Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Created: January 18, 2016
Last Modified: January 26, 2023 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC
This script implements the a task of unsolvable anagrams based on
Feather, NT & Simon, JG (1971). Attribution of responsibility and valence of outcome in relation to initial confidence and success and failure of self and other. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 18, 173-188.
15 minutes
Participants are asked to solve anagrams. The difficulty of the practice as well as test items is manipulated.
4 experimental conditions (assignment by groupnumber):
group1 = easy practice, easy test
group2 = easy practice, difficult test
group3 = difficult practice, easy test
group4 = difficult practice, difficult test
Practice Block:
• 5 anagrams (order is randomly determined)
• timeout for each anagram:
• feedback after each anagram for 500ms
Test Block:
• 25 anagrams (order is randomly determined)
• timeout for each anagram:
• feedback after each anagram for 500ms
see section Editable Stimuli
• Practice Items are taken from Feather & Simon (1971)
• 25 test items each for difficult and easy test condition were generated by Millisecond.
these test anagrams are untested. You can easily substitute your own.
1/5 (=5) anagrams for the difficult condition are unsolvable English anagrams
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: unsolvableanagrams_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 |
| practiceDifficulty | 1 = easy practice 2 = difficult practice |
| testDifficulty | 1 = easy test 2 = difficult test |
| countAttempted | Counts the number of attempted anagrams during the test |
| propCorrectPractice | Proportion correct solved anagrams during practice |
| propCorrectTest | Proportion correct solved anagrams during test |
| meanRTTest | Mean lateny of correctly solved anagrams during the test phase |
| passOrFail | If more than 7 anagrams were solved correctly during the test phase, the test is passed (otherwise fail) |
File Name: unsolvableanagrams_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 |
| practiceDifficulty | 1 = easy practice 2 = difficult practice |
| testDifficulty | 1 = easy test 2 = difficult test |
| stimulusItem | The presented stimuli in order of trial presentation |
| correctAnswer | Stores the correct answer to the anagram |
| response | The participant's response (as recorded) |
| currentResponse | Stores the response (as used for analysis of accuracy) |
| correct | The correctness of the response (1 = correct; 0 = incorrect) |
| latency | The response latency (in ms); measured from onset of anagram |
| countAttempted | Counts the number of attempted anagrams during the test |
The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.
| Name | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| anagramFontSize | The size of the anagrams in canvas height percentage | 5% |
| practiceTimeout | The timeout for practice items in ms | 30000 |
| testTimeout | The timeout for test items in ms | 30000 |