German Version German translations provided by K. Borchert for Millisecond Software ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ *SUSTAINED ATTENTION TO RESPONSE TASK (sart)* (with optional "Mindwandering Probes") ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Date: 10-15-2013 last updated: 05-12-2025 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Script Copyright © 05-12-2025 Millisecond Software ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ BACKGROUND INFO ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This script implements the Sustained Attention to Response Task (sart), a go/nogo task with infrequent nogo signal to measure attention. The implemented procedure is based on: Robertson, I. H., Manly, T., Andrade, J., Baddeley, B. T., & Yiend, J. (1997). ‘Oops!’: Performance correlates of everyday attentional failures in traumatic brain injured and normal subjects. Neuropsychologia, 35(6), 747–758. and Cheyne, J.A., Solman, G.J.F., Carriere, J.S.A., & Smilek, D. (2009). Anatomy of an error: A bidirectional state model of task engagement/disengagement and attention-related errors. Cognition, 111, 98–113. !NOTE: This script includes an optional "Mindwandering Probe" addition for the sart.iqjs. The code is provided in helper script "SART_MindWanderingProbeAddition.iqjs". More info about the mindwandering probe in the additional script. To run the probe addition, go to section Editable Parameters and set parameters.runMindwanderingprobe = true (default is false) ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ TASK DESCRIPTION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Participants are presented with a single digit 1-9 in the middle of the screen in varying fontsizes. The digit disappears after a short while and is replaced with a mask (circle with an X). Participants are asked to press the SPACEBAR if any digit other than 3 is presented and to withhold the response if digit 3 presented. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DURATION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ the default set-up of the script takes appr. 6 minutes to complete ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DATA OUTPUT DICTIONARY ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The fields in the data files are: (1) Raw data file: 'sart.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. trialCount: counts all test trials (parameter) digitpresentationtime: digit duration in ms (default: 250ms) (parameter) maskpresentationtime: mask duration in ms (default: 900ms) trialType: "Go" (digit !=3); "NoGo" (digit == 3) digit: contains the currently selected digit fontSize: contains the currently (randomly) selected fontsize response: the participant's response sart trials: 0 for no response or 57 for Spacebar Probe trials (if run): the selected anchor digit correct: the correctness of the response (1 = correct; 0 = error) rt: the latency of the response in ms: trial latency unless no response was given; no response = empty latency: the trial latency in ms (if no response, trial latency shows the trialduration) latencyType: 0 = no response given (suppression); 1 = anticipatory latency (< (parameter) anticipatoryresponsetime); 2 = ambiguous latency; 3 = valid latency (>= (parameter) validresponsetime) Note: independent of Go-NoGo trialType responseType: "NoGo Success": correctly suppressed response to NoGo trial (digit 3) "Omission": incorrectly suppressed response to a Go trial (digit other than 3) "NoGo Failure": any response to a NoGo trial "Go Anticipatory": anticipatory response for Go trials with latencies < (parameter) anticipatoryresponsetime "Go Ambiguous": ambiguous response for Go trials "Go Success": valid response for Go trials with latencies >= (parameter) validresponsetime countAnticipatory: counts the number of times a Go-latency was faster than (parameter) anticipatoryresponsetime correctSuppressions: counts number of correct suppressions (-> no response to digit 3) incorrectSuppressions: counts number of incorrect suppressions (-> no response to digit other than 3) countNoGo: counts NoGo trials (digit 3) countGo: counts Go trials (digits other than 3) countValidgo: counts Go trials with a correct response and latencies >= (parameter) validresponsetime countProbes: counts the number of probes run (2) Summary data file: 'sartSummary.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) radioButtons.difficulty.response: response to the difficulty question radioButtons.interest.response: responses to the posttask survey questions (if run) dropdown.age.response: response to the age question at the end of the task (if run) ageGroup: the assigned age group (1-6) based on age response. (used for reporting z-scores and percentiles) !Note: age groups correspond to the age cohorts used by Carriere et al (2010), table 2, p. 572 nrCommissions: absolute number of commission errors in NoGo trials (=NoGo failures; also reported as sart errors) percentCommissions: percentage of commission errors in NoGo trials (=NoGo failures; also reported as sart errors) percentNoGoSuccess: percentage of Nogo trials with correct responses (= correct rejections) zcommission: z-value of number of Commission errors based on Carriere et al (2010), table 2 (sart errors), p. 572 percentileCommission: percentile of Commission z-value based on Carriere et al (2010), table 2 (sart errors), p. 572 nrOmissions: absolute number of omission errors in Go trials (=omission of response) percentOmissions: percentage of incorrect suppressions in Go trials (=omission of response) percentGoSuccess: percentage of correct responses in Go trials (= hits) zOmission: z-value of number Omission errors based on Carriere et al (2010), table 2, p. 572 percentileOmission: percentile of Omission z-value based on Carriere et al (2010), table 2, p. 572 /////////////////////////// signal detection measures /////////////////////////// zHitRate: z-score of the hitRate zFaRate: z-score of the falseAlarm/commission rate Note: *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) ///////////////////////////////// Anticipatory Responses ///////////////////////////////// countAnticipatory: counts the number of times a Go-latency was faster than (parameter) anticipatoryresponsetime zAnticipatoryResponses: z-value of number Anticipatory Responses based on Carriere et al (2010), table 2, p. 572 percentileAnticipatoryResponses: percentile of Anticipatory Responses z-value based on Carriere et al (2010), table 2, p. 572 ///////////////////////////////// Response Times ///////////////////////////////// meanRTGo: mean latency (in ms) of valid and correct Go trials (latencies >= (parameter) validresponsetime) stdRTGo: estimated standard deviation (STD) of valid and correct Go trials zgoRT: z-value of mean go latency based on Carriere et al (2010), table 2, p. 572 percentileGoRT: percentile of goRT z-value based on Carriere et al (2010), table 2, p. 572 cvGo: coefficient of variablity (CV = STD/Mean) => a measure of variability independent of mean differences zCV: z-value of CV based on Carriere et al (2010), table 2, p. 572 percentileCV: percentile of CV z-value based on Carriere et al (2010), table 2, p. 572 Mean RTs are calculated for the correct consecutive (not interrupted either by a NoGo or by an omission trial) last four Go- trials (digit other than 3) preceding successful NoGo trial Mean RTs are calculated for the correct consecutive (not interrupted either by a NoGo or by an omission trial) last four Go- trials (digit other than 3) preceding preceding failed NoGo trial !!!!Note: in this script any 4 correct Go trials are counted irrespective of latencytype meanRTGoBeforeSuccessNoGo: mean latency (in ms) of consecutive 4 correct trials before correct suppression of response to digit 3 (=> a measure of speed before successful NoGo trials) meanRTGoBeforeFailedNoGo: mean latency (in ms) of consecutive 4 correct trials before incorrect response of response to digit 3 (=> a measure of speed before failed NoGo trials) norms: z-value and percentile calculations use data published by: Carriere, J.S.A., Cheyne, J.A., Solman, G.J.F. & Smilek, D. (2010). Age Trends for Failures of Sustained Attention. Psychology and Aging, 25, 569–574. Carriere et al (2010) grouped data by 6 age groups (no separate data for gender norms provided) Check helper script SARTNorms.iqjs for more details. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ *9 digits, each of them presented 25 times = 225 trials *in 5 fontsizes, each of them randomly selected 45 times (distribution across digits is randomly determined) *in this script the digit order is semi-random, predetermined no special constraints were used to determine the order (only constraint: each digit is presented 25 times) * List properties can be edited to change the order from a pre-fixed one to a random one. Further instructions under (see section Editable Lists -> list.digitsequence for more information) Trial Sequence: digit (250ms) -> mask (900ms) -> <digit SOA: 1150ms> -> digit..... => Response latencies are measured from onset of digit and can therefore catch anticipatory responses (latencies faster than parameters.anticipatoryresponsetime) (see discussion in Cheyne et al, 2009) ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ STIMULI ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ - digits 1-9 presented in fontstyle "Symbol" (if available on computer) - in 5 fontsizes => fontsizes in this script are based on screen percentages and can be customized under section Editable Lists -> list.fontsizes - a picture mask (circle with an X) section Editable Stimuli -> picture.mask - stimuli/mask presented in white on a black background ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ INSTRUCTIONS ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Instructions are not original to the task. They are provided by Millisecond Software and can be edited in script "dotstask_keyboard_instructions_inc.iqjs" ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 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: /digitPresentationTime: digit duration in ms (default: 250ms) /maskPresentationTime: mask duration in ms (default: 900ms) /iti: intertrial interval in ms (default: 0 => digit SOA is therefore 1150ms) /responseKey: the response key (here: " " -> Spacebar) /maskHeight: the height/size of the mask (default: 20%) Note: Robertson et al (1997): mask size on their screen ~29mm /anticipatoryResponseTime: by default, latencies (in ms) are measured from digit onset latencies faster than anticipatoryresponsetime are interpreted as anticipatory as opposed to ambiguous/true responses to the digit (default: 100ms) (-> Cheyne et al, 2009) /validResponseTime: latencies (in ms) that are at or above validresponsetime are considered true responses to the digits (default: 200ms) (-> Cheyne et al, 2009) Minderwandering Probe Addition: /runMindWanderingProbe: true: script runs the mindwandering probe addition false: script does not run the mindwandering probe addition (default) /postProbeDuration: intertrial pause between probe and re-start of sart (in ms)