Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
credit: Millisecond thanks Dr. Eva Kimonis
Created: April 10, 2026
Last Modified: April 10, 2026 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC
This script implements an Emotion Dot Probe task with images for preschoolers, based on published studies by E. Kimonis and colleagues (see Kimonis et al, 2016) as well as provided script. Dot Probe Tasks are designed to measure (implicit) attentional bias— the tendency of our attention to be automatically drawn toward (or away from) certain types of stimuli, such as threatening or emotional information.
The Emotion Dot Probe with images task provides facilitation indices for each emotion tested that provide objective measurements of the impact of emotional information on response times (and response accuracy). By default, this script runs image pairs consisting of 'distress and neutral' and 'positive and neutral' pairings (in addition to the baseline/control pairings of 'neutral-neutral' pairings).
The current script is intended to be run with preschool aged children (ages 3-6).
Kimonis, E. R., Fanti, K. A., Anastassiou-Hadjicharalambous, X., Mertan, B., Goulter, N., & Katsimicha, E. (2016). Can Callous-Unemotional Traits be Reliably Measured in Preschoolers? Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 44(4), 625–638. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-015-0075-y
Kimonis, E. R., Frick, P. J., Fazekas, H., & Loney, B. R. (2006). Psychopathy, aggression, and the processing of emotional stimuli in non-referred girls and boys. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 24(1), 21–37. https://doi.org/10.1002/bsl.668
Kimonis, E. R., Frick, P. J., Munoz, L. C., & Aucoin, K. J. (2007). Can a Laboratory Measure of Emotional Processing Enhance the Statistical Prediction of Aggression and Delinquency in Detained Adolescents with Callous-unemotional Traits? Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 35(5), 773–785. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-007-9136-1
Kimonis, E. R., Frick, P. J., Munoz, L. C., & Aucoin, K. J. (2008). Callous-unemotional traits and the emotional processing of distress cues in detained boys: Testing the moderating role of aggression, exposure to community violence, and histories of abuse. Development and Psychopathology, 20(2), 569–589. https://doi.org/10.1017/S095457940800028X
Kimonis, E. R., Frick, P. J., Cauffman, E., Goldweber, A., & Skeem, J. (2012). Primary and secondary variants of juvenile psychopathy differ in emotional processing. Development and Psychopathology, 24(3), 1091–1103. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579412000557
4 minutes
Each dot probe trial starts with a fixation stimulus (here: a mouse 'Jerry' image) in the center of the screen, followed by a brief presentation of two (paired) images. One image is presented above the fixation cross and the other is presented below it. Once the image pair is erased, a probe stimulus (here: a picture of a slice of cheese) appears in the position of one of the images and participants are asked to press the T(op) or B(ottom) keys as fast as possible to indicate the position of the dot (aka 'to feed Jerry').
The image pairs come from different categories: 1. neutral-neutral pairings 2. distress-neutral pairings
This script uses the stimuli (pairs) provided by Dr. Eva Kimonis
• 8 practice image pairs
• 12 neutral-neutral test image pairs
• 12 neutral-emotion test image pairs
The images are listed under section Editable Stimuli
The instructions are based on the instructions used by Dr. Kimonis and colleagues.
They are listed - and can be edited- in script 'edp_images_ps_instructions_inc.iqjs'.
File Name: edp_images_ps_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 |
Trialcounts |
|
| con1 | Number of congruent neutral-neutral trials (probe sits in dedicated 'target' position), congruence not meaningfule for neutral-neutral trials |
| incon1 | Number of incongruent neutral-neutral trials (probe sits in dedicated 'comp' position), congruence not meaningfule for neutral-neutral trials |
| validCorrRTCon1 | Number of correct congruent neutral-neutral trials with RT >= parameters.minRT |
| validCorrRTIncon1 | Number of correct incongruent neutral-neutral trials with RT >= parameters.minRT |
| con2 | Number of congruent distress-neutral trials (probe sits in 'distress' position) |
| incon2 | Number of incongruent distress-neutral trials (probe sits in 'neutral' position) |
| validCorrRTCon2 | Number of correct congruent distress-neutral trials with RT >= parameters.minRT |
| validCorrRTIncon2 | Number of correct incongruent distress-neutral trials with RT >= parameters.minRT |
Accuracy (Acc) |
|
| propCorrCon1 | Proportion Correct Congruent neutral-neutral trials (probe sits in dedicated 'target' position), congruence not meaningfule for neutral-neutral trials |
| propCorrIncon1 | Proportion Correct Incongruent neutral-neutral trials (probe sits in dedicated 'comp' position), congruence not meaningfule for neutral-neutral trials |
| propCorrCon2 | Proportion Correct Congruent distress-neutral trials (probe sits in 'distress' position) |
| propCorrIncon2 | Proportion Correct Incongruent distress-neutral trials (probe sits in 'neutral' position) |
| propCorrUp1 | Proportion Correct neutral-neutral trials with probe in Top position |
| propCorrDown1 | Proportion Correct neutral-neutral trials with probe in Bottom position |
| propCorrConUp2 | Proportion Correct CONGRUENT distress-neutral trials with distress & probe in Top position |
| propCorrConDown2 | Proportion Correct CONGRUENT distress-neutral trials with distress & probe in Bottom position |
| facilitationIndexDistressAcc | ACC Faciliation Score for Distress images (that are followed by a probe) compared to neutral images (followed by a probe) => the higher the score, the more the emotional content of the images 'captured' attention and faciliated correct responding => negative scores imply that the emotional images were avoided compared to neutral counterparts |
Response Time (Rt): Only Correct Responses With Latencies >= Parameters.Minrt Considered |
|
| meanCorrRTCon1 | Mean correct response time in Congruent neutral-neutral trials (probe sits in dedicated 'target' position), not meaningfule for neutral-neutral trials |
| meanCorrRTIncon1 | Mean correct response time in Incongruent neutral-neutral trials (probe sits in dedicated 'comp' position), not meaningfule for neutral-neutral trials |
| meanCorrRTCon2 | Mean correct response time in Congruent distress-neutral trials (probe sits in 'distress' position) |
| meanCorrRTIncon2 | Mean correct response time in Incongruent distress-neutral trials (probe sits in 'neutral' position) |
| meanCorrRTUp1 | Mean correct response time in neutral-neutral trials with probe in Top position |
| meanCorrRTDown1 | Mean correct response time in neutral-neutral trials with probe in Bottom position |
| meanCorrRTConUp2 | Mean correct response time in CONGRUENT distress-neutral trials with distress & probe in Top position |
| meanCorrRTConDown2 | Mean correct response time in CONGRUENT distress-neutral trials with distress & probe in Bottom position |
| facilitationIndexDistressRT | RT Faciliation Score for Distress images (that are followed by a probe) compared to neutral images (followed by a probe) => the higher the score, the more the emotional content of the images 'captured' attention and faciliated faster responding => negative scores imply that the emotional images were avoided compared to neutral counterparts and thus response times were slower |
File Name: edp_images_ps_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. |
| phase | "Practice" vs. "Test" |
| blockCounter | Tracks the number of test blocks run |
| trialCounterPerBlock | Tracks the number of trials run per block (resets for each block) |
| condition | 0 = practice 1 = neutral-neutral (control condition) 2 = distress-neutral |
| targetLocation | The location of the assigned target ( in condition 2, the targets are the emotion images) 0 = top 1 = bottom |
| probeLocation | 0 = top 1 = bottom |
| congruence | 0 = incongruent (probe follows comp - neutral image) 1 = congruent (probe follows target - distress, positive image) |
| index | Image itemnumber |
| targetImage | Stores the currently presented target image |
| compImage | Stores the currently presented comp image |
| corrResp | Stores the currently correct response key (T=top, B=bottom) |
| response | The response of participant (scancode of response button) |
| responseText | The label of the response button |
| correct | Correctness of response (1 = correct, 0 = error) |
| latency | Response latency (in ms); measured from: onset of probe |
Debug Variables |
|
| picture.target.y | Stores the vertical coordinate of the current target image |
| picture.comp.y | Stores the vertical coordinate of the current comp image |
| picture.probe.y | Stores the vertical coordinate of the current probe stim (for congruent trials, this should be the same as the target image) |
The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.
| Name | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
Design |
||
| numberTestBlocks | Number of test blocks to run this script provides 12 distress-neutral and 12 neutral-neutral image pairs for the 3 blocks x 8 trialsPerBlock = 24 test trials If this number is set to a higher blockcount, image pairs will be repeated. | 3 |
Sizing Parameters |
||
| fixationHeightPct | Relative height (to canvas height) of fixation cross | 8% |
| imageHeightPct | Relative height (to canvas height) of each image | 40% |
| probeHeightPct | Relative height (to canvas height) of the probe stim | 8% |
| topY | Vertical percentage coordinate of the top image ( top=0% to bottom=100%) | 25% |
| bottomY | Vertical percentage coordinate of the bottom image ( top=0% to bottom=100%) | 75% |
Timing Parameters |
||
| fixationDurationMS | Duration (in ms) of solitary fixation cross at the beginnin of each trial | 500 |
| stimDurationMS | Duration (in ms) of image pair | 750 |
| responseTimeoutMS | Max. time (in ms) that participants have to respond to the probe stimulus | 5000 |
| itiMS | Intertrial interval (in ms) | 2000 |
| minRT | Minimum response latency (in ms) that is considered 'valid' | 0 |
Responsekeys |
||
| topResponseKey | The dedicated key to indicate TOP probes ( T is located ABOVE B on QWERTY keyboards) | "T" |
| bottomResponseKey | The dedicated key to indicate BOTTOM probes ( B is located BELOW T on QWERTY keyboards) | "B" |