Last Modified: January 04, 2024 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC
This script implements a Dot Estimation Task, a quick task to manipulate 'Group Membership' (Mussweiler et al, 2000) by arbitrarily assigning participants to one of two groups seemingly based on their performance on this task.
Mussweiler, T., Gabriel, S., & Bodenhausen, G.V. (2000). Shifting Social Identities as a Strategy for Deflecting Threatening Social Comparisons. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 398-409.
1.5 minutes
Participants view several slides that contain a varying number of dots for 1000s (not enough time to count all the dots) and are subsequently asked to estimate the number of dots. Based on their preassigned groups, they are told at the end that they are either "underEstimators" or "overEstimators" regardless of their actual estimation performance.
• assigns participants to "overEstimator" and "underEstimator" condition via groupnumber
(odd -> underEstimator; even -> overEstimator)
• presents 11 slides of dots in sequence for 1000ms (default)
• presents feedback at the end according to assigned group independent of actual estimation
see section Editable Stimuli
see section Editable Instructions
File Name: dotestimationtask_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 |
| estimatorType | Between group condition "underEstimator"/"overEstimator" |
File Name: dotestimationtask_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. |
| estimatorType | Between group condition "underEstimator"/"overEstimator" |
| stimulusItem | The presented Dot image |
| response | The participant's response |
| latency | The response latency (in ms) |
The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.
| Name | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| pretrialPause | Adjustable delay in milliseconds. Change as needed. | 200 |
| dotDuration | Display duration (in ms) for the dot patterns | 1000 |