Last Modified: January 22, 2026 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC
This script implements an Aggression Themed Emotional Stroop task. The classic Stroop paradigm demonstrates the interference of word meaning on naming the color in which the words are written as measured by reaction time differences to color-meaning congruent and color-meaning incongruent combinations. The Aggression Stroop takes advantage of this basic Stroop interference effect by comparing reaction times to aggression related words, positive and negative words and neutral words.
The implemented procedure is based on Smith & Waterman (2003) and uses keyboard input instead of voice recordings.
Smith, P. & Waterman, M. (2003). Processing bias for aggression words in forensic and nonforensic samples. Cognition and Emotion, 17, 681-701.
5 minutes
Participants are presented words from 5 different categories (aggression, neutral, positive, negative, color word) in four different colors (blue, red, yellow, green) and are asked to press one of four response keys to indicate the color of the words regardless of their meaning.
1. Practice Block: 10 trials (not original; this script uses the words "one" to "ten" as practice stimuli)
2. Test Block: 125 trials (= 5 categories x 25 trials); trials are randomly sampled
without replacement
• error feedback given; to remove follow instructions under section TRIALS
• original stimuli by Smith & Waterman (2003)
(due to a potential typo in the original article one word appeared
under two categories (Appendix2); we replaced it with a word that is similar in length and appearance
=> section Editable STIMULI-> Negative Words)
• each color appears 6 times in each category (the 7th pairing of word-color is random)
• color words "red", "yellow", "blue" and "green" are not used as targets
• 5 color words are repeats (see Smith & Waterman, 2003)
Instructions are not original to the task. They are provided by Millisecond
and can be edited in script "emotionalstroopwithkeyboardinput_instructions_inc.iqjs"
File Name: emotionalstroopwithkeytboardinput_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 |
| propCorrectNeu | Proportion correct responses for Neutral words |
| propCorrectAgg | Proportion correct responses for Aggression words |
| propCorrectCol | Proportion correct responses for Color words |
| propCorrectNeg | Proportion correct responses for Negative words |
| propCorrectPos | Proportion correct responses for Positive words |
| meanrtNeu | Mean latencies (in ms) for correct responses for Neutral words |
| meanrtAgg | Mean latencies (in ms) for correct responses for Aggression words |
| meanrtCol | Mean latencies (in ms) for correct responses for Color words |
| meanrtNeg | Mean latencies (in ms) for correct responses for Negative words |
| meanrtPos | Mean latencies (in ms) for correct responses for Positive words |
| biasAgg | Bias Score for Aggression Word: Difference between mean latency in categories Aggression and category Neutral (category mean latencies are subtracted from mean latency of Neutral condition) => positive scores: meaning of aggression words interfered more than meaning of neutral words on color categorization task |
| biasCol | Bias Score for Color Words |
| biasNeg | Bias Score for Negative Words |
| biasPos | Bias Score for Positive Words |
File Name: emotionalstroopwithkeytboardinput_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. |
| target | The currently selected target word |
| color | The currently selected color |
| response | The participant's key response (scancode of response button) scancode/label for the red response button (default: 32 -> d) scancode/label for the green response button (default: 33 -> f) scancode/label for the blue response button (default: 36 -> j) scancode/label for the yellow response button (default: 37 -> k) |
| responseText | The label of the pressed response button |
| responseCategory | The interpreted key response "red" "green" "blue" "yellow" |
| correct | The correctness of the response (1 = correct; 0 = incorrect) |
| latency | The response latency (in ms); measured from onset of word |
The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.
| Name | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
Timing Parameters |
||
| fixationCrossPresentationTime | Time (in ms) that fixation cross is presented | 500 |
Response Keys |
||
| keyRed | The red response button | "D" |
| keyGreen | The green response button | "F" |
| keyBlue | The blue response button | "J" |
| keyYellow | The yellow response button | "K" |