Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Created: January 11, 2020
Last Modified: January 24, 2025 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC
This script implements a variant of the Cued Recall Procedure. The Cued Recall Procedure was introduced by Tolan & Tehan (1999) and was designed to study proactive interference effects on word retrieval. The Inquisit script implements a variant of the design described in Friedman & Miyake (2004).
Friedman, N.P. & Miyake, A. (2004). The relations among inhibition and interferene control functions: a latent-variable analysis. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133, 101-135.
Tolan, G. A., & Tehan, G. (1999). Determinants of short-term forgetting: Decay, retroactive interference, or proactive interference? International Journal of Psychology, 34, 285–292.
20 minutes
Participants view either one or two blocks of four words each and must retrieve the word from the most recent block that belongs to a cued category.
(1) DEMO
2 demo trials to explain the procedure:
- block1
- block2 (fixed sequence)
The demo trials provide more time to the participants for instructions, the distractor task
as well as the recall trials.
(2) TEST
1 test block of 36 trials (12 trials per 3 trialtypes): by default the order of the trials is fixed
(one random sequence has been determined a-priori, see list.testtrials)
General trial set-up:
-> get ready (2000ms)
-> instructions (aloud/silent) (1000ms)
-> block1 words (each of the 4 words is presented for 1000ms) -> 'foil' block
(word1 -> word2 -> word3 -> word4)
-> instructions (aloud/silent) (1000ms)
-> block2 words (each of the 4 words is presented for 1000ms) -> 'target' block
(word1 -> word2 -> word3 -> word4)
-> 8 distractor trials (magnitude trials; each 2 digit number is presented for 1000ms)
(number1 -> number2 -> number3 -> number4 -> number5 -> number6 -> number7 -> number8)
-> cued recall trial (presents target category; time limit = 5000ms)
(a) 12 'block2-target' trials:
- presents 2 blocks of 4 words:
- first block is referred to as the 'foil' block in this script; it contains the foil word
that is matched to the randomly selected target (they come from the same category),
the remaining three words are randomly selected filler words
(order of 4 words is randomly determined)
- second block is referred to as the 'target' block in this script; it contains
the randomly selected target word; the remaining three words are randomly selected
filler words
(order of 4 words is randomly determined)
- 'aloud' instructions are given to the first block (foil block);
'silent' instructions are given to second block (target block)
(b) 12 'block2-control' trials: same as above but instead of a foil word, a fourth filler word
is selected for the 'foil' block
(c) 12 'block1' trials:
- presents 1 block of words ('target block')
- all four words are randomly selected filler words
- order of words is randomly determined
- 'aloud' instructions are given to the block
- no word is ever repeated in this experiment. Categories are only repeated for foil and target words.
- the target words/target categories are randomly selected for each trial.
provided by Millisecond - can be edited under section Editable Stimuli
36 Target/Foil Categories: selected from
McEvoy, C. L., & Nelson, D. L. (1982). Category name and instance norms for 106 categories of various sizes.
American Journal of Psychology, 95, 581-634.
Nairne, J. S. (1990). A feature model of immediate memory. Memory and Cognition, 18, 251-269.
Foil words were always the words with a higher correlation with the target category compared to the
target words themselves.
Remaining filler words were taken from the above article as well as from everyday life.
Constraints: Filler words should never overlap with any of the selected target categories.
All words can easily be replaced under section Editable Stimuli.
provided by Millisecond - can be edited under section Editable Instructions
File Name: cuedrecallprocedure_summary*.iqdat
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| 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 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 |
Recall Performance |
|
| propCorrectOverall | Overall proportion correct recall (across all test trials) |
| meanCorrRTOverall | Overall mean response time (in ms) of submitting correct recall response (across all test trials) |
| propCorrectBlock2Target | Proportion correct recall in block2-foil/target condition |
| meanCorrRTBlock2Target | Mean response time (in ms) of submitting correct recall response in block2-foil/target condition |
| propCorrectBlock2Control | Proportion correct recall in block2-control condition (no foil is run) |
| meanCorrRTBlock2Control | Mean response time (in ms) of submitting correct recall response in block2-control condition |
| propCorrectBlock1 | Proportion correct recall in block1-control condition |
| meanCorrRTBlock1 | Mean response time (in ms) of submitting correct recall response in block1-control condition |
Distractortask Performance |
|
| propCorrectDistractorTaskOverall | Overall proportion correct magnitude judgments (across all test trials) |
| meanCorrRTDistractorTaskOverall | Overall mean response (in ms) of making correct magnitude judgments (across all test trials) |
| propCorrectDistractorTaskBlock2Target | Proportion correct magnitude judgments in block2-foil/target condition |
| meanCorrRTDistractorTaskBlock2Target | Mean response (in ms) of making correct magnitude judgments in block2-foil/target condition |
| propCorrectDistractorTaskBlock2Control | Proportion correct magnitude judgments in block2-control condition |
| meanCorrRTDistractorTaskBlock2Control | Mean response (in ms) of making correct magnitude judgments in block2-control condition |
| propCorrectDistractorTaskBlock1 | Proportion correct magnitude judgments in block1-control condition |
| meanCorrRTDistractorTaskBlock1 | Mean response (in ms) of making correct magnitude judgments in block1-control condition |
File Name: cuedrecallprocedure_raw*.iqdat
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| 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. |
| trialCount | Custom trial counter (1-36) |
| trialCategory | 0 = practice trials 1 = block2_target (runs foil word in block1; target word in block2) 2 = block2_control (runs no foil words) 3 = block1 ( the trials are run in a fixed order (that was determined randomly). To change the order to a complete randomized order, go to 'list.testtrials' and follow instructions) |
| target | Stores the selected target word for the current trial sequence (target word = the word that needs to be entered into the textbox) |
| targetCategory | Stores the category of the selected target word |
| foil | Stores the foil word (if applicable for 'block2_target' trials; otherwise empty) Foil words come from the same category as the target words and are presented during the first block in 'block2' trials. Foils are stronger representatives of the target category than the targets themselves Example: category bird; target = penguin, foil = robin |
| foilBlockWords | Stores the 4 words presented during the 'foil' block Notes - the foil block contains non-target words => it's the first block of 4 words for 'block2' trials => no foil block for 'block1' trials - the words are stored in the order they appeared |
| targetBlockWords | Stores the 4 words presented during the 'target' block Notes - the target block contains the target word => it's the second block of 4 words for 'block2' trials => it's the only/first block for 'block1' trials - the words are stored in the order they appeared |
| twoDigitNumber | The 2digit number presented during distractor trial |
| response | The participant's response distractor trial scancode of response button 31=S 38=L recall trial the entered word as it was typed |
| recallResponse | The recall response in lower case letters only |
| correct | Accuracy of response: 1 = correct response; 0 = otherwise distractor trials 1 = the presented number was correctly categorized 0 = otherwise recall trial 1 = the entered word was the target word 0 = otherwise it is recommended to manually check the responses as spelling errors will be noted as '0' |
| latency | The response latency (in ms); measured from: onset of trial |
| recallRT | The duration (in ms) that it took participant to enter the recallSolution |
The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.
| Name | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
Timing Parameters |
||
| getReadyDuration | The duration (in ms) of the get-ready-trial | 3000 |
| instructDurationTest | The duration (in ms) the aloud/silent instructions are presented during the test the duration during the demo trials is significantly longer (-> 10s) | 1000 |
| distractorTaskDurationTest | The duration (in ms) of each distractor (magnitude estimation) task during the test the duration during the demo trials is significantly longer (-> 10s) | 1000 |
| cuedRecallTimeoutTest | The max. duration (in ms) for the recall trial during the test the duration during the demo trials is significantly longer (-> 20s) | 5000 |
Practice |
||
| instructDurationPractice | The duration (in ms) the aloud/silent instructions are presented during the demo/practice the duration during the demo trials is significantly longer (-> 10s) | 10000 |
| distractorTaskDurationPractice | The duration (in ms) of each distractor (magnitude estimation) task during the demo/practice the duration during the demo trials is significantly longer (-> 10s) | 10000 |
| cuedRecallTimeoutPractice | The max. duration (in ms) for the recall trial during the demo/practice the duration during the demo trials is significantly longer (-> 20s) | 5000 |
Practice + Test |
||
| stimPresentationDuration | The duration (in ms) of the individual words | 1000 |
Sizing Parameters |
||
| wordSize | The proportional sizing (relative to active canvas height) of the presented words | 8% |
Response Keys |
||
| keySmaller | The key used for 'smaller than 50' judgments | "S" |
| keyLarger | The key used for 'larger than 50' judgments 'keySmaller' key should be located to the left of 'keyLarger' | "L" |