Auditory Stroop Task - Gender

Technical Manual

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

Created: January 10, 2014

Last Modified: January 17, 2023 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC

Background

This script runs a Gender Auditory Stroop Procedure. The classic Stroop paradigm, using visual stimuli, demonstrates the interference of word meaning on naming the color in which the words are written as measured by reaction time/accuracy differences to color-meaning congruent and color-meaning incongruent combinations. The Gender Auditory Stroop Procedure tests the interference effect using auditory congruent and incongruent stimuli combinations.

The implemented procedure is based on:

Green, E.J. & Barber, P.J. (1981). An auditory Stroop effect with judgments of speaker gender. Perception &Psychophysics, 30, 459-466.

Duration

8 minutes

Description

Participants hear words spoken in a female or male voice and have to sort them according to speaker gender. Some words are stroop words ("man" vs. "girl") -words that have a relation to gender- some are control words ("mill" vs. "game") - words that have no relation to gender.

Control and stroop words are tested either in a mixed or in a blocked design depending on selected groupnumber:

Groupnumber1: runs mixed design with female on the left response key and male category on the right response key Groupnumber2: runs blocked design with female on the left response key and male category on the right response key Groupnumber3: runs mixed design with female on the right response key and male category on the left response key Groupnumber4: runs blocked design with female on the right response key and male category on the left response key

Procedure

within-participant: Stroop (gender-related) vs. Control (gender non-related) words
between-participant: mixed vs blocked presentation of stroop and control words (selected by groupnumber: odd -> mixed; even -> blocked)
blocked: block.Controlwords; block.StroopWords => each run the 4 stimuli x 6 repetitions (for a total of 2 x 24 = 48 trials)
the order of the blocks is randomly determined
mixed: block.GenderStroop (run twice) => each run 8 stimuli x 3 repetitions (for a total of 2 x 24 = 48 trials)

Responsekeyassignments are counterbalanced by groupnumber (more info under section EXPERIMENT):

Groupnumber1: runs mixed design with female on the left response key and male category on the right response key
Groupnumber2: runs blocked design with female on the left response key and male category on the right response key
Groupnumber3: runs mixed design with female on the right response key and male category on the left response key
Groupnumber4: runs blocked design with female on the right response key and male category on the left response key


Practice:
- Blocked: each test block is preceded by an 8-trial practice session (each word is presented twice)
- Mixed: one practice block of 16 trials before the test blocks

Trials:
each trial lasts 5s (soa = 5s btw onset of consecutive stimuli);
speed can be adjusted under Editable Parameters

Stimuli

Stroop Words: Man, Girl
Control Words: Mill, Game

Recordings are provided by Millisecond and were done by a single male and a
single female voice in Audacity (native speakers of American English)

The sound files can be exchanged under section Editable Stimuli

Instructions

Instructions are not original. They are provided by Millisecond and can be
edited under section Editable Instructions.

Summary Data

File Name: auditorystroop_Gender_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
presentation "mixed" vs. "blocked"
the distinction btw. congruent and incongruent control trials is arbitrary
as the words spoken have no female-male affiliation
list.accCStroop.itemCount Counts congruent Stroop trials
list.accIcStroop.itemCount Counts incongruent Stroop trials
list.accCCtrl.itemCount Counts congruent Control trials
list.accIcCtrl.itemCount Counts incongruent Control trials
propCorrectCongruentstroop Proportion correct congruent Stroop trials
propCorrectIncongruentstroop Proportion correct incongruent Stroop trials
propCorrectCongruentControl Proportion correct congruent Control trials
propCorrectIncongruentControl Proportion correct incongruent Control trials
meanrtCongruentstroop Mean latency (in ms) for correct congruent Stroop trials
meanrtIncongruentstroop Mean latency (in ms) for correct incongruent Stroop trials
meanrtCongruentControl Mean latency (in ms) for correct congruent Control trials
meanrtIncongruentControl Mean latency (in ms) for correct incongruent Control trials

Raw Data

File Name: auditorystroop_Gender_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
presentation "mixed" vs. "blocked"
condition "Stroop" vs. "Control"
gender "male" vs. "female" recording voice
congruency "congruent" vs. "incongurent" (for control words this distinction is pseudo-congruency)
stimulusItem The presented stimuli in order of trial presentation
response The participant's response (scancode of response button)
30 = left
38 = right
0 = no response
responseCategory The interpreted key response
"female"
"male"
"no response"
correct The correctness of the response (1 = correct; 0 = incorrect)
latency The response latency (in ms); measured from onset of spoken word

Parameters

The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.

NameDescriptionDefault
responseKeyLeft The left response key ("A")
responseKeyRight The right response key ("L")
soa Stimulus onset asynchrony: time between onset of one stimulus and the onset of the next
in ms (default: 5000) -> every 5 s a new word is spoken.
getReadyDuration The duration (in ms) of the get-ready-trial 5000ms