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Single Category (SC) Implicit Attitude Test (IAT)
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Main Inquisit programming: Sean Draine (seandr@millisecond.com)
last updated: 07-18-2023 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC
Script Copyright © 07-18-2023 Millisecond Software
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BACKGROUND INFO
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The SC-IAT script is based on:
Karpinski, A. & Steinman, R.B. (2006). The Single Category Implicit Association Test as a Measure of Implicit
Social Cognition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 16–32.
and the general IAT.iqjs script published by Millisecond Software LLC
Differences btw. this script and Karpinski & Steinman (2006)
- error responses in this script need to be corrected before moving on
- no response window:
stimuli stay on screen until a correct response is given. A reminder to "respond more quickly" is
optional if latencies exceed a certain limit (see section "Editable Parameters" for more info)
- no error response correction necessary for d-score calculation as error responses needed to be corrected
before moving on (therefore an error penalty was added automatically to each error latency)
IAT-Background Info:
The Implicit Association Task (Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998) is a widely-used cognitive-behavioral paradigm
that measures the strength of automatic (implicit) associations between concepts in people’s minds relying
on latency measures in a simple sorting task.
The strength of an association between concepts is measured by the standardized mean difference score of
the 'hypothesis-inconsistent' pairings and 'hypothesis-consistent' pairings (d-score) (Greenwald, Nosek, & Banaji, 2003).
In general, the higher the d-score the stronger is the association between the 'hypothesis-consistent' pairings
(decided by researchers). Negative d-scores suggest a stronger association between the 'hypothesis-inconsistent' pairings.
Inquisit calculates d-scores using the improved scoring algorithm as described in Greenwald et al (2003).
Error trials are handled by requiring respondents to correct their responses according to recommendation (p.214).
This differs slightly from Karpinski & Steinman (2006) who removed noResponse trials from d-score calculations and
replaced error responses with the mean latency + 400ms penalty.
D-scores obtained with this script:
positive D-scores: positive attitude towards animals
negative D-scores: negative attitude towards animals
References:
Greenwald, A. G., McGhee, D. E., & Schwartz, J. K. L. (1998). Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition:
The Implicit Association Test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1464-1480.
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.
Karpinski, A. & Steinman, R.B. (2006). The Single Category Implicit Association Test as a Measure of Implicit
Social Cognition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 16–32.
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TASK DESCRIPTION
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Participants are asked to categorize attributes (e.g. "joyful"; "tragic") and animal names
into predetermined categories via keystroke presses. The basic task is to press a left key (E) if an item (e.g. "joyful")
belongs to the category presented on the left (e.g. "Animal OR Good") and to press the right key (I) if the word (e.g. "tragic")
belongs to the category presented on the right ("Bad") . Pairings are reversed for a second test:
press a left key (E) if an item (e.g. "joyful") belongs to the category presented on the left (e.g. "Good") and to press
the right key (I) if the word (e.g. "tragic") belongs to the category presented on the right ("Animal OR Bad").
The order of the pairings is counterbalanced by groupnumber.
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DURATION
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the default set-up of the script takes appr. 5 minutes to complete
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DATA OUTPUT DICTIONARY
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(1) Raw data file: 'singlecategoryiat_raw*.iqdat' (a separate file for each participant)
build: The specific Inquisit version used (the 'build') that was run
computer.platform: the platform the script was run on (win/mac/ios/android)
date, time: date and time script was run
subject, group: with the current subject/groupnumber
Note: odd/even groupnumbers balance the order in which
hypothesis-compatible/incompatible blocks are run
odd = compatible - incompatible
even = incompatible - compatible
session: with the current session id
blockCode, blockNum: the name and number of the current block (built-in Inquisit variable)
trialCode, trialNum: the name and number of the currently recorded trial (built-in Inquisit variable)
Note: trialNum is a built-in Inquisit variable; it counts all trials run;
even those that do not store data to the data file such as feedback trials
conditionOrder: c-ic: consistent -> inconsistent
ic-c: inconsistent -> consistent
response: scancode of the response key pressed (e.g. 18='E' or 23='I')
Note: script saves the final and -by design- correct response for each trial
correct: the accuracy of the initial response
0 = initial response was incorrect and needed to be corrected
1 = initial response is correct
latency: the latency of the final (correct) response in ms; measured from onset of stim
stimulusNumber: the number of the current stimulus
stimulusItem: the currently presented item
(2) Summary data file: 'singlecategoryiat_summary*.iqdat' (a separate file for each participant)
inquisit.version: Inquisit version run
computer.platform: the platform the script was run on (win/mac/ios/android)
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 = script was not completed (prematurely aborted);
1 = script was completed (all conditions run)
conditionOrder: c-ic: consistent -> inconsistent
ic-c: inconsistent -> consistent
m1: mean latencies (in ms) of correct responses in compatible block
sd1: standard deviation of latencies of correct responses in compatible block
m2: mean latencies (in ms) of correct responses in compatible block
sd2: standard deviation of latencies of correct responses in compatible block
latdiff: difference between mean latencies in incompatible and compatible block
d: d-score; main DV
Suggested Interpretation:
D-score <= -0.65 => "a strong" preference for hypothesis-NONconforming pairings
D-score < -0.35 => "a moderate" preference for hypothesis-NONconforming pairings
D-score < -0.15 => "a slight" preference for hypothesis-NONforming pairings
-0.15 <= D-score <= 0.15 "little to no" preference
D-score > 0.15 => "a slight" preference for hypothesis-conforming pairings
D-score > 0.35 => "a moderate" preference for hypothesis-conforming pairings
D-score >= 0.65 => "a strong" preference for hypothesis-conforming pairings
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 suggested by Greenwald et al (2003, p.214, Table 4):
More than 10% of all response latencies are faster than 300ms
0 = otherwise
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EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP
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a) Block Practice Compatible* (24 trials); responses not counted towards D-score
b) Block Compatible (72 trials)
c) Block Practice InCompatible (24 trials); responses not counted towards D-score
d) Block InCompatible (72 trials)
*order compatible - incompatible counterbalanced by groupnumber
=> one D-score is determined
TRIALS
After a pretrialpause of 250ms (default, editable), stimuli are presented until correct response is given.
In contrast to Karpinski & Steinman (2006), participants have to correct error responses and stimulus stays
on screen until response is corrected.
If latencies exceed a certain limit, a reminder to "respond more quickly" is optional in this script
(see Editable Values for more info).
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STIMULI
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- 21 words for Attribute Categories Good/Bad
- 8 words for target category (here: insects)
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INSTRUCTIONS
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Instructions can be edited under section Editable Instructions
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EDITABLE CODE
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check below for (relatively) easily editable parameters, stimuli, instructions etc.
Keep in mind that you can use this script as a template and therefore always "mess" with the entire code
to further customize your experiment.
The parameters you can change are:
/showSummaryFeedback: set parameter showsummaryfeedback = true to display summary feedback to participants at the end (default)
set parameter showsummaryfeedback = false if no summary feedback should be presented to participants
/pretrialPause: pause before stimuli presentation (default: 250ms)
/showReminder: true = shows a reminder to respond faster if latencies exceeds a predetermined latency
Note: Karpinsky & Steinman (2006) call using a reminder "largly window dressing" but that the response window (in this script: a pseudo response window) might create a "sense of urgency" (p.18)
false = does not show reminder to respond more quickly (default in this script)
/reminderRT: if response latency is larger than reminderRT, a reminder is presented to respond faster (if parameters.showreminder = true)
Note: error responses have to be corrected in this script; this will add ms to their response latencies
/reminderDuration: time that the reminder to respond more quickly stays on the screen (default: 500ms)
