Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Created: January 05, 2012
Last Modified: January 20, 2023 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC
Script implements the Synonym Antonym Task as used in:
Salthouse, T.A., Atkinson, T.M, & Berish, D.E. (2003).Executive Functioning as a Potential Mediator of Age-Related Cognitive Decline in Normal Adults. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 132, 566–594.
5 minutes
Participant is presented with a target word and needs to select from among 5 choices the word a) that has the closest meaning to the target word (Synonym Task) or b) that has the opposite meaning of the target word (Antonym Task) Selection is done via mouse-click.
The script presents 10 synonym trials (block.synonymtask) before moving on to 10 antonym trials (block.antonymtask).
Each trial presents a target and 5 word choices. After participants select their choice via mouse-click,
the selection gets briefly highlighted before the next trial starts.
Timer:
There are 5 min allotted to finish block.synonym AND block.antonym (default, can be changed under
VALUES -> EDITABLE PARAMETERS). A clock on the screen counts down the min/s for the participants.
60s (default, can be changed under VALUES -> EDITABLE PARAMETERS) before the 5 min are up,
a red circle appears around the clock to highlight the remaining time.
Stimuli can be edited under
EDITABLE STIMULI -> synonym stimuli -> item.synonym and STIMULI -> antonym stimuli -> item.antonym
Instructions are not original to the task. They are provided by Millisecond
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).
File Name: synonymantonym_summary*.iqdat
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| inquisit.version | Inquisit version number |
| computer.platform | Device platform: win | mac |ios | android |
| 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 |
| taskduration | Time alloted to the entire task (default: 300000ms = 5min) numCorrectSyn- |
| numCorrectAnt | Sum up all correct responses for Synonyms/Antonyms |
| totalCorrect | Sum of all correct responses |
File Name: synonymantonym_raw*.iqdat
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| build | Inquisit version number |
| computer.platform | Device platform: win | mac |ios | android |
| date | Date the session was run |
| time | Time the session was run |
| subject | Participant ID |
| group | Group number |
| session | Session number |
| blockCode | Name of the current block |
| blockNum | Number of the current block |
| trialCode | Name of the current trial |
| trialNum | Number of the current trial |
| taskduration | Time alloted to the entire task (default: 300000ms = 5min) |
| presentedStim1 | The presented stimuli in order of trial presentation |
| presentedStim2 | = presented word |
| choice1-Choice5 | Contains the stimulus for the 5 choices |
| correctChoice | Contains the index of the correct choice for each target |
| response | The participant's response |
| correct | The correctness of the response (1 = correct; 0 = incorrect) |
| latency | The response latency (in ms) numCorrectSyn- |
| numCorrectAnt | Sum up all correct responses for Synonyms/Antonyms |
| totalCorrect | Sum of all correct responses |
The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.
| Name | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| taskDuration | Time alloted to the entire task in ms | 300000ms = 5min |
| timeReminder | A red circle appears around the clock at this time (in ms) )to highlight how much time is left | 60000ms = 1min left |