__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ *REDUNDANT SIGNAL TASK (RST)* ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Date: 10-02-2013 last updated: 10-06-2023 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Script Copyright © 10-06-2023 Millisecond Software ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ BACKGROUND INFO ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This script implements the Redundant Signal Task by Fillmore (2010), a task to investigate the information processing advantage of receiving redundant information via several senory pathways (visual + aural). Reference: Mark T. Fillmore, M.T. (2010). Processing Bimodal Stimulus Information Under Alcohol: Is There a Risk to Being Redundant? Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 18, 429–435. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ TASK DESCRIPTION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Participants perform a simple categorization task on 2 letters and/or 2 tones. The letters and/or tones are presented at three random time intervals after a fixation cross disappears from the screen. Participants are asked to press one key for letter1/tone1 (here: O and high tone) and another key for letter2/tone2 (here: X and low tone). There are 3 blocks: one block presents only the letters, one block presents only the tones, and one block presents letters and tones simultaneously ("redundant" condition). ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 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: 'redundantsignaltask_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 such as feedback trials. Thus, trialNum may not reflect the number of main trials run per block. practice: 0 = test trials; 1 = practice trials; soa: current SOA target: 1 = 0 and/or high tone; 2 = X and/or low tone response: the participant's response (scancode of response button) 30 = A 38 = L 0 = no response responseCat: the interpreted key response: "O/low", "X/high", "no response" correct: the correctness of the response latency: the response latency (in ms); measured from onset of stim valid: 1 = valid (latencies in acceptable range); 0 = invalid (latencies outside acceptable range) (2) Summary data file: 'redundantsignaltask_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) correctpropOverall: proportion of correct responses (valid trials only) across all test trials meanrtOverall: mean latency (in ms) of correct responses (valid trials only) across all test trials correctpropVisual: proportion of correct responses (valid trials only) for visual-only trials meanrtVisualonly: mean latency (in ms) of correct responses (valid trials only) for visual-only trials correctpropAudio: proportion of correct responses (valid trials only) for audio-only trials meanrtAudioonly: mean latency (in ms) of correct responses (valid trials only) for audio-only trials correctpropRedundant: proportion of correct responses (valid trials only) for combined trials meanrtRedundant: mean latency (in ms) of correct responses (valid trials only) for combined trials percentInvalid: percent invalid test trials (latencies outside specified boundaries) __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ type of stimuli presented (visual only vs. audio only vs. both) tested within subjects in a blocked design * Experimental Blocks: - 3 blocks, order counterbalanced (latin square) by groupnumber 1-3 - 90 trials per block - targets (e.g. O vs. X) randomly determined (=> 1/2 the trials with 0) * Trial Sequence: - Fixation cross (250ms) -> white screen (random SOA duration) -> target (response terminated of maximum presentation of 1000ms)-> ITI (2000ms) - SOA is randomly determined. By default in this script: frequency of SOAs fixed at 1/3 for each of the 3 SOAs (=> see list.SOAs) - pairings of letter and sound the same for all: O and high tone vs. X and low tone * Practice: - 3 practice blocks of 20 trials each (order always: visual -> audio -> redundant) - errorfeedback ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ STIMULI ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ * visual: X vs. O * audio: low tone (125Hz) vs. high tone (1000Hz); provided sound files were generated in Audacity, length: 5s, Amplitude: 0.8 see section Editable Stimuli ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ INSTRUCTIONS ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Instructions are not original to the task. They are provided by Millisecond Software as htm/html pages and can be edited by changing the provided htm/html files. To edit htm/html-files: open the respective documents in simple Text Editors such as TextEdit (Mac) or Notepad (Windows). __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 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: Appearance of visual target: /fontHeight: size of font (percentage of screen height) (default: 15%) Appearance of audio target: /volumeHightone: volume adjustment for the high tone (default: -2000) /volumeLowtone: volume adjustment for the low tone (default: 0) durations: /getReadyDuration: duration (in ms) of get-ready trial (default: 5000ms) /fixationCrossDuration: duration of fixation cross in ms (default: 250ms) /maxTargetDuration: max duration that target is on screen in ms (default: 1000ms) Note: if no response is given, trial expires after presenting the target for parameters.maxtargetduration /iti: intertrialinterval in ms (default: 2000ms) responseKeys: /responseKeyLeft: responsekey 1 (default: "A"), left response key /responseKeyRight: responsekey 2 (default: "L"), right response key /minRT: minimum acceptable response latency in ms (default: 100ms) /maxRT: maximum acceptable response latency in ms (default: 1000ms) Note: outside these boundaries, the responses are counted as invalid trials