROUND INFO ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This script implements the Letter Wheel task (Burgoyne et al, 2019), a test of spacekeeping abilities that taps primarily spatial mechanisms. Reference: Burgoyne, A.P., David Z. Hambrick, D.Z. & Erik M. Altmann, E.M. (2019). Placekeeping Ability as a Component of Fluid Intelligence: Not Just Working Memory Capacity. The American Journal of Psychology , Vol. 132, No. 4 (Winter 2019), pp. 439-449 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ TASK DESCRIPTION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Participants are presented with a circle of 9 letters randomly placed in 9 possible circle positions (Note: the actual letters stay the same across all trials, however their circle positions will change). Participants are asked to alphabetize sequences of 3 adjacent letters ('triplets'). Each trial, the starting letter of the next target triplet shifts clockwise one position around the circle. Participants have to keep track -from one trial to the next- of the position of the first letter of the target triplet even if they are interrupted at random points by 'interruption trials'. During those interruption trials (always 5 trials) participant are presented with 7-9 stars and have to enter the number of stars presented. Only correct responses will allow participants to return to the letterwheel. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DURATION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ the default set-up of the script takes appr. 25 minutes to complete ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DATA OUTPUT DICTIONARY ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The fields in the data files are: (1) Raw data file: 'letterwheel_session2_raw*.iqdat' (a separate file for each participant)* build: The specific Inquisit version used (the 'build') that was run computer.platform: the platform the script was run on (win/mac/ios/android) date, time: date and time script was run subject, group, with the current subject/groupnumber session: with the current session id blockCode, blockNum: the name and number of the current block (built-in Inquisit variable) trialCode, trialNum: the name and number of the currently recorded trial (built-in Inquisit variable) Note: trialNum is a built-in Inquisit variable; it counts all trials run; even those that do not store data to the data file. testBlockCounter: counts the number of test blocks run countDemoTrials: the number of demo trials run (note: a 'trial' is completed if three letters have been entered) countPracticeTrials: the number of practice trials run trialCountPerBlock: the number of test trials run per block (resets for each block) interruptionCount: the number of interruptions run interruption: stores the number of trials (+ parameters.MinRunlength) that will be run until the next scheduled interruption //letterwheel variables: letter1 - letter9: stores the letters that appear in the 9 spots in the letter wheel (for reference purposes: '1' sits in the 3 o'clock position) 123 - 912: store the alphabetized triplets for all 9 possible letter triplets (for reference purposes: '1' sits in the 3 o'clock position) targetPosition1: stores position (1-9) of the first letter of the currently targeted triplet targetPosition2: stores position (1-9) of the second letter of the currently targeted triplet targetPosition3: stores position (1-9) of the third letter of the currently targeted triplet targetLetter1: stores the letter presented in targetPosition1 of the currently targeted triplet targetLetter2: stores the letter presented in targetPosition2 of the currently targeted triplet targetLetter3: stores the letter presented in targetPosition3 of the currently targeted triplet correctSolution: stores the alphabetized order of the three target letters countLetters: the number of letters entered (Note: 3 -> last input for a trial) //letterwheel custom DVs (Note: DVs stored when values.countLetters = 3): responseTriplet: the entered response (the three letters as entered) responseTripletAcc: 1 = the response Triplet is the same as the correct Solution; 0 = otherwise responseTripletRT: the response time (in ms); measured from onset of first letter wheel until third letter is entered errorType: 0 = correct response (correct sequence & correctly alphabetized) 1 = sequence error (wrong triplet selected) but chosen triplet correctly alphabetized 2 = sequence error (wrong triplet selected) and chosen triplet was incorrectly alphabetized 3 = non-sequence error (correct triplet selected) but triplet was incorrectly alphabetized 4 = potentially random input of letters sequenceError: 1 = participant worked on the wrong triplet (errorType1/errorType2) 0 = otherwise nonSequenceError: 1 = any error other than a sequence error (errorType3/errorType4) 0 = otherwise selectedTargetPosition: the starting position of the triplet that participant worked upon Notes: 1) the script will use this position to the targetPosition1 clockwiese to the next spot on the letter wheel 2) for errorType4, the script will use the current targetPosition1 as no better triplet could have been established //Interruption variables starCount: the number of stars presented during one interruption trial //built-in Inquisit DVs for all data recording trials: response: the participant's response (scancode of response button) Example: spacebar = 57, b = 48, c = 47, d = 32 etc. Note: scancodes for number buttons look confusing Example: "1" can be represented by scancode 2 or 79 responseText: the translated scancode (example: B for scancode 48) Note: for spacebar (scancode 57), the column will look empty (as it shows a space) For number buttons, it will store the actual number pressed correct: accuracy of response: 1 = correct response; 0 = otherwise latency: the response latency (in ms) of the current trial Note: trial.letterwheel: response time of making current response; measured from onset of letters trial.interruption: response time of hitting the number key; measured from onset of stars (2) Summary data file: 'letterwheel_session2_summary*.iqdat' (a separate file for each participant)* inquisit.version: Inquisit version run computer.platform: the platform the script was run on (win/mac/ios/android) 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 = script was not completed (prematurely aborted); 1 = script was completed (all conditions run) countAlphabet: number of times the alphabeth was requested across test blocks list.interruptions.mean: mean number of trials run before an interruption nTrialsOverall: the number of letterwheel test trials run (across all blocks) nCorrectOverall: the number of correct letterwheel test trials (across all blocks) nSequenceErrorsOverall: the number of sequence errors -errortype 1/2- made (across all blocks) corrRTOverall: the mean response time for entering a correct letterwheel solution (+ separate variables for block1/block2) ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (1) Intro: introduction + 6 demo trials (with circles, only correct solutions accepted) (2) Practice: 25 practice letterwheel trials - 3 interruptions (each interruption runs 5 star trials) Note: participants receive circled triplets after the first interruption only - only correct responses accepted for the letterwheel and the interruption trials (3) Test: 2 blocks with appr. 63 trials each - Each block runs 8 interruptions + 1 (Note: the nineth interruption is the end of the block)** - interruption trials require a correct response to move on - the first letterwheel trial only shows the circled letters * sequence Error: the script establishes which triplet was worked upon and selects the next triplet in sequence based on erroneous response (that is sequence errors lead to a sequence adjustment) * nonsequence Error: next triplet is selected in sequence based on current target triplet (=> no sequence adjustments) **The number of trials (N) before an interruption occurs is calculated by: N = B + floor(-ln(U(0, 1))/R) (see expressions.generateNextInterruption) B = 4 (see parameters.MinTestRun) R = .288 is the rate parameter for the exponential distribution, U(0, 1) is a random sample from a uniform distribution bounded by 0 and 1. The average number of uninterrupted trials before an interruption (N) sampled with this equation is ~7. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ STIMULI ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ letterwheel: - 9 letters arranged in a circle, the size of the circle can be adjusted (presented white on black) stars: 7-9 stars are presented in randomly selected positions of a 8 columns x 6 rows matrix (presented white on black) (star size can be adjusted under section Editable Parameters) Error message: the error message in this script is a flickering white box presented as an animated gif. The flickering occurs at 100Hz and the stimulus is presented for 200ms. Edit the errormessage under section Editable Stimuli. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ INSTRUCTIONS ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ provided by Millisecond Software - can be edited under section Editable Instructions The provided instructions are based on the originals provided by Dr. Eric Altmann ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ EDITABLE CODE ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ check below for (relatively) easily editable parameters, stimuli, instructions etc. Keep in mind that you can use this script as a template and therefore always "mess" with the entire code to further customize your experiment. The parameters you can change are: