Millisecond Forums

+x

 

AnthonyFCollinsSussex - 3/4/2021

Hi there

I hope all is well. I am relatively new to Inquisit, albeit have some previous experience with using this software. However, I need just a little guidance on an experiment I am creating.

It is the Lexical Decision Task, but adapted (thus I have adapted the LDT script from the inquisit library).

Participants firstly read an ambiguous scenario (e.g. "You wait for your mark in anticipation, feeling a sense of..."). Once they have read it, they press spacebar, which triggers the next phase. In this next phase, participants' decide whether a single-target word is real or a nonword via keyboard response. Real words fit the context of the previous scenario and can be positive (e.g. "excitement") or negative (e.g. "dread"). It is thought that those responding quicker to positive words indicates a positive cognitive bias, whereas those responding quicker to negative words indicates a negative cognitive bias. At the end of some of these trials, a yes/no comprehension question is presented, just to ensure they maintain attention on the task at hand (e.g. "Are you waiting for your mark?") - therefore a given scenario has a comprehension question specific to its content, BUT a portion of scenarios also do not have a comprehension question at all, thus:

SCENARIO ---> TARGET LDT WORD/NONWORD ---> (Sometimes) COMPREHENSION QUESTION

there's 120 scenarios, 40 = disambiguated with positive targets (positive trial), 40 = disambiguated with negative targets (negative trial), 40 = disambiguated with non-words (letter strings/non-word trial).

There is then

<trial positive>
<trial negative>
<trial nonword>

It is important that each 'scenario' is precisely paired/mapped with its corresponding target word (either positive, negative or nonword - there will be counterbalancing and two sets, since each scenario has potentially both a positive & negative target word) as well as its comprehension question. Importantly, some of the comprehension questions require a YES response, others require a NO response.

Is there any nudge in a particular direction as to how best to set this up in a given trial? Given that each scenario must map on to its target word and (sometimes) comprehension question? I've plugged in all the stimuli, so that each item is in corresponding order. I would really appreciate any kind of advice for a less-than novice.

Thank you in advance, and yours sincerely
Anthony

+x

 

Dave - 3/4/2021

+x

 

AnthonyFCollinsSussex - 3/4/2021

Hi there

I hope all is well. I am relatively new to Inquisit, albeit have some previous experience with using this software. However, I need just a little guidance on an experiment I am creating.

It is the Lexical Decision Task, but adapted (thus I have adapted the LDT script from the inquisit library).

Participants firstly read an ambiguous scenario (e.g. "You wait for your mark in anticipation, feeling a sense of..."). Once they have read it, they press spacebar, which triggers the next phase. In this next phase, participants' decide whether a single-target word is real or a nonword via keyboard response. Real words fit the context of the previous scenario and can be positive (e.g. "excitement") or negative (e.g. "dread"). It is thought that those responding quicker to positive words indicates a positive cognitive bias, whereas those responding quicker to negative words indicates a negative cognitive bias. At the end of some of these trials, a yes/no comprehension question is presented, just to ensure they maintain attention on the task at hand (e.g. "Are you waiting for your mark?") - therefore a given scenario has a comprehension question specific to its content, BUT a portion of scenarios also do not have a comprehension question at all, thus:

SCENARIO ---> TARGET LDT WORD/NONWORD ---> (Sometimes) COMPREHENSION QUESTION

there's 120 scenarios, 40 = disambiguated with positive targets (positive trial), 40 = disambiguated with negative targets (negative trial), 40 = disambiguated with non-words (letter strings/non-word trial).

There is then

<trial positive>
<trial negative>
<trial nonword>

It is important that each 'scenario' is precisely paired/mapped with its corresponding target word (either positive, negative or nonword - there will be counterbalancing and two sets, since each scenario has potentially both a positive & negative target word) as well as its comprehension question. Importantly, some of the comprehension questions require a YES response, others require a NO response.

Is there any nudge in a particular direction as to how best to set this up in a given trial? Given that each scenario must map on to its target word and (sometimes) comprehension question? I've plugged in all the stimuli, so that each item is in corresponding order. I would really appreciate any kind of advice for a less-than novice.

Thank you in advance, and yours sincerely
Anthony

To pair scenarios with their respective comprehension questions, see the "how to present stimulus pairs" topic in the documentation. You can pair the applicable correct response (yes for some scenarios, no for others) in the same way to the respective scenario number in a <list>. For those scenarios that do not have a comprehension question attached to them, just use e.g. an empty string as the scenario's question and /skip the comprehension question trial on that basis.