Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Created: January 05, 2025
Last Modified: January 11, 2025 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC
This script implements the Relational Responding Task (RRT), a task proposed by De Houwer et al (2015) to measure implicit beliefs with the potential to capture differences in how cognitively paired categories are related to each other.
Take for example the categories "I" and "physical exercise". These might be closely related concepts in one's mind, however, the underlying relationship might be 'want to' vs. 'need to' which may have different consequences for actual behavior.
The RRT uses latency measures and forces people to categorize actual statements according to pre-determined rules that they may or may not agree with. Between blocks, the rule changes to the opposite one (e.g. from 'boys are smarter than girls' to 'girls are smarter than boys') and the difference in response behavior under these two opposing rules is assumed to give information about the underlying belief of the participant.
De Houwer, J., Heider, N., Spruyt, A., Roets, A. and Hughes, S. (2015). The relational responding task: toward a new implicit measure of beliefs. Frontiers in Psychology. 6: 319.https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00319.
D-score algorithm: Greenwald, A. G., Nosek, B. A., & Banaji, M. R. (2003). Understanding and Using the Implicit Association Test: I. An Improved Scoring Algorithm. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 197-216.
8 minutes
In this template task, participants work on statements that align with two opposing rules:
Examples: RULE1: "flowers are more beautiful than insects" vs. RULE2: "insects are more beautiful than flowers".
After a practice blocks during which participants practice the assigned response keys for 'true' vs. 'false' (inducer trials), participants work on evaluating the truth of statements such as "flowers are prettier than insects" first under RULE1 and then under RULE2.
Inducer trials are interspersed with statement trials during the test blocks to discourage response recoding (e.g.,in terms of physical location).
Block 1 (inducerPractice): Key Assignment Practice for TRUE and FALSE ('Inducer Stimuli')
- participants see synonyms for 'true' and 'false' and have to respond as quickly as
possible by pressing the assigned keys for true (default: Q) and false (default: P)
- 10 trials for synonyms for 'true'
- 10 trials for synonyms for 'false'
=> order is randomly determined
Block 2 (rule1Practice): Practice for Statement Evaluation under RULE1 (here: "flowers are more beautiful than insects")
- 10 statements that should be evaluated as 'true' (Rule1 consistent)
- 10 statements that should be evaluated as 'false' (Rule2 consistent)
=> order is randomly determined
Block 3 (rule1Test): Test for RULE1
- 10 statements that should be evaluated as 'true' (Rule1 consistent)
- 10 statements that should be evaluated as 'false' (Rule2 consistent)
- 10 true 'inducer' stimuli
- 10 false 'inducer' stimuli
=> order is randomly determined
Block 4 (rule1Test): Test for RULE1 ( same as Block 3)
- 10 statements that should be evaluated as 'true' (Rule1 consistent)
- 10 statements that should be evaluated as 'false' (Rule2 consistent)
- 10 true 'inducer' stimuli
- 10 false 'inducer' stimuli
=> order is randomly determined
Block 5 (rule2Practice): Practice for Statement Evaluation under RULE2 (here: "insects are more beautiful than flowers")
- 10 statements that should be evaluated as 'true' (Rule2 consistent)
- 10 statements that should be evaluated as 'false' (Rule1 consistent)
=> order is randomly determined
Block 6 (rule2Test): Test for RULE2
- 10 statements that should be evaluated as 'true' (Rule2 consistent)
- 10 statements that should be evaluated as 'false' (Rule1 consistent)
- 10 true 'inducer' stimuli
- 10 false 'inducer' stimuli
=> order is randomly determined
Block 7 (rule2Test): Test for RULE2 ( same as Block6)
- 10 statements that should be evaluated as 'true' (Rule2 consistent)
- 10 statements that should be evaluated as 'false' (Rule1 consistent)
- 10 true 'inducer' stimuli
- 10 false 'inducer' stimuli
=> order is randomly determined
provided by Millisecond - can be edited in script "rrt_stims_inc.iqjs"
Rule1 and Rule2 can also be found in "rrt_stims_inc.iqjs"
provided by Millisecond - can be edited in script "rrt_instructions_inc.iqjs"
File Name: rrt_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 |
| rule1 | The tested rule1 |
| rule2 | The tested rule2 |
The Calculation Of The Drrt Score For The First Blocks For Each Rules (Block 3/6) |
|
| meanRTRule1B1 | Mean correct response time (in ms) of responding to statements under RULE1 in block3 |
| meanRTRule2B1 | Mean correct response time (in ms) of responding to statements under RULE2 in block6 |
| sdRTB1 | Pooled variance |
| dRRT1 | Calculated difference score = (meanRTRule2B1-meanRTRule1B1)/sdRTB1 positive: rule1 responding faster negative: rule2 responding faster |
The Calculation Of The Drrt Score For The Second Blocks For Each Rules (Block 4/7) |
|
| meanRTRule1B2 | Mean correct response time (in ms) of responding to statements under RULE1 in block4 |
| meanRTRule2B2 | Mean correct response time (in ms) of responding to statements under RULE2 in block7 |
| sdRTB2 | Pooled variance |
| dRRT2 | Calculated difference score = (meanRTRule2B2-meanRTRule1B2)/sdRTB2 positive: rule1 responding faster negative: rule2 responding faster |
| dRRT | The non-weighted mean of the two dRRT scores positive: rule1 responding faster negative: rule2 responding faster |
| percentCorrect | The overall percent correct score of initial responses in test trials of D-score qualifying latencies |
| propRT300 | The proportion of response latencies < 300ms |
| excludeCriteriaMet | 1 = yes, exclusion supported per Greenwald et al for the IAT (2003, p.214, Table 4) More than 10% of all response latencies are faster than 300ms 0 = otherwise |
File Name: rrt_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. |
| blockCounter | Tracks the number of blocks run |
| trialCounterPerBlock | Tracks the number of trials per block run |
| phase | Practice vs. test |
| blockType | First or second block tested for the current rule (test only) |
| rule | Current rule tested (1 or 2) |
| stimType | 1 = true stim (inducer) 2 = false stim (inducer) 3 = rule1 consistent stim 4 = rule2 consistent stim |
| corrResponse | Stores the correct response key for the current trial |
| stimulusitem | Presented stimuli |
| response | The response of participant (scancode of response button) |
| responseText | The label of the response key pressed |
| correct | Correctness of INITIAL response (1 = correct, 0 = error) errors need to be corrected before trial terminates but the initial response accuracy is noted in the data file |
| latency | Response latency (in ms) of CORRECT response; measured from: onset of stims errors need to be corrected before trial terminates |
The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.
| Name | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
Sizing |
||
| stimHeight | The proportional size of the verbal stims (proportional to canvas height) | 5% |
Responsekeys |
||
| leftResponseKey | The dedicated left response key (left on QWERTY keyboard) | "Q" |
| rightResponseKey | The dedicated right response key (right on QWERTY keyboard) | "P:" |
Assignment Of The Left And Right Response Keys To Be The 'True' And 'False' Keys |
||
| trueResponseKey | True responses: left response key (here: Q) | parameters.leftResponseKey |
| falseResponseKey | False responses: right respone key (here: P) | parameters.rightResponseKey |