Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Created: January 24, 2021
Last Modified: January 11, 2025 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC
This script implements a 'Reaction Time Concealed Information Test' (RT-CIT), a procedure to detect information a person tries to conceal (Suchotzki et al, 2021).
The RT-CIT compares 'no' reaction time responses to probe and control items. The RT-CIT effect describes that people who deceptively deny recognizing information (the probes, e.g. crime relevant information) respond slower to the probe items than to control items (crime irrelevant information), particularly if a response timeout is built into the task which seems to reduce faking abilities (Suchotzki et al, 2021).
Suchotzki, K., Verschuere, B., & Gamer, M. (2021) How Vulnerable is the Reaction Time Concealed Information Test to Faking?, Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2020.10.003.
8 minutes
The task involves responding to target, probe, and control items as soon as possible. The target items are the items to which participant should respond "Yes, I know them". The probe and control items are words to which participant should respond "No, I don't know them".
The 5 target ('Yes') items are learned at the beginning of the test. Probe items are items that are relevant to the task (e.g. crime-relevant information). Control items are items that task irrelevant.
The order of the items during the reaction time portion of the test are presented in random order.
(1) Learning Phase: (see section Editable Parameters for 'Learning Phase' parameter settings)
By default, at least 3 learning rounds are run. If participants have recalled all five items
correctly after the last round, they move on to the test phase. Otherwise, another learning
round is added (up to 10, see section Editable Parameters).
- Learning screen: all 5 items are presented on screen for 30s
- Recall screen: 5 textboxes to enter the five items (in any order)
The computer compares the recalled items to the target items and counts the
number of correctly recalled items.
the algorithm implemented converts all items to lower case letter and removes empty spaces
commas and periods. However, spelling errors will still be identified as 'errors'.
(2) Test Phase:
- 5 target items repeated 6 times (30 trials)
- 5 probe items repeated 6 times (30 trials)
- 20 control items repeated 6 times (120 trials)
=> total of 180 trials, order is randomized (after 90 trials, a break trial is presented)
Trial Sequence:
word (Max: 800ms or until response)* -> variable iti (randomly selected from 500ms-1000ms in 100ms increments)
• if no response was made within 800ms: a 'too slow' message was presented for 1000ms before the iti.
provided by Millisecond as template stimuli only - can be edited under section Editable Stimuli
provided by Millisecond - can be edited under section Editable Instructions
File Name: reactiontimeconcealedinformationtest_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 |
| learningBlockCounter | Tracks the number of learning rounds run |
| countCorrectRecall | The number of correctly recalled items after the last learning round |
| learningPass | 1 = the learning criterium was reached; 0 = otherwise |
Note: No Response Time 'Cleaning' Was Done For The Following Summary Statistics |
|
| propCorrectTargets | Proportion correctly categorized targets (as YES) |
| nrTargets | The number of No responses to target items within the allotted response timeout |
| meanHitRTTargets | Mean response time (in ms) of correctly categorizing targets |
| propCorrectProbes | Proportion correctly categorized probes (as NO) |
| nrProbes | The number of No responses to probe items within the allotted response timeout |
| meanCRRTProbes | Mean response time (in ms) of correctly categorizing probes |
| propCorrectControls | Proportion correctly categorized controls (as NO) |
| nrControls | The number of No responses to control items within the allotted response timeout |
| meanCRRTControls | Mean response time (in ms) of correctly categorizing controls |
| sdCRRTControls | Standard deviation of response times of correctly categorizing controls (in ms) |
| rtdiff | The response time difference of ('mean response time (in ms) of correctly categorizing probes' - 'mean response time (in ms) of correctly categorizing controls') |
| rtCITEffect | 1: participant was on average slower to categorize probe items compared to control items 0: everything else |
File Name: reactiontimeconcealedinformationtest_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. |
| trialCounter | Tracks the number of trials run during the test |
| word | Stores the currently presented word |
| itemNumber | Stores the currently presented itemnumber of the word |
| response | The participant's response (scancode of response buttons) 30 = A 38 = L 57 = space |
| responseText | The label of the pressed response key ( it appears empty for space) |
| correct | Accuracy of response: 1 = correct response; 0 = otherwise |
| latency | The response latency (in ms); measured from: onset of word |
Learning Phase |
|
| recall1 | The 1. recalled item (in 'cleaned' format) |
| recall2 | The 2. recalled item (in 'cleaned' format) |
| recall3 | The 3. recalled item (in 'cleaned' format) |
| recall4 | The 4. recalled item (in 'cleaned' format) |
| recall5 | The 5. recalled item (in 'cleaned' format) |
| targetStorage | Stores all the target words (in 'cleaned' format) |
| countCorrectRecall | Tracks the number of correctly recalled items |
The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.
| Name | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
Design |
||
| minLearningBlocks | The minimum number of times block.targetLearning has to run | 3 |
| maxLearningBlocks | The maximum number of times block.targetLearning has to run | 10 |
| learningCriteriumAcc | The percent correct recall of the 5 target words after the last learning block | 100% |
| prematureAbortLearningFail | True = the script prematurely ends if the learning criterium has not been reached after all learning blocks have run false = the script moves from learning to test even if the learning criterium has not been reached | false |
Sizing Parameters |
||
| stimSize | The proportional height (to canvas height) of the presented stims | 5% |
Timing Parameters |
||
| targetLearningDuration | The duration (in ms) that all five target words are presented during the learning phase | 30000 |
| getReadyDuration | The duration (in ms) of the get-ready sign before the start of the test | 5000 |
| maxStimDuration | The maximum duration (in ms) that the words are on screen this is also the response timeout (default: 800ms) | 800 |
| feedbackDuration | The duration (in ms) of the 'too slow' feedback message | 1000 |
Response Key Assignment |
||
| leftKey | The assigned left key (on a QWERY keyboard) | "A" |
| rightKey | The assigned right key (on a QWERY keyboard) | "L" |
| yesKey | The assignment of left/right key to be the 'yes' key | parameters.leftKey |
| noKey | The assignment of left/right key to be the 'no' key | parameters.rightKey |