___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ SERIAL REACTION TIME TASK ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Date: 03-24-2016 last updated: 10-10-2023 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Script Copyright © 10-10-2023 Millisecond Software ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ BACKGROUND INFO ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This script implements a sequenced serial reaction time task (with 4 different response buttons) based on several publications and the help of Dr. Maarten Immink: Nissen, M. J., & Bullemer, P. (1987). Attentional requirements of learning: Evidence from performance measures. Cognitive Psychology, 19, 1–32. Reed, J. & Johnson, Peder (1994). Assessing Implicit Learning With Indirect Tests: Determining What Is Learned About Sequence Structure. Journal of Experimental Psychology: LMC, 20, 585-594. Abrahamse, E.L & Verwey, W.B. (2008). Context dependent learning in the serial RT task. Psychological Research, 72:397–404. Millisecond Software thanks Dr. Maarten Immink for his collaboration and assistance with this script! ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ TASK DESCRIPTION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Participants are presented 4 gray boxes in 4 possible screen positions and have to press a spatially corresponding response button as fast as possible once one of the boxes turns red. The task is divided into a 1) familiarization phase, involving a randomized order of stimulus presentation (default: 36 trials), 2) a) pre-transfer sequence learning phase during which the screen position of the red box order of the stimulus presentation follows a predetermined (repeating) sequence (default: 12 blocks), b) a transfer phase, involving a new predetermined (repeating) sequence (default: 1 block) and c) a post-transfer phase, involving the re-introduction of the sequence (repeating) presented during learning (default: 1 block). ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DURATION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ the default set-up of the script takes appr. 1.5h minutes to complete ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DATA OUTPUT DICTIONARY ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The fields in the data files are: (1) Raw data file: 'serialreactiontimetask_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. phase: "familiarization","learning", "transfer", "post-transfer" countTestBlocks: counts the number of test blocks (training + transfer) run countLearningBlocks: counts number of pre-transfer training blocks run countTransferBlocks: counts number of transfer blocks run countpostTransferBlocks: counts number of post transfer training blocks run countTestTrials: counts the test trials in a block (resets for each test block - does not count starter trials) countSequenceReps: counts the number of sequence reps in a block (does not count starter trials) index: helper variable to determine the next stim position position: 1, 2, 3, or 4 => screen position of the stim (red box) from left to right stimX: the screen position of the stim (red box) in canvas width percentages response: the participant's response (scancode of response button) correct: the correctness of the response (1 = correct; 0 = incorrect) latency: the response latencyreaction time (in ms); measured from onset of red box stimulus (2) Summary data file: 'serialreactiontimetask_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) Note: mean and median latencies are reported of correct responses only. Correct responses are correct responses within the defined response window (default: 2000ms). Error Responses are either wrong responses within the response window OR no responses (response window terminated). propCorrectOverall: determines the overall proportion correct in learning, transfer and post-transfer trials meanRTOverall: determines the overall mean latency (in ms) of correct responses in learning, transfer and post-transfer trials meadianRTOverall: determines the overall median latency (in ms) of correct responses in learning, transfer and post-transfer trials propCorrectFamiliarization1- propCorrectFamiliarization3: the proportion correct in Familiarization Block 1 - 3 (separate for each block) Note: if default number of Familiarization Blocks was increased, add corresponding values below and edit blocks and summary data accordingly propCorrectLearning1- propCorrectLearning12: the proportion correct in Learning Block 1 - 12 (separate for each block) Note: if default number of Learning Blocks was increased, add corresponding code under: section VALUES/BLOCKS/DATA propCorrectTransfer1: the proportion correct in Transfer Block 1 Note: if default number of Transfer Blocks was increased, add corresponding code under: section VALUES/BLOCKS/DATA propCorrectPostTransfer1: the proportion correct in Post-Transfer Block 1 Note: if default number of Post-Transfer Blocks was increased, add corresponding code under: section VALUES/BLOCKS/DATA meanRTFamiliarization- meanRTFamiliarization3: mean reaction time (in ms) of correct responses in Familiarization Block 1-3 (separate for each block) Note: if default number of Familiarization Blocks was increased, add corresponding values below and edit blocks and summary data accordingly meanRTLearning1- meanRTLearning12: mean reaction time (in ms) of correct responses in Learning Block 1-12 (separate for each block) Note: if default number of Learning Blocks was increased, add corresponding code under: section VALUES/BLOCKS/DATA meanRTTransfer1: mean reaction time (in ms) of correct responses in Transfer Block 1 Note: if default number of Transfer Blocks was increased, add corresponding code under: section VALUES/BLOCKS/DATA meanRTPostTransfer1: mean reaction time (in ms) of correct responses in Post-Transfer Block 1 Note: if default number of Post-Transfer Blocks was increased, add corresponding code under: section VALUES/BLOCKS/DATA medianRTFamiliarization- medianRTFamiliarization3: median reaction time (in ms) of correct responses in Familiarization Block 1-3 (separate for each block) Note: if default number of Familiarization Blocks was increased, add corresponding values below and edit blocks and summary data accordingly medianRTLearning1- medianRTLearning12: median reaction time (in ms) of correct responses in Learning Block 1-12 (separate for each block) Note: if default number of Learning Blocks was increased, add corresponding code under: section VALUES/BLOCKS/DATA medianRTTransfer1: median reaction time (in ms) of correct responses in Transfer Block 1 Note: if default number of Transfer Blocks was increased, add corresponding code under: section VALUES/BLOCKS/DATA medianRTPostTransfer1: median reaction time (in ms) of correct responses in Post-Transfer Block 1 Note: if default number of Post-Transfer Blocks was increased, add corresponding code under: section VALUES/BLOCKS/DATA ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ - 1 blocks of 36 Familiarization/Familiarization trials (number of blocks can be edited under Editable Parameters) with error feedback - digit order of stimulus presentation is randomly determined with the constraint that successive positions are different (aka no immediate position repeats) - break after each block - unless it's the last familiarization block Learning and Transfer Phases: - 12 Learning blocks of 120 learning trials each (12-item sequence repeated for 10 cycles) - each Learning block runs 10 repetitions of the learning sequence (see list.learning under Editable Lists) - break after each block (default: 30s; editable) - 1 Transfer block of 120 learning trials using a slightly different sequence - each transfer block runs the transfer sequence (see list.transfer under Editable Lists) - break after each block (default: 30s; editable) - 1 postTransfer block of 120 learning trials using the learning sequence - each postTransfer block runs 10 repetitions of the learning sequence (see list.learning under Editable Lists) - break after each block (default: 30s; editable) - unless it's the last Each block starts with presentation of 4 gray boxes before presentation of the stimulus for the first trial in each block. After a response, the next target is presented after a response-stimulus interval (default RSI is 50 ms; this can be edited under Editable Parameters). If error feedback is provided, feedback is provided immediately after the error response and is followed by the RSI. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ STIMULI ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 4 gray boxes - size and screen location can be edited under Editable Parameters. Note: Abrahamse & Verwey (2008), e.g., used a viewing distance of 50cm and the stimulus angle measured 2.3° × 2.0° Position of targets (box turning red) can be edited under section Editable Lists ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ INSTRUCTIONS ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ are not original; edit under section Editable Instructions ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 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: Procedural Design: /numberFamiliarizationBlocks: number of familiarization blocks to run (default: 1); setting it to 0 will skip this block /numberOfFamiliarizationTrials: number of familiarization trials to run in a block (default: 36) /numberLearningBlocks: sets the number of pre-transfer training blocks (default: 12) Note: if default number is changed, summary variables might need to be edited (Go to section VALUES) /numberTransferBlocks: sets the number of transfer blocks (default: 1) Note: if default number is changed, summary variables might need to be edited (Go to section VALUES) /numberpostTransferBlocks: sets the number of post-transfer training blocks (default: 1) Note: if default number is changed, summary variables might need to be edited (Go to section VALUES) /numberOfSequenceRepsPerBlock: sets the number of sequence repetitions in each training/transfer block (default: 10) /runErrorFeedback: true = error feedback (incorrect & too slow) is presented during test trials false = error feedback (incorrect & too slow) is not presented during test trials interface: 0% at the far left of canvas - 100% far right of canvas /pos1X: the first horizonal box position from the left in canvas width percentages /pos2X: the second horizonal box position from the left in canvas width percentages /pos3X: the third horizonal box position from the left in canvas width percentages /pos4X: the fourth horizonal box position from the left in canvas width percentages /stimHeight: height of the boxes in canvas height percentages (default: 5%) Response Keys (from left to right): /responseKey1: the first response button ("V") /responseKey2: the second response button ("B") /responseKey3: the third response button ("N") /responseKey4: the fourth response button ("M") Duration Paramters (in ms): /responseWindow: duration of response window (in ms) (default: 2000ms) /rsi: Response Stimulus Interval in ms (interval between response and presentation of next stimulus) (default: 50ms) /feedbackDuration: duration (in ms) of feedback (default: 2000ms) /breakDuration: the duration of the breaks (in ms) in between test blocks (default: 30000)