Production Effect

Technical Manual

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

Created: January 26, 2023

Last Modified: January 10, 2025 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC

Background

This script implements Millisecond's version of the Production Effect Task which studies the advantage of reading stimuli aloud (as opposed to reading them silently) during study on later memory recognition.

References

MacLeod, C. M., Gopie, N., Hourihan, K. L., Neary, K. R., & Ozubko, J. D. (2010). The Production Effect: Delineation of a Phenomenon. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 36(3), 671–685. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018785

Word Stimuli Taken From:
MacDonald, P. A., & MacLeod, C. M. (1998). The influence of attention at encoding on direct and indirect remembering. Acta Psychologica, 98, 291–310.

Duration

8 minutes

Description

Participants work through 3 experimental stages: 1. Study: During study, participants are asked to read ALOUD words printed in blue color but read words printed in white color silently.

2. Test1: Participants are asked to do a speed reading task on half of the studied words (as well as on a subset of new words) to study priming effects.

3. Test2: Participants work on a recognition task. The other half of the studied words as well as another subset of new words are presented one word at a time and participants have to decide whether they have seen the word during study (YES) or not (NO).

Procedure

Participant work through 3 phases

1. Phase (Study):
- 80 words (40 presented in blue to be read ALOUD; 40 presented in white to be ready SILENTLY);
each word is presented once
- the order of the words is randomized for each participant

•Trial Sequence
-blue words: blue word is presented until the participant starts reading it ALOUD -> 500ms blank screen
( Inquisit does not automatically check that the word that participants say is the word presented.
However, Inquisit saves a record of each uttered word)

-white words: white word is presented for 2000ms -> 500ms blank screen
( Inquisit does not automatically check that participants do not read the white words out aloud.
However, Inquisit saves records of uttered words made during the word presentation time for a possible manual check)


2. Phase (Test1: Speed Reading)
- 40 study words (20 presented in blue during study; 20 presented in white during study)
- 20 new words
- all words are presented in yellow font
- order of the words is randomized for each participant

•Trial Sequence
word is presented until the participants start reading it ALOUD -> 500ms blank screen


3. Phase (Test2: Recognition)
- 40 study words (20 presented in blue during study; 20 presented in white during study)
- 20 new words
- all words are presented in yellow font
- order of the words is randomized for each participant
none of the words presented during phase2 (speed reading)

•Trial Sequence
word is presented until key response -> 500ms blank screen


Word-Phase Assignment
At the start of the script, the script randomly assigns the provided 120 words as follows:

20 blue study words that re-appear in test1 (speed reading)
20 blue study words that re-appear in test2 (recognition)
20 white study words that re-appear in test1 (speed reading)
20 white study words that re-appear in test2 (recognition)
-------------------------------------------
80 study words


20 'new' words to appear only in test1 (speed reading)
20 'new' words to appear only in test2 (recognition)
-------------------------------------------
40 new words

Stimuli

120 Word Stimuli taken from the appendix of MacDonald & McLeod (1998):

MacDonald, P. A., & MacLeod, C. M. (1998). The influence of attention
at encoding on direct and indirect remembering. Acta Psychologica, 98,
291–310.

=> can be edited under section 'Editable Stimuli'

Instructions

provided by Millisecond - can be edited under section 'Editable Instructions'

Scoring

Recorded Soundfiles:
•voiceRecords: these are sound records that record participants' utterances in trials during which they are
supposed to utter the presented words

•soundcaptures: these are sound records that record participants' utterances in trials during which they
are supposed to silently read the items. These soundcaptures can be turned off under trial.study_instruct2

=> the couple of digits in the soundfile names reference the 'trialNum' during which they were recorded

Summary Data

File Name: productioneffect_summary*.iqdat

Data Fields

NameDescription
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
Speed Reading (Test1)
test1ProductionEffect The difference in ms (SILENT - ALOUD) in onset reading time of words (onset reading time = time btw. word onset and reading response onset)
=> positive: ALOUD words have a faster onset reading time
=> negative: ALOUD words have a slower onset reading time
McLeod et al (2010) did NOT find a production Effect of words read ALOUD in this implicit test
words that were read aloud did NOT have a faster onset time than words that were read silently during study
test1MeanRTInstruct1 The onset reading time (in ms) of study words that were read ALOUD
test1MeanRTInstruct2 The onset reading time (in ms) of study words that were read SILENTLY
test1MeanRTNew The onset reading time (in ms) of new (non-study) words
Recognition Test (Test2): Analyses Of Yes ('Yes, That Was A Study Word') Responses
test2ProductionEffect The difference in proportion YES-responses (ALOUD - SILENT)
=> positive: ALOUD words were recognized more than SILENT study words
=> negative: ALOUD words were recognized less than SILENT study words
test2PropYesInstruct1 The proportion YES-responses for study words that were read ALOUD
test2PropYesInstruct2 The proportion YES-responses for study words that were read SILENTLY
test2PropYesNew The proportion YES-responses for new (non-study) words

Raw Data

File Name: productioneffect_raw*.iqdat

Data Fields

NameDescription
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 1 = study; 2 = test1 (speed reading); 3 = test2 (recognition test)
trialCounterPerPhase TrialCounter per phase
expCondition 1 = study word; 2 = new word (not used during study)
instructCondition 1 = read aloud study word (in blue); 2 = read silently study word (in white)
testingCondition 1 = word is assigned to test1 (speed reading); 2 = word is assigned to test2 (recognition test)
itemNumber The itemnumber of the currently presented word
word The actual word presented
color The color the word is presented in
stimulusItem Presented stimuli
response The response of participant (scancode of response button)
responseText Label of pressed response key
correct Correctness of response (1 = correct, 0 = error)
latency Response latency (in ms); measured from: onset of word

Parameters

The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.

NameDescriptionDefault
Design
numberOfTrialsPerStudyCondition Number of trials per condition
'condition' here refers to
blue words (instruct1) used for speed reading (test1)
blue words (instruct1) used for recognition (test2)
white words (instruct2) used for speed reading (test1)
white words (instruct2) used for recognition (test2)
the number of words listed under item.words should be equal to
= 4*numberOfTrialsPerStudyCondition + 2*numberOfTrialsPerStudyCondition
= 6*numberOfTrialsPerStudyCondition
20
Colorassignment Parameter
color1Study The color assigned to the active/read aloud study words (during study phase)"blue"
color2Study The color assigned to the passive/read silently study words (during study phase)"white"
colorTest The word color during test1/test2
if the colors are changed, the instruction image may have to be changed accordingly
"yellow"
Sizing Parameters
wordHeightPct The relative (to canvas) size of the presented words10%
Timing Parameters
studyDurationMS The duration (in ms) of the 'silent' study words2000
studyItiMS The duration (in ms) of the blank intertrial interval during the study phase500
test1ItiMS The duration (in ms) of the blank intertrial interval during the test1 (speed reading) phase500
test2ItiMS The duration (in ms) of the blank intertrial interval during the test2 (recognition) phase500
Recognition Responsekeys
yesResponseKey Assigned key to the YES-response"Y"
noResponseKey Assigned key to the NO-response"N"
Miscellaneous
showResponseReminder True: show a response (key) reminder for test2 (recognition test) trials
false: do not show a response (key) reminder
true