Last Modified: January 04, 2024 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC
This script implements the Auditory Oddball Task, an auditory go/nogo task to measure attention and cognitive control.
The implemented procedure is based on:
Williams, L.M., Simms, E., Clark, C.R., & Paul, R. H. (2005). The test-retest reliability of a standardized neurocognitive and neurophysiological test battery: "neuromarker". International Journal of Neuroscience, 115, 1605-30.
The script uses baseline tones of 500hz and oddball tones of 1000hz. TTL Marker signals indicating stimulus onset, type of stimulus, and response times are sent to the parallel port for purposes of synchronizing with EEG/ERP measures.
Marker Values: 1 = onset of oddball signal 2 = onset of baseline signal 3 = onset of response (if any)
4 minutes
Participants listen to a random sequence of 2 different beeps. They are asked to press the Spacebar whenever they hear the high tone (go trial) and refrain from doing anything if they hear the low tone (nogo trial).
1 Testblock of 200 trials: 24 oddball signals (go trials), 176 baseline (nogo trials)
-> order is randomized (constraint: no consecutive oddball trials, if at all possible)
-> trials last 1000ms (default, editable value) with 100ms of that time dedicated to trialCleanUp (default, editable value)
(thus the effective response timeout is: 1000ms-100ms = 900ms)
oddball signal: 1000Hz sound
baseline signal: 500Hz sound
sound files can be edited under section Editable Stimuli
can be edited under section Editable Instructions
File Name: auditoryoddballtask_summary*.iqdat
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| list.acc.mean | The overall proportion correct |
| numberGoTrials | Number of Go trials ('oddball') in the test block |
| numberNoGoTrials | Number of Nogo trials ('baseline') in the test block |
| list.hitRTs.mean | Mean hit latency (in ms) *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) |
| hitRate | Calculates the hitrate (proportion of correctly hitting the spacebar for oddball-trials) |
| missRate | The calculated missrate (1-hitrate) |
| faRate | Calculates the commission error rate (proportion of incorrectly hitting the spacebar for baseline-trials) |
| corrRejectRate | The calculated correct rejection rate (1-commission rate) |
| zHitRate* | Calculates the z-score for the hitrate. Adjustments are made if the hitrate = 0 (increased to 0.005) or 1 (decreased to 0.995)* |
| zFARate* | Calculates the z-score for the false alarm rate. Adjustments are made if the FArate = 0 (increased to 0.005) or 1 (decreased to 0.995)* |
| dPrime | Computes d' (parametric measure of discriminability btw. signals and noise) => Range (in this script) -5.1516586840152740479 <= dprime <= 5.1516586840152740479 (=perfect performance) => The higher the value, the better signals (oddballs) were overall distinguished from noise (baseline) (d' = 0: chance performance; negative d-primes: participant treated nontargets as targets and targets as nontargets) |
| c | 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) |
File Name: auditoryoddballtask_raw*.iqdat
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| lastTrial | The name of the trial |
| stimulustItem.1 | The presented sound file |
| response | The participant's response: scancode of key response 57 = spacebar 0 = no response |
| responseCategory | Hit: pressing spacebar for oddball sounds (targets) omission error: not pressing spacebar for oddball sounds (targets) corrReject: not pressing spacebar for baseline sounds (nontargets) commission error: pressing spacebar for baseline sounds (nontargets) |
| correct | The correctness of the response (1 = correct; 0 = incorrect) |
| latency | The response latency (in ms); measured from onset of sound file => for no responses, the latency is the max response timeout = 900ms |
| list.fas.mean | Proportion of commission errors (pressing spacebar for a non oddball event) |
The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.
| Name | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| trialDuration | The trial duration in ms => every 1s, a new sound file is started | 1000ms |
| trialCleanupTime | The duration at the end of the trial duration (in ms) explicitly allocated to stimulus clean-up etc. (default: 100ms) => the effective response timeout is = trialduration - trialCleanupTime = 1000ms - 100ms = 900ms |