User Manual: Inquisit Spatial Reconstruction Task


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									*SPATIAL RECONSTRUCTION TASK*
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Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC
Date: 07-07-2016
last updated:  10-01-2024 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC

Script Copyright © 10-01-2024 Millisecond Software

Millisecond Software thanks Dr. Lok-Kin Yeung for his collaboration on this script!

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BACKGROUND INFO 	
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This script implements a computerized Spatial Reconstruction Task based on:

Watson, P.D., Voss, J.L, Warren, D.E., Tranel, D.T. and Cohen, N.J. (2013). Spatial Reconstruction by Patients 
with Hippocampal  Damage is Dominated by Relational Memory Errors. HIPPOCAMPUS 23:570–580.


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TASK DESCRIPTION	
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Participants are asked to study an arrangement of 2-5 objects on the screen (objects are presented on a white
square board in the center of the screen) for 20s. Then the board is cleared. After a further delay (4s), 
the objects reappear on the top of the board, and participants are asked to re-create the original arrangement.	

NOTE: by default, this script runs trials with N = 5 objects only. 
Code to run blocks with other N as well as code to run a mixed block are also provided under section BLOCKS.									  
  
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DURATION 
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the default set-up of the script takes appr. 15 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: 'spatialreconstructiontask_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
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. Thus, trialNum 
									may not reflect the number of main trials run per block..
																			
n:								number of objects on the current board (2-5)
object1-
object5:						contain the itemnumbers assigned to the objects presented in position old1 - position old5 in the current trial

response:						the response 
								(for reconstruction_select trials: response indicates the dropsource object (here: the board) or 'submit')

lastDraggedObject:				the last object that was moved in the current trial
latency:						response latency in ms (measured from start of trial until stims are dropped on the board or submit button selected)
reconstructionDuration:			contains the cumulative duration (in ms) of the reconstruction phase (measured from onset of first reconstruction trial until submit button is pressed)
old1X-
old5Y:							contain the original x/y coordinates (in canvas pixels) of the objects
new1X-
new5Y:							contain the current x/y coordinates of the dragged objects (in canvas pixels)

Note: for implemented algorithms of the following measures, see section EXPRESSIONS for more detailed info
misplacement1-
misplacement5:					store the misplacements of object1-5 (in pixels)
								Note: Misplacement -> difference of placed object from 
										
original position										
meanTrialMisplacement:			mean trial misplacement (in pixels) (-> trial.evaluation)
							
edgeResizing12 -
edgeResizing45:					store the edge resizing measurement for each possible object pair	
										Note: Edge Resizing -> Difference in distance between original object pairs (e.g. old1 and old2) and the placed objects (new1 and new2) (measured in pixels)
meanTrialEdgeResizing:			mean Trial Edge Resizing (in pixels) (-> trial.evaluation)

distortion12 -
distortion45:					store the distortion measurement for each possible object pair	
										Note: Distortions/Rearrangement: 1 = the relative X OR Y position (but NOT both) of two objects have been swapped; 0 = otherwise
propTrialDistortion:			proportion Distortions per Trial (-> trial.evaluation)

swap12 -
swap45:							store the Swap measurement for each possible object pair	
										Note: Swaps/Rearrangement: 1 = the relative X AND Y position of two objects have been swapped; 0 = otherwise
propTrialSwap:					proportion Swaps per Trial (-> trial.evaluation)

								
Note: it is possible with Inquisit lab to take screencaptures of the original positions and the placed positions.
To take such screenshots, go to section TRIAL and follow instructions.
								

(2) Summary data file: 'spatialreconstructiontask_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)

meanMisplacement:				calculates the mean of all Misplacement trial means 
								-> Misplacement: difference of placed object from original position (measured in pixels)
										
stdMisplacement:				calculates the standard deviation of all misplacement trial means

meanEdgeResizing:				calculates the mean of all Edge Resizing trial means
								-> Edge Resizing: Difference in distance between original object pairs 
								(e.g. position1 and position2) and the placed objects (drag1 and drag2) (measured in pixels)
										
stdEdgeResizing:				calculates the standard deviation of all edge resizing trial means

meanPropDistortion:				mean of all test trial Distortion proportions 
								Distortions/Rearrangement: 
								1= the relative X or Y position (but not both) of two objects have been swapped; 
								0 = otherwise
									
meanPropSwap:					mean of all test trial Swap proportions
								Swap: 
								1 = both relative X and Y positions of two objects have been swapped; 
								0 = otherwise

Note: separate measures for different N can be added to summary data file. Go to section DATA and follow instructions

* separate data files: to change to one data file for all participants (on Inquisit Lab only), go to section
"DATA" and follow further instructions

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EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP 
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UserInterface: 
the active canvas (= part of the screen that is used for this study) is set to be the largest possible 
4:3 proportion of the current screen. Of this 4:3 canvas, the largest possible center square is used as the 
'object board' to present and re-arrange the objects. This board is white; the remaining parts of the 
active canvas is black. 
A submit button is placed on the bottom right of the background canvas next to the 'board'. 
Objects Positions are defined in % of the active canvas (not the 'board'); however, these positions are then 
internally converted into the corresponding pixels of the current canvas (depends on monitor). 
Objects can be positioned randomly (default) or with predetermined positions 
(go to section Editable Parameters for further instructions).

Practice Block:
* by default, this script runs one practice block with N=5 objects of 5 trials (objects are randomly placed)
* each trial randomly selects the objects
* code to run N=2, N=3, N=4 object blocks as well as a mixed design block that runs all N (2-5) is provided under section BLOCKS

Test Block:
* by default, this script runs one test block with N = 5 objects (objects are randomly placed by default) of 15 trials
* each trial randomly selects the objects
* code to run N=2, N=3, N=4 blocks as well as a mixed design block that runs all N (2-5) is provided under section BLOCKS

Trial Sequence:
fixation cross (2000ms) -> Object Arrangement (20000ms) -> Empty Board (4000ms) 
-> Board with objects to arrange (no time limit): divided into
a) trial.reconstruction: measures latencies until a stimulus is dropped or 'submit' button is selected
b) trial.evaluation: evaluates the responses and records final placements into data file
-> ITI (1000ms)

Notes
1. all durations are editable under section Editable Parameters
2. objects can be randomly placed or with predetermined positions for test trials (practice trials always run with random positions)
(controlled by parameters.randomPositions under section Editable Parameters)
3. objects are not repeated until all 150 stimuli have been presented

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STIMULI
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150 squiggles used by Neal Cohen and researchers (contact email: njc@illinois.edu).
see section Editable Stimuli

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INSTRUCTIONS 
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Instructions are not original to the task. They are provided by Millisecond Software
as htm/html pages and can be edited by changing the provided htm/html files.
To edit htm/html-files: open the respective documents in simple Text Editors such as TextEdit (Mac)
or Notepad (Windows).

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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:

/fixationDuration:					duration (in ms) of the fixation cross at the start of each trial (default; 2000ms)
/studyDuration:						the time (in ms) allocated to study the object arrangements (default: 20000ms)
/eraseBoardDuration:				the presentation duration (in ms) of the erased board (default: 4000ms)
/iti:								the intertrial interval (in ms) after each trial (default: 500ms)

/picSize:							the size of the images in % of canvas height (default: 10%)

/randomPositions:					true(1): random positions will be determined for each object for test trials (default)
										false(0): predetermined positions will be used for each object for test trials
										-> go to section Editable Lists and set the positions
										Note: practice trials run with random positions