Letter Cancellation Task

Technical Manual

Script Author: David Nitz, Millisecond

For questions about this script, please contact support@millisecond.com.

Created: January 31, 2023

Last Modified: January 05, 2025 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Background

This script implements a letter cancellation task similar to and inspired by the procedure described in Pahor et al (2022). The task is intended as a simple, modern alternative to the classic, commercial d2 / d2-C / d2-R family of attention-concentration tests (Brickenkamp & Zilmer, 1998).

The procedure is optimized and primarily intended for use on touch-screen devices (tablets), but can be completed using the mouse on regular Windows / Mac desktop or laptop computers as well.

NOTE: While the task implemented here is similar to the UCancellation Letters variant, it is NOT and is NOT SUPPOSED to be a 1:1 clone of UCancellation Letters. Among other things, the task differs in visual presentation, configuration options, data file structure, and some aspects of the practice phase.

References

Pahor, A., Mester R.E, Carrillo A.A., Ghil E., Reimer J.F., Jaeggi S.M., Seitz A.R. (2022). UCancellation: A new mobile measure of selective attention and concentration. Behavior Research Methods. 54(5), 2602-2617. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-021-01765-5

Collins, C.L., Pina, A., Carrillo, A., Ghil, E., Smith-Peirce, R.N., Gomez, M., Okolo, P., Chen, Y., Pahor, A., Jaeggi, S.M., Seitz, A.R. (2022). Video-Based Remote Administration of Cognitive Assessments and Interventions: a Comparison with In-Lab Administration. Journal of Cognitive Enhancement. 6(3), 316-326. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41465-022-00240-z

Brickenkamp, R., & Zilmer, E. (1998). d2 Test of Attention (d2) [Database record]. APA PsycTests. https://doi.org/10.1037/t03299-000

Duration

7 minutes

Description

Rows of 8 letters are presented on-screen. Letters are either targets ("d"s with two marks) or distractors ("d"s with fewer or more than two marks, "p"s with any number of marks). Participants are instructed to select the targets in each row from left to right and to ignore the distractors. An animated demonstration illustrates the task. This is followed by a guided practice phase consisting of 3 rows. Detailed feedback is provided during this practice phase. The practice phase is repeated if participants make errors in more than one of the 3 practice rows.

During the test phase, the number of target letters in each row varies between 3 and 5, with exactly 40 targets in each set of 10 rows. Each row is presented on-screen for a maximum of 6 seconds, after which the next row is presented after a 1-second blank period. Participants may advance to the next row early via a Next button (green arrow) at the right side of the screen. The goal is to complete as many rows as possible within a set time limit of 3.5 minutes, as indicated by a countdown timer displayed at the upper left corner of the screen. At the conclusion of the test phase, feedback on the number of "perfect" rows completed is provided.

With the default settings, at least 30 rows, containing a total of 120 targets, are presented: - Max. duration of row + blank period is 7 seconds. - Global time limit is 210 seconds (3.5 minutes). -> 210 / 7 = 30 rows if a participant never advances early to the next row.

Additional Notes

- The task as implemented potentially differs from UCancellation Letters in a number of -- mostly minor -- aspects. - values.rowLayout is an 8 character string consisting one 1s and 0s, indicating ordinal target and distractor positions in the given row. I.e., "01001100" indicates targets present in positions 2, 5, and 6 from left to right. Distractors are present in positions 1, 3, 4, 7, and 8 respectively. - values.item1Type to values.item8Type indicate the type of item in each position. A value of 1 indicates that the item in that position is a target; conversely, a value of 0 indicates the item in that position is a distractor. - values.item1ItemNumber to values.item8ItemNumber indicate the specific stimulus item in that position. The targets (letters d with two marks) have are item numbers 1, 2, and 3. Item numbers 4 to 16 are the distractor items (letters d with fewer or more than two marks, all letters p). See item.letterItems, list.targetItemNumbers, and list.distractorItemNumbers for details. - Target types are sampled such that, across each chunk of 30 rows, each type of target will be sampled *approximately* equally often. See /poolsize in list.targetItemNumbers for details. In addition, target type sampling is such that no more than 3 targets of the same type should be sampled in succession. See /maxrunsize in list.target_itemnubers for details. - Distractor types are sampled randomly without replacement on a *per row* basis, i.e. no type of distractor should appear more than once in any given row. - values.responseLayout indicates which items were marked by the participant in a given row. It, too, is an 8 character string consisting of 1s and 0s, e.g. "10100011" indicates that the participant marked row items 1, 3, 7, and 8. - Test phase timing parameters are chosen such that if you were to let each row time out (instead of advancing to the next row early by clicking the arrow), you will be able to complete exactly 30 rows within the 3.5 time limit (max. duration per row ~6 seconds, 1 second inter-row blank period), i.e. (6s + 1s) * 30 rows = 210s = 3.5m. - Slight timing variances cannot be avoided, i.e. combined duration of all rowAction trials within a given row might exceed the nominal 6 seconds slightly, on the order of 6000ms + 10ms. According to Pashor et al. (2022), UCancellation gives row time in seconds, whereas Inquisit gives it in milliseconds, so the timing in this script may actually be tighter than UCancellation's. - The task will allow an already started row to be finished within the 6 second time limited allotted for each row *even if* the global test phase timeout of 3.5 minutes runs out *before* the row's 6 second limit. Once the global 3.5 minute timeout nears its end, the script performs the following check: If 3.5s or less are left on the clock [(6s time per row + 1s inter-row blank period)/2], the test phase terminates. If more than 3.5s are left, the script allows another row to be started and completed. This can result in the effective test phase being either slightly shorter or slightly longer than the nominal value of 3.5 minutes, on the order of 210s +/- 3.5s. In essence, this implementation opts in favor of having useful data for all started rows instead of terminating mid-row and having ambiguous or uninterpretable data for the last row. - The 1-second inter-row interval is split 50/50 between two trial elements to minimize timing variance due to writing data to disk. There is a 500ms blank period trial before each row, which sets up the parameters for the row about to start (number of targets & distractors in the row, etc.). -> See trial.preBlank for details. There is a 500ms blank period trial after each row, which logs the summary information for the just completed row (number of hits, misses, etc.) and displays auditory cues for perfect rows or row timeout, if applicable. -> See trial.rowSummary for details. Together, these result in a 1-second inter-row blank period. - The UCancellation Letters task produces three data files, whereas this implementation only produces two: There is no separate "Action" data file, all within-row actions as well as per-row summary information is logged to a single raw data file. If you wish to focus on the per-row summaries only, you can filter this file for the "rowSummary" trials. If you wish to drill down on the timestamped, within-row actions (i.e. which item was interacted with when), you can filter the raw data file for the "rowAction" trials. Like the UCancellation Letters task, this implementation also produces a separate summary data file, which includes the overall performance summary metrics as well as relevant task metadata (start time, duration, the chosen parameters, etc.).

Procedure

- Row generator utility block:
Generates a pre-specified number of rows (-> parameters.nRowsToGenerate), such that
(1) there are between 3 (-> parameters.minTargetsPerRow) and 5 (-> parameters.maxTargetsPerRow) targets
in any given row, and
(2) there are exactly 40 targets (-> parameters.nTargetsPenext10Rows) across each chunk of 10 rows.

- Guided practice block consisting of an animated demonstration (-> trial.practiceIntro), followed by
3 practice rows (containing 3, 4, and five targets, in random order); detailed error feedback is provided
during this guided practice phase. If the participants achieves fewer than 2 "perfect" rows (-> parameters.minPerfectPractice),
the guided practice phase is repeated one more time, i.e. there is a maximum of two practice blocks
(-> parameters.maxPracticeBlocks).

- Test block with a set time limit of 3.5 minutes (-> parameters.testPhaseTimeout).
- Default trial sequence:
(1) Pre-row blank period (trial.preBlank; 500ms; half of -> parameters.interRowInterval).
(2) row action trials (trial.rowAction; max. 6000ms; -> parameters.timePerRow).
(3) Post-row blank period & row summary logging (trial.rowSummary; 500ms; half of -> parameters.interRowInterval).

When using up the max. amount of time allowed for each row (6 seconds), the participant will be exposed to
exactly 30 rows within the global time limit of 3.5 minutes.

See Additional Notes section for detailed information about timing considerations and timing-related task behavior.

Instructions

Instructions are not original, but partly adapted from those found in UCancellation Letters.
You can easily change them by editing item.instructionItems.

Scoring

First 30 Rows

Measures covering the first 30 rows only are included in the summary data file for the sake of completeness.
Pahor et. al (2022) caution against using these measures and recommend using the measure covering
all rows completed (including any "bonus" rows) instead.

Summary Data

File Name: lettercancellationtask_summary*.iqdat

Data Fields

Name	Description
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
inquisit.version	Inquisit version number
inquisit.build	The specific Inquisit version (e.g. "7.1.5")
display.screenWidth	The device's screen width in pixels
display.screenHeight	The device's screen width and height in pixels.
display.canvasWidth	The canvas width in pixels, i.e. the subsection of the screen used to display stimuli.
display.canvasHeight	The canvas height in pixels, i.e. the subsection of the screen used to display stimuli.
script.startDate	Date the script was started.
script.startTime	Time the script was started.
script.subjectId	The assigned subject ID.
script.groupId	The assigned group ID.
script.sessionId	The assigned session ID.
script.completed	0 = script was not completed (prematurely aborted) 1 = script was completed (all conditions run)
script.elapsedTime	Time it took to run script (in ms); measured from onset to offset of script.
nPracticeBlocks	The number of practice blocks run.
rowNumber	The number of rows administered.
testPhaseDuration	The effective test phase duration in ms.
parameters.testPhaseTimeout	Setting for the test phase time limit in ms.
parameters.timePerRow	Setting for the time allowed to to complete each row ("row timeout") in ms.
parameters.interRowInterval	Setting for the duration of the inter-row interval in ms.
parameters.minTargetsPerRow	Setting for mim. number of targets per row.
parameters.maxTargetsPerRow	Setting for max. number of targets per row.
parameters.nTargetsPeNext10Rows	Setting for number of targets in each chunk of 10 rows.
totalHits	Number of hits (selected targets) across all administered test phase rows.
totalMisses	Number of misses (skipped targets) across all administered test phase rows.
totalFalseAlarms	Number of false alarms (selected distractors) across all administered test phase rows.
totalCorrectRejections	Number of correct rejections (skipped distractors) across all administered test phase rows.
totalPerfect	Number of "perfect" rows across all administered test phase rows.
totalItemsProcessed	The total number of items the participant was exposed to (8 items * amount of rows). This metric is sometimes also referred to as "Speed" or "Processing Speed".
totalPerformance	Total Perfomance (TP) = ∑N − ∑(Misses + False Alarms), where N is the number of rows processed multiplied by 8 (number of items per row).
concentrationPerformance	Concentration Performance (CP) = ∑Hits − ∑False Alarms.
First 30 Rows
totalHits30	Number of hits (selected targets) in the first 30 test phase rows only.
totalMisses30	Number of misses (skipped targets) in the first 30 test phase rows only.
totalFalseAlarms30	Number of false alarms (selected distractors) in the first 30 test phase rows only.
totalCorrectRejections30	Number of correct rejections (skipped distractors) in the first 30 test phase rows only.
totalPerfect30	Number of "perfect" rows for the first 30 test phase rows only.
totalPerformance30	Total Performance (TP) for the first 30 test phase rows only.
concentrationPerformance30	Concentration Performace (CP) for the first 30 test phase rows only.

Raw Data

File Name: lettercancellationtask_raw*.iqdat

Data Fields

Name	Description
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
inquisit.version	Inquisit version number
inquisit.build	The specific Inquisit version (e.g. "7.1.5")
display.screenWidth	The device's screen width in pixels
display.screenHeight	The device's screen width and height in pixels.
display.canvasWidth	The canvas width in pixels, i.e. the subsection of the screen used to display stimuli.
display.canvasHeight	The canvas height in pixels, i.e. the subsection of the screen used to display stimuli.
date	Date the session was run
time	Time the session was run
subject	Participant ID
group	Group number
session	Session number
taskPhase	Current task phase (practice or test).
script.elapsedTime	Time elapsed since beginning of script execution in milliseconds.
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.
rowNumber	The current row number.
inRowTrialCount	Count of rowAction trials within the current row.
trialCode	Name of the current trial
response	The participant's response. Row item i1 to i8 selected, nextButton, or 0 for no response.
isTarget	Whether the item selected is a target (1) or distractor (0). nextButton is coded as -1. No response is coded as empty string.
lastResponse	The last item interacted with in the current row. i1 to i8 or nextButton.
ordinalResponsePos	The ordinal position of the current response (item selected). Can be 1 to 8 for row items i1 to i8, 9 for nextButton, no response is coded as -1.
latency	Response latency relative to the onset of the current trial.
correct	Whether the response given was correct (here: item selected was a target).
rowActionTimeStamp	Time stamp of the current row action relative to the start of the current row.
timeRowStart	Time when the current row started.
timeRowEnd	Time when the current row ended.
rowDuration	The current row's effective duration.
rowHits	Number of hits (targets selected) in the current row.
rowMisses	Number of misses (targets not selected) in the current row.
rowFalseAlarms	Number of false alarms (distractors selected) in the current row.
rowCorrectRejections	Number of correct rejections (distractors not selected) in the current row.
rowPerfect	1 if the row was "perfect", i.e. all targets identified, no distractors selected. 0 otherwise.
nTargets	Number of targets present in the current row.
nDistractors	Number of distractors present in the current row.
rowLayout	The current row's layout as a string of 1s and 0s, where 1 indicates the item in that position is a target and 0 indicates the item is a distractor. E.g. "01100100" means i2, i3, and i6 are targets, whereas i1, i4, i5, i7, and i8 are distractors.
responseLayout	The response pattern for the current row as a string of 1s and 0s, where 1 indicates the participant selected the item in that position and 0 indicates an item was not selected. E.g. "10111001" means the participant selected i1, i3, i4, i5, and i8. i2, i6 and i7 were not selected.
nItemInteractions	Count of the item interactions in the current row.
item1Type-item8Type	Conveys the same information as values.rowLayout as separate variables. 1 indicates the given item is a target, 0 indicates it is a distractor.
item1ItemNumber - item8ItemNumber	The speciic stimulus item number selected for each row item. Item numbers 1 to 3 represent the different target items (letters d with two surrounding marks). Item numbers 4 to 16 represent the various distractor items. See item.letterItems for details.

Parameters

The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.

Name	Description	Default
minTargetsPerRow	The minimum number of target stimuli presented in each row	3
maxTargetsPerRow	The maximum number of target stimuli presented in each row	5
nTargetsPeNext10Rows	The total number of target stimuli presented in each chunk of 10 rows You can change the above parameters, but you should consider this carefully beforehand. (1) Defining too wide a spread between min. and max. targets per row may lead to row generation taking a long time, because satisfying the N targets per 10 rows criterion becomes more difficult when there's a wider spread. (2) Take care to avoid impossible settings. For example, with min. targets per row set to 1 and max. set to 3, it would not actually be possible to arrive at 40 targets in 10 rows. The theoretical maximum would be 30, and that would only be achieved with every row having exactly 3 targets.	40
timePerRow	The time limit for completing each row. This is the row's maximum duration, a participant may advance to the next row earlier by pressing the Next button (green arrow).	6000
timePerRowPractice	The time limit for completing each row in the practice phase. Set to high value to effectively disable. This only applies when the "unguided" practice mode is enabled. In the default "guided" practice mode, there is no time limit. See parameters.practiceMode below.	18000
nRowsToGenerate	The number of rows to pregenerate . In the default configuration, rows are generated in chunks of 10, such that there are exactly 40 targets in each chunk of 10 rows (see parameters.nTargetsPenext10Rows above). A participant who uses up the full 6s for each row, will get to complete exactly 30 rows within the global test phase time limit (3.5mins; see parameters.testPhaseTimeout below). Participants who don't use the full 6 seconds (i.e. advance to next row early via the next button), will get to complete additonal "bonus" rows. parameters.nRowsToGenerate determines how many rows should be pregenerated to cover these "bonus" rows. The value should be a multiple of 10. As a guideline, in Pahor et al. (2022) no participant completed more than 52 rows (p. 2607) within 3.5mins, so pregenerating 90 rows should be more than sufficient when the default settings are used.	90
testPhaseTimeout	Global time limit for the test phase. Default: 210000 ms (3.5 minutes).	210000
interRowInterval	Blank period between two rows. Default: 1000 ms (1 second). Do NOT drastically reduce the inter-row interval. When set too low, it will lead to timing issues.	1000
forceLeftToRight	Force participants to work from left to right. When set to false, participants may mark letters in any order. When parameters.forceLeftToRight is set to false, the unguided practice mode should be used for consistency.	true
enableTestPhaseFeedback	Whether to show in-row correct & error feedback during the test phase	false
enableAuditoryCues	Whether to present auditory cues indicating row timeout or achievement of a "perfect" row.	false
maxPracticeBlocks	The maximum number of practice blocks.	2
minPerfectPractice	The passing criterion for the practice block, in terms of the min. number of "perfect" rows the participant ought to achieve.. (default: 2 out of 3) Explanation: When a participant fails the first practice block, practice is repeated until parameters.maxPracticeBlocks is reached. The task then moves on to the test phase, regardless of whether the criterion was met.	2
practiceMode	Determines how the practice phase works. There are two modes. 1 = "guided" mode (default). Participant receives very detailed feedback regarding any errors made, no time limit. 2 = "unguided" mode. Like the actual test, but with per-item correct & incorrect feedback. The row timeout for this mode can be set separately via parameters.timePerRowPractice above.	1
xPos1-xPos8	Horizontal on-screen positions (in percent) of the 8 letter stimuli making up a row. Default values are 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, and 80% respectively.
nextButtonPos	Orizontal on-screen position of the Next button (green arrow). Slightly shifted to the right to avoid mistaps (i.e. hitting the next button when they meant to hit the 8th letter item).	92%