User Manual: Inquisit Mindful Attention Awareness Scale


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							Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS)
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Script Author: David Nitz (dave@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC
Date: 11-07-2019
last updated:  08-07-2023 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC

Script Copyright © 08-07-2023 Millisecond Software

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BACKGROUND INFO 	
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This script implements a computerized adaptation of the short form of the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) as described in:

Brown, K.W. & Ryan, R.M. (2003). The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. 
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 822-848.

Carlson, L.E. & Brown, K.W. (2005). Validation of the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale in a cancer population.
Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 58, 29-33.

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OVERVIEW
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The trait MAAS is a 15-item scale designed to assess a core characteristic of mindfulness, namely, 
a receptive state of mind in which attention, 
informed by a sensitive awareness of what is occurring in the present, simply observes what is taking place.

Participants are asked to answer 15 6-point Likert-type questions with the following anchors:
"almost always", "very frequently", "somewhat frequently", "somewhat infrequently", "very infrequently" and "almost never".

Scoring: To score the scale, simply compute a mean (average) of the 15 items.

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DURATION 
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the default set-up of the script takes appr. 2 minutes to complete

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DATA OUTPUT DICTIONARY
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The fields in the data files are:

(1) Raw data file: 'maas_survey*.iqdat' 

date, time:						date and time script was run with the current group/subjectnumber 
subject, group, session:	  	with the current subject/groupnumber/session id
build:							the Inquisit build 

q*_response:					response given (in assigned values)
								Scale: 1 (almost always) - 6 (almost never)
								no reversed scored questions
									
q*_latency:						how much time (in ms) the participant spent on the surveyPage with this particular 
								question (the last time this particular surveyPage was visited)

(2) Summary data file: 'maas_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)
								
maasMean:						mean of responses to the 15 6-point questions


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INSTRUCTIONS 
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can be edited under section Editable Parameters.
The original instructions are:
"Below is a collection of statements about your everyday experience. Using the 1-6 scale below, please indicate how frequently or infrequently 
you currently have each experience. Please answer according to what really reflects your experience rather than what you think your
experience should be. Please treat each item separately from every other item."

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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:

/pageInstructions:			the instructions that appear at the top of each surveyPage