Anagrams Test

Technical Manual

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

Created: January 01, 2020

Last Modified: January 18, 2025 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC

Background

This script implements a simple Anagram Test procedure

References

The task is not based on one particular publication

Duration

7 minutes.

Description

Participants are asked to solve 5 easy and 5 difficult anagrams (order of easy and difficult anagrams is fixed). They have 2 minutes per anagram and can enter as many solutions as they want during that time frame. A correct solution will terminate the current anagram and automatically present the next one. If participants run out of time, the next anagram is presented automatically. Participants can skip any anagram at any point, by entering 'SKIP' into the textbox.

Procedure

Anagram 1, 2, 5, 8, 10 randomly sample without replacement from the 5 easy anagrams.
Anagram 3, 4, 6, 7, 9 randomly sample without replacement from the 5 difficult anagrams.

Eachh anagram has 2 minutes.
=> if participant enters an incorrect solution: feedback is given, the last suggested solution is cleared out
and participant can make another attempt
=> if participant enters the correct solution: feedback is given and the next anagram is presented automatically
=> if participant runs out of time: the next anagram is automatically provided with the note 'ok - let's try this one instead'
=> if participant enters 'skip' at any point: no feedback is provided and the next anagram is presented immediately

Stimuli

provided by Millisecond - can be edited under section Editable Stimuli

Instructions

provided by Millisecond - can be edited under section Editable Instructions

Summary Data

File Name: anagramtask_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 script was run
starttime Time script was started
subjectid Assigned subject id number
groupid Assigned group id number
sessionid Assigned session id number
elapsedtime Time it took to run script (in ms); measured from onset to offset of script
completed 0 = Test was not completed
1 = Test was completed
countSkipsEasy Counts the number of times participant entered 'SKIP' for an easy anagram
meanAttemptsEasy Mean number of solutions provided for easy anagrams (includes anagrams that were 'skipped' at some point)
propCorrectEasy Proportion correctly solved easy anagrams
meanRTEasy Mean time (ms) participant spent on easy anagrams
meanCorrRTEasy Mean time (ms) participant spent on easy anagrams that were solved correctly
countSkipsDifficult Counts the number of times participant entered 'SKIP' for an difficult anagram
meanAttemptsDifficult Mean number of solutions provided for difficult anagrams (includes anagrams that were 'skipped' at some point)
propCorrectDifficult Proportion correctly solved difficult anagrams
meanRTDifficult Mean time (ms) participant spent on difficult anagrams
meanCorrRTDifficult Mean time (ms) participant spent on difficult anagrams that were solved correctly

Raw Data

File Name: anagramtask_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.
response The participant's response (scancode of response buttons) in the current trials
this script only writes data to the datafile when the end of a an anagram trial sequence
has been reached. These 'summary data trials' don't collect any input from participants.
See below for entered solutions and response time data
correct Accuracy of response: 1 = correct response; 0 = otherwise
latency The response latency (in ms); measured from: onset of trial
anagramCondition 'easy' vs. 'difficult
anagramIndex The itemnumber of the current anagram
anagram The presented anagram
suggestedSolutions Collects all suggested solutions for an anagram
lastSuggestedSolution The last suggested solution
if a participant enteres 'SKIP', the last suggested solution will be empty by default
(however suggestedSolutions will contain all suggested solutions collected up to this point)
correctSolution The correct solution for each anagram
anagramAcc 1 = final suggested solution is correct; 2 = final suggested solution is incorrect
anagramRT The cumulative time (in ms) that participants spent on solving each anagram
skip 1 = participant entered 'SKIP' into the textbox; 0 = participant did not enter 'SKIP'
countAttempts The number of suggested solutions per anagram

Parameters

The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.

NameDescriptionDefault
anagramTimeout The max. duration (in ms) a participant has to solve a given anagram 120000
feedbackDuration The duration (in ms) that the feedback items stay on screen1000