Alcohol GNAT

Technical Manual

This script is in part based on the original gnatdemo.iqjs by Brian Nosek (nosek@virginia.edu)

Last Modified: January 07, 2024 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC

Background

This script implements an Alcohol Go-Nogo Association Task (GNAT). The Alcohol GNAT uses the Go-Nogo framework of responding to signal and noise stimuli to investigate implicit bias towards alcohol. In contrast to reaction time based tests of implicit bias (e.g. Implicit Association Test), the GNAT framework mainly focuses on accuracy data and specifically d prime measures (measures of sensitivity to distinguish signals from noise in signal detection theory) to infer implicit bias. Within the GNAT framework, greater sensitivity to distinguish the signals (here: alcohol) from noise (here: non-alcoholic drinks) if the signal is paired with one attributeA (here: good) than if it's paired with another attributeB (here: bad) is indicative of a stronger association between the target category and attributeA (here: alcohol-good) than between the target and attribut B (here: alcohol-bad).

The implemented procedure is similarly to:

Obasi, E.M., Cavanagh, L., Pittman, D.M., & Brooks, J.J. (2016). Effects of evaluative context in implicit cognitions associated with alcohol and violent behaviors. Addictive Behaviors Reports 3 (2016) 48–55

GNAT Literature

References

Nosek, B. A., & Banaji, M. R. (2001). The go/no-go association task. Social Cognition, 19(6), 625-666.

Adjustments to z-scores as recommended by: Gregg, A. & Sedikides, C. (2010). Narcissistic Fragility: Rethinking Its Links to Explicit and Implicit Self-esteem, Self and Identity, 9:2, 142-161 (p.148)

Duration

10 minutes

Description

Participants are asked to categorize attributes (e.g. "happy"; "unhappy") and target items (e.g "BEER") into predetermined categories via keystroke presses.

The basic go-nogo task is to press the Spacebar if an item (e.g. "happy") belongs to the category currently being tested (e.g. "Good" = signal items) and to do nothing if it doesn't (= noise items).

For practice, participants sort items into signal categories "Good" (as opposed to noise: items from 'Bad' category), "Bad" (as opposed to noise: items from 'Good' category), and "Alcoholic Drinks" (as opposed to noise: items from "non-alcoholic drinks" category).

For the test, participants are asked to sort items into the paired/combined categories (e.g. "Alcoholic Drinks OR Good" and "Alcoholic Drinks OR Bad"). When an item belongs to either one of these two categories, participants should press the Spacebar. If an item belongs to neither, participants should simply wait for the next item to come on screen.

Procedure

Default GNAT Set-Up in this script:
(1) 3 training blocks: one training block each for categorizing targetA (signal: alcoholic drinks vs. noise: nonalcoholic drinks),
attributeA (signal: good vs. noise: bad), attributeB (signal: bad vs. noise: good)
with response timeout of 1000ms (editable under section Editable Values)
-> block order is determined randomly
-> run 20 trials each (10 target:10 noise)

(2) 2 test blocks that combine targets (here: alcoholic drinks) and attributes (either good or bad)
with a faster response timeout (default: 750ms)
-> block order of pairings is determined randomly
-> each block runs 16 'practice trials' followed by 60 test trials (summary variables based on test trial performance only)
-> signal : noise = 1 : 1

(3) 2 test blocks that combine targets (here: alcoholic drinks) and attributes (either good or bad)
with an even faster response timeout (default: 550ms)
-> block order of pairings is determined randomly
-> each block runs 16 'practice trials' followed by 60 test trials (summary variables based on test trial performance only)
-> signal : noise = 1 : 1


• Number of trials run as well as 'signal : noise' ratios can only be edited on block level (see section BLOCKS)

Stimuli

24 stimuli are used for signals (ALCOHOLIC DRINKS) and noise items.
Go to section Editable Stimuli to check out the stimuli.

the default set-up in this script uses alcoholic drinks as the signals and and non-alcoholic drinks as noise items.

Instructions

see section Editable Instructions

Summary Data

File Name: alcoholgnat_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
Parameter Values
responseTimeout2Signal Stores the response timeouts in ms used for signals in the first gnat round (2 blocks) in this script (default: 700ms)
responseTimeout2Noise Stores the response timeouts in ms used for noise in the first gnat round (2 blocks) in this script (default: 700ms)
responseTimeout3Signal Stores the response timeouts in ms used in this study for signals in the second gnat round (2 blocks) in this script (default: 550ms)
responseTimeout3Noise Stores the response timeouts in ms used for noise in the second gnat round (2 blocks) in this script (default: 550ms)
responsetimeouts1 (1000ms) are used for practice only
Performance Metrics
propCorrectAA Overall proportion correct for pairing targetA-attributeA (here: alcoholic drinks-good); test trials only
propCorrectABd Overall proportion correct for pairing targetA-attributeB (here: alcoholic drinks-bad); test trials only
AA Condition
signals = alcoholic or good stims
noise = anything else (non-alcoholic or bad stims)
rHitAA Hit rate for pairing targetA-attributeA across all responsetimeouts; test trials only
hit: pressing spacebar for signals (alcoholic OR good stims) in AA condition
rMissAA Miss rate for pairing targetA-attributeA across all responsetimeouts; test trials only
miss: not pressing spacebar for signals (alcoholic OR good stims) in AA condition
rFaAA False alarm (FA) rate for pairing targetA-attributeA across all responsetimeouts; test trials only
false alarm: pressing spacebar for noise stims (non alcoholic OR bad stims) in AA condition
rCrAA Correct rejection (CR) for pairing targetA-attributeA (here: alcoholic drinks-good) across all responsetimeouts; test trials only
cr: not pressing spacebar for noise stims (non alcoholic OR bad stims) in AA condition
zHitAA Z-score of hit rate for pairings targetA-attributeA (here: alcoholic drinks-good)
zFaAA Z-score of FA rate for pairings targetA-attributeA (here: alcoholic drinks-good)
*Adjustments to z-scores as recommended by
Gregg, A. & Sedikides, C. (2010). Narcissistic Fragility
Rethinking Its Links to Explicit and Implicit Self-esteem, Self and Identity, 9:2, 142-161 (p.148)
=> Adjustments are made if the FArate (hitRate) = 0 (increased to 0.005) or 1 (decreased to 0.995)*
dPrimeAA Computes d' (parametric measure of discriminability btw. signals and noise) for 'alcoholic drink-Good' Pairings
=> Range (in this script)
-5.1516586840152740479 <= dprime <= 5.1516586840152740479 (=perfect performance)
=> The higher the value, the better signals (go stims) were distinguished from noise (nogo stims)
(d' = 0: chance performance; negative d-primes: participant treated nontargets as targets and targets as nontargets)
cAA C-criterion in signal detection:The absolute value of c provides an indication of the strength of
the response bias/response style
negative: participant more likely to report that signal (go stims) is present (liberal response style)
may favor faster responding in speed-accuracy trade-off response paradigms
positive: favoring caution (conservative response style)
AB Condition
signals = alcoholic or bad stims
noise = anything else (non-alcoholic or good stims)
rHitAB Hit rate for pairing targetA-attributeB across all responsetimeouts; test trials only
hit: pressing spacebar for signals (alcoholic OR bad words) in AA condition
rMissAB Miss rate for pairing targetA-attributeB across all responsetimeouts; test trials only
miss: not pressing spacebar for signals (alcoholic OR bad words) in AA condition
rFaAB False alarm (FA) rate for pairing targetA-attributeB across all responsetimeouts; test trials only
false alarm: pressing spacebar for noise stims (non alcoholic OR good words) in AA condition
rCrAB Correct rejection (CR) for pairing targetA-attributeB across all responsetimeouts; test trials only
cr: not pressing spacebar for noise stims (non alcoholic OR good words) in AA condition
zHitAB Z-score of hit rate for pairings targetA-attributeA (here: alcoholic drinks-bad)
zFaAB Z-score of FA rate for pairings targetA-attributeA (here: alcoholic drinks-bad)
dPrimeAB Computes d' (parametric measure of discriminability btw. signals and noise) for 'alcoholic drink-bad' Pairings
cAB C-criterion for for 'alcoholic drink-bad' Pairings
dPrimeDiff The difference in dprimes for 'Alcohol-Good' and 'Alcohol-Bad' pairings (dPrimeAA-dPrimeAB)
=> if d prime for Alcohol-Good is larger than for Alcohol-Bad (positive difference)
participant more closely associated Alcohol with Good attributes than with Bad attributes,
(IF the noise category was 'non-alcoholic' beverages)
=> if d prime for Alcohol-Good is smaller than for Alcohol-Bad (negative difference)
participant more closely associated Alcohol with Bad attributes than with Good attributes,
(IF the noise category was 'non-alcoholic' beverages)

Raw Data

File Name: alcoholgnat_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
responseTimeoutTarget Time in ms that is allowed for response in a given target trial
responseTimeoutNoise Time in ms that is allowed for response in a given noise trial
signal 1 = signal trial (spacebar response is correct)
0 = noise trial (no response is correct)
phase "training" (one category) vs. "test" (two categories)
targetType "A"(here: A-alcoholic drinks)
pairing "AA" -> targetA-attributeA (here: alcoholic drinks and good)
"AB" -> targetA-attributeB (here: alcoholic drinks and bad)
trialType Training phase: "training"
test phase: "practice" vs. "test"
stimulusItem The presented stimulusitems in order of presentation in stimulusframes (see trials)
response Response made (either 57 = Spacebar or 0 for no response)
correct The accuracy of response (1 = correct; 0 = error)
latency The latency of the response in ms (or if no response: response timeout duration)

Parameters

The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.

NameDescriptionDefault
responseTimeout1Signal Stores the longest response timeouts in ms used in this study for targets
by default, the longest response timeout in this script is used for practice blocks
that test attributes and targets separately (default: 1000ms)
responseTimeout2Signal Stores the next response timeouts in ms used in this study for targets
by default, in this script this is the first response time used for blocks
that test attributes and targets simultaneously (default 750ms)
responseTimeout3Signal Stores the next response timeouts in ms used in this study for targets
by default, this is the second response time used for bloc
ks
that test attributes and targets simultaneously (default 550ms)
(same for noise trials: by default they are the same in this script)
isi Stores the interstimulus interval (time between offset of one stimulus and onset of next)