Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Last Modified: April 13, 2026 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC
This script implements the Rapid Visual Information Processing Task, a measures of processing speed and performance.
The implemented procedure is based on Wesnes & Wartburton (1984).
Wesnes, K. & Wartburton, D.M (1984), Effects of scopolamine and nicotine on human rapid information processing performance. Psychopharmacology, 82, 147-150.
Gregg, A. & Sedikides, C. (2010). Narcissistic Fragility: Rethinking Its Links to Explicit and Implicit Self-esteem, Self and Identity, 9:2, 142-161 (p.148)
14 minutes
A participant is presented with a series of digits (1-9) on a computer screen. The presentation time is 100 digits/min (or 1digit/600ms). The participant's task is to press a response key (here: Spacebar) as soon as she detects a series of three consecutive odd or three consecutive even digits.
This script provides a testing sequence of 1200 digits with 96 target sequences as well as a practice sequence
of 20 digits with 2 target sequences. The target sequences (testing) are separated by a minimum of 5 and
a maximum of 35 digits (Mean = 9.3).
The response is scored as a Hit if the participant reacts within 1500ms (target response window described
in article, can be changed by experimenter in this script) of onset of the last digit of a target sequence.
Any response that occurs later is scored as a False Alarm.
see section Editable Lists for the currently available stim sequences
to edit instructions, go to script "rvip_instructions_inc.iqjs"
File Name: rvip_summary*.iqdat
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| 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 the session was run |
| startTime | Time the session was run |
| subjectId | Participant ID |
| groupId | Group number |
| sessionId | Session number |
| elapsedTime | Session duration in ms |
| completed | 0 = Test was not completed 1 = Test was completed |
Rt |
|
| meanRTHit | Determines the mean hit RT (in ms) - measured from onset of last target digit (test only) |
| stdHit | Determines standard deviation of hit RTs (test only) |
| medianRTHit | Determines the median hit RT (in ms) - measured from onset of last target digit (test only) |
Acc |
|
| numberTargetTriplets | Counts how many target triplets have been presented (test) |
| sumHit | Counts the number of Hits (test), pressing spacebar for a target-triplet |
| hitRate | Number of detected targets relative to total number of target |
| numberNoiseTriplets | Counts how many non-target triplets have been presented (test) |
| sumFA | Counts the number of false alarms (test); pressing spacebar for a non-target triplet |
| faRate | Number of false alarms relative to total number of non-target triplets |
Signal Detection |
|
| zHitRate | Calculates the z-score for the hitRate. Adjustments are made if the hitRate = 0 (increased to 0.005) or 1 (decreased to 0.995)* |
| zFARate | Calculates the z-score for the false alarm rate. Adjustments are made if the faRate = 0 (increased to 0.005) or 1 (decreased to 0.995)* adjustments to hit and false alarm rates for Signal Detection Measures based on Gregg & Sedikides (2010) |
| dPrime | Computes d' (parametric measure of discrimination sensitivity to targets) => Range (in this script) -5.1516586840152740479 <= dprime <= 5.1516586840152740479 (=perfect performance) => The higher the value, the better target triplets were overall distinguished from noise triplets (d' = 0: chance performance; negative d-primes: participant treated nontargets as targets and targets as nontargets) |
| c | C-criterion in signal detection:The absolute value of c provides an indication of the strength of the response bias/response style negative: participant more likely to report that signal triplet is present (liberal response style) may favor faster responding in speed-accuracy trade-off response paradigms positive: favoring caution (conservative response style) |
| aPrime | Non-parametric alternative to dPrime measure (measure of sensitivity) interpreted on a scale from 0.5 to 1.0, where higher scores indicate better discrimination sensitivity. (0.5 = chance level) |
File Name: rvip.iqdat
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| focusDigit3 | The three digits that need to be checked to see if they are all odd or all even focusDigit2 focusdigit1 |
| digit | The digit presented in the current trial |
| btwTargetsCounter | Counts the number of digits between target trials |
| target | 0 = no target presented 1 = target presented (the third digit in a row of either all odd or all even digits) while the current digit may not be a target, the trial might still accept target responses if the previous target is still active |
| targetStartTime | The script elapsed time (in ms) the last target was presented |
| startTrialTime | The script elapsed time the current trial started (in ms) |
| targetResponseWindow | The time window during which a target is active (here: up until 1500ms after onset of a target, consistent with Wesnes & Wartburton (1984)) |
| targetResponseendTime | Starttrial of a target-trial + interval (in ms) |
| targetActive | 0 = target not active 1 = target still active (even though the currently presented digit itself might not be a target) |
| response | The participant's response (e.g. scancode of response key) 57 = spacebar 0 = no response |
| correct | The correctness of the response (1 = correct; 0 = incorrect) |
| responseTime | The script elapsed time when a spacebar response is made (in ms) |
| rtHit | The response latency (in ms) for the current Hit => calculated as difference between responsetime-targetstarttime => thus measures the time it took to hit spacebar after a target was presented (latency measured from onset of last target) |
| latency | The trial latency (in ms) (for the current trial) measures the response time of hitting the spacebar measured from onset of current digit (if no response, this variable stores the trial duration) |
| hit | 1 = spacebar press was registered during the current trial while a target was still active 0 = no spacebar press was registered during the current trial while a target was still active "" (empty): no active target during the current trial |
| fa | 1 = spacebar press was registered during the current trial while no target was active 0 = no spacebar press was registered during the current trial while no target was active "" (empty): the target was still active during the current trial |
| numberTargetTriplets | Counts how many targets have been presented |
| sumHit | Counts the number of Hits |
| sumFA | Counts the number of False Alarms |
The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.
| Name | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
Design |
||
| sequenceLengthPractice | The length of the practice sequence if the number is changed here, list.digitsequence_practice might also need to be updated | 20 |
Sizing Parameters |
||
| digitHeight | Controls the size of the digits (percentage of screen height) | 8% |
Timing Parameters |
||
| sequenceLengthTest | The length of the test sequence if the number is changed here, list.digitsequence might also need to be updated | 1200 |
| getReadyDuration | The duration (in ms) of the get-ready-trial | 2000 |
| targetResponseWindow | The time window (in ms) during which a target is active (here: up until 1500ms after onset of a target, consistent with Wesnes & Wartburton (1984)) | 1500 |
| presentationTime | How long (in ms) a stimulus is presented before the next one replaces it (= frequency of showing a stimulus) (here: 100 digits/ 1min => 600ms per stimulus, consistent with Wesnes & Wartburton (1984).) | 600 |
Debugging |
||
| debugmode | True (1): the script is run in debugmode (target alerts are presented on screen) false (0): the script is run in test mode | 0 |