General Knowledge Task

Technical Manual

Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Created: January 19, 2012

Last Modified: January 15, 2023 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC

Background

This script implements the General Knowledge Task as used in:

Redick, T.S., Shipstead, Z., Fried, D.E., Hambrick, D.Z., Kane, M.J. & Engle, R.W. (2012). No Evidence of Intelligence Improvement After Working Memory Training: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Study. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 1-21.

( https://www.psychology.gatech.edu/renglelab/publications/2012/RedicketalJEPG.pdf)

Duration

7 minutes

Description

Participants work through 10 general knowledge questions ( questions are culturally sensitive).

Procedure

The script presents 10 general knowledge trials (block.generalknowledge)
Each trial presents a target question and 4 answer choices. After participants select their choice via mouse-click,
the selection gets briefly highlighted before the next trial starts.

There are 2 practice problems to familiarize participants with the set-up.

There are 7 min allotted to finish block.generalknowledgetask (default, can be changed under
section EDITABLE PARAMETERS). A clock on the screen counts down the min/s for the participants.
60s (default, can be changed under section EDITABLE PARAMETERS) before the 7 min are up,
a red circle appears around the clock to highlight the remaining time.

Stimuli

Stimuli can be edited under section Editable Stimuli

Instructions

Instructions can be edited under section Editable Instructions

Summary Data

File Name: generalknowledge_summary*.iqdat

Data Fields

NameDescription
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
taskDuration Time alloted to the entire task (default: 420000ms = 7min)
numCorrect Sum up all correct responses

Raw Data

File Name: generalknowledge_raw*.iqdat

Data Fields

NameDescription
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
parameters.taskDuration Time alloted to the entire task in ms (default: 420000ms = 7min)
stimuluitem.1-stimulusitem.2 The presented stimuli in order of trial presentation
choice1-choice4 Contains the stimulus for the 4 choices
correctChoice Stores the correct choice
response The participant's response
correct The correctness of the response (1 = correct; 0 = otherwise)
latency The response latency (in ms); measured from onset of question
numCorrect Sum up all correct responses

Parameters

The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.

NameDescriptionDefault
taskDuration Time alloted to the entire task in ms 420000ms = 7min
timeReminder A red circle appears around the clock at this time to highlight how much time is left 60000ms = 1min left