Affect Misattribution Procedure - AMP

Technical Manual

Last Modified: January 18, 2025 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC

Background

This script implements the Affect Misattribution Procedure (AMP), a priming procedure using supraliminal primes to assess implicit attitudes. The rationale of the AMP is that people, despite instructions to the contrary, cannot ignore (supraliminal) primes and will automatically attribute the attitudes they have towards the prime (category) to stimuli presented after.

The script implements a simple procedure to measure implicit attitudes towards flowers and insects (used as the primes). It is designed to be easily adaptable to other target categories. Target categories can be edited under section "Editable Stimuli" below.

References

Payne, B.K., Cheng, C.M., OGovorun, O., and Stewart, B.D. (2005). An Inkblot for Attitudes: Affect Misattribution as Implicit Measurement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 89, No. 3, 277-293.

Duration

3 minutes

Description

Participants see brief flashes of pictures of flowers and insects (and a neutral stimulus) followed by Chinese characters and are asked to judge the pleasantness of each Chinese character as "pleasant" or "unpleasant" as fast as possible.

Procedure

• 1 Practice block of 10 trials randomly selecting from flowers/insects/neutral
• 1 Test block of 48 trials randomly selecting from flowers/insects/neutral

Trials:
• prime is presented for 75ms
• prime is replaced by a blank stimulus for 125ms
• the target is presented for 100ms and then covered up by a mask

Stimuli

see section Editable Stimuli

Instructions

see section Editable Instructions

Summary Data

File Name: amp_summary*.iqdat

Data Fields

NameDescription
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 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 = Test was not completed
1 = Test was completed
trial.primeA.totalPercentCorrect The percent correct for primeA (flowers) across all test blocks (here: 1 test block)
correct = participant pressed the response key that corresponds to the prime
(here: pressed pleasant for trials with flowers)
trial.primeB.totalPercentCorrect The percent correct for primeB (insects) across all test blocks (here: 1 test block)
correct = participant pressed the response key that corresponds to the prime
(here: pressed unpleasant for trials with insects)
trial.primeNeutral.totalPercentCorrect The percent correct for primeNeutral across all test blocks (here: 1 test block)
correct = participant pressed the response key that corresponds to the prime
(here: either response keys)

Raw Data

File Name: amp_raw*.iqdat

Data Fields

NameDescription
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.
primestim Stores the itemnumber of the current prime stimulus
targetstim Stores the itemnumber of the current target stimulus
response Scancode of the response button pressed (spacebar = 57)
responseText Label of response key pressed
correct Stores the correctness of the response (1 = correct; 0 = incorrect)
correctness in this script: pressed the response key that corresponds to the prime
latency Response latency (in ms); in this script: measured from onset of target
trial.primeA.totalPercentCorrect The percent correct for primeA (flowers) across all test blocks (here: 1 test block)
correct = participant pressed the response key that corresponds to the prime (here: pressed pleasant for trials with flowers)
trial.primeB.totalPercentCorrect The percent correct for primeB (insects) across all test blocks (here: 1 test block)
correct = participant pressed the response key that corresponds to the prime (here: pressed unpleasant for trials with insects)
trial.primeNeutral.totalPercentCorrect The percent correct for primeNeutral across all test blocks (here: 1 test block)
correct = participant pressed the response key that corresponds to the prime (here: either response keys)

Parameters

The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.

NameDescriptionDefault
primeDuration The duration (in ms) of the prime 75
primeTargetISI The interstimulus interval (in ms) btw. offset of prime and onset of target
the ISI presents an empty screen
125
targetDuration The target duration (in ms) 100