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Portfolio Toolbox B&CCas Oosterveld
Experimental Paradigms
1. Go/No-Go Task for measuring impulsiveness/inhibitory control, and
the effect of making an error or inhibiting behavior on subsequent
behavior (e.g., slower RT after making an error).
Stimuli: “go” and “no-go” stimuli; can be images of a green/red
light, a word saying “go!” or “inhibit!”, or anything that has previously
been explained as relating to go or no-go.
Procedure: The subjects is presented with a stream of stimuli that
can be “go” or “no-go” stimuli. They have to respond (press a button)
when seeing the “go” stimuli, and inhibit this response when seeing the
“no-go” stimuli. The no-go stimuli are less frequent.
Predicted data pattern: The main dependent variables are reaction
time and accuracy; error is making a “go” response on “no-go” trials.
Fewer errors are an indication of better response inhibition (higher
inhibitory control, executive functioning). Take note of the speed/accuracy
tradeoff!
2. Spatial Cueing (Posner Cueing Task) for measuring visual
attention.
Stimuli: A fixation point, a cue (either valid or invalid), and a target
stimulus.
, Procedure: The subject has to detect where a target stimulus is
presented, and respond as quickly as possible. The stimulus appears
either on the left side or the right of the screen, and participants are cued
before the stimulus appears. The cue can be either “valid” (indicating the
same direction as the target stimulus) or “invalid” (indicating the opposite
direction of the target stimulus). The subjects respond by means of a
button left or right. The cue has to be presented between 100 to 300ms
before the target; too short having no effect, and too long leading to
“inhibition of return”.
Predicted data pattern: When most of the presented cues are valid,
the valid cues lead to faster responses times due to attention being
directed at the right spot. While invalid cues lead to slower response times
due to attention being directed at the wrong spot. The main dependent
variable is response time. Response accuracy can also be measured (how
often the wrong button is pressed). There is no speed/accuracy tradeoff in
this task.
3. Visual Search Task for measuring visual attention and feature
integration. (how much attention is drawn by the target?)
Stimuli: Conjunctive search items; items that have multiple (often
2) features (color, shape, size, orientation, etc.). Presented in a field of
distraction stimuli that have similar features but not that exact
combination.
Procedure: The subject is presented with a target item before the
start of the trials (e.g., “a horizontal red T”). The objective is to search for
that item in subsequent trials that have various distractor items. The
number of distractors is variable, and the target item can be either
present or not. If the subject found the target item, he/she has to press a
button (spacebar). If not, he/she has to wait for the next trial round. The
conjunctive search time is measured (response time for finding the
target).
Predicted data pattern: It is expected that the conjunctive search
time increases with the number of distractor stimuli presented in the trial.
This is because searching for multiple features cannot be done in parallel;
all the items in the field have to be analyzed in order to find the target,
which takes more time when there are more. Errors can also be
measured.
4. Simon Task for measuring interference/conflict resolution.
Stimuli: A fixation cross, a stimulus related to a right button press,
and a stimulus related to a left button press. The stimuli can be shapes,
colors, objects, or even the words “left” and “right”.
Procedure: The subject has to respond to visual stimuli by
pressing a right button to one stimulus (e.g., a circle) and a left button to
another (e.g., a square). The stimuli are sometimes presented on the
right, and sometimes on the left side of the display. The side where they
are presented does not matter for which button they have to press; they
only need to look at the features of the target stimulus. Congruent trials
have the stimulus presented on the side that is congruent with the button
,they have to press (right button on right side, left button on left side).
Incongruent trials have this the other way around; right button on left
side, left button on right side.
Predicted data pattern: The main dependent variables are reaction
time and accuracy for congruent vs incongruent trials. The “Simon Effect”
entails lower accuracy and/or longer reaction time for incongruent vs
congruent trials. It is a measure of interference or conflict between a goal-
relevant dimension (i.e., the identity of the shape) and a non-goal-relevant
dimension (i.e., the location of the shape). The subject’s response is thus
expected to be affected by the location where the stimulus is presented,
regardless of its association with the left or right button. There is no
speed/accuracy tradeoff in this task.
5. Stroop Task for measuring cognitive control; suppressing
interference.
Stimuli: words in different colors. Can be color names (“green”),
regular words (“blood”, “sky”, etc.), or even emotions (“anger”, “sad”,
etc.)
Procedure: Participants are exposed to words one after the other,
they are printed in different colors and have to indicate what the color of
the word is. This is originally done by naming the color out loud, but can
also be done by pressing buttons. The most common Stroop task used is
with words that state colors, printed in congruent and incongruent colors
(word “green”, printed in green, vs word “green”, printed in red). Reading
is a powerful automatic process, so inhibiting that and naming the color of
the word requires high cognitive demand. The words can also be
emotional or object-related. The dependent variable is the reaction for
reporting the color of the letter.
Predicted data pattern: it is expected that the incongruent trials
yield a slower response time due to the cognitive effort it takes to
suppress the automatic reading of the word. The congruent trials will thus
be faster.
6. Attentional Blink For measuring the deployment of visual
attention.
Stimuli: can be anything: objects, letters, numbers, numbers as
target between letters, colored letters, etc.
Procedure: a number of stimuli (often letters) is presented in rapid
succession of about 10 items per second (Rapid Serial Visual
, Representation). The subjects are asked to report two targets (T1 and T2).
The second target is only displayed half of the time, when it’s shown, it’s
only shown for 100 to 800ms after the first target. The reporting can be
done by means of a question, where the subject has to indicate yes/no for
seeing T1 and T2. The dependent variable is report accuracy for T1 and
T2.
Predicted data pattern: Attentional Blink happens when the first
target is correctly identified, but the second is missed due to the visual
attention still processing T1. This effect is observed if the time between T1
and T2 is between 100 and 500ms. Emotionally relevant stimuli mediate
attention; meaning that if T1 is emotional, the AB will be longer, while if
T2 is emotional, it will be perceived more often.
7. Serial Positions Task For measuring the serial position effect; STM
and LTM.
Stimuli: any list of words
Procedure: Subjects have to learn a list of words that that are
presented to them in succession. The length of the list is variable, but
often around 20 words. Each word is presented for 1 or 2 seconds. After
having seen the list, the participants have to freely recall as many words
as they can remember from that list. The percentage of correctly recalled
words is measured.
Predicted data pattern: It is expected that the percentage of
correctly recalled words is higher for words that were shown in the
beginning (primacy effect) and end (recency effect) of the list; so
dependent on the serial position. The intermediate words are recalled the
worst. It’s presented in a U-shaped distribution. Primacy effects are
probably due to storage in the LTM, and the recency effect is due to words
still being in the STM.
8. Digit Span (or memory span) For measuring working memory’s
storage capacity.
Stimuli: A series of single digits presented one after each other.
Procedure: On each trial participants are presented with a series
of digits appearing one at a time on a computer screen (e.g., 3, 4, 1, 2, 7,
8). The task exists with two variants: forward-span and backward-span. In
the forward-span variant, at the end of each list participants attempt to
recall the digits in the order they appeared by typing them via keypress.
In the backward-span variant they try to recall the digits in the reverse
order they appeared. For both variants of the task, after each successfully
completed trial, the number of digits presented increases by one for the
next trial. After a failed trial (i.e., if any digits are missing and/or if the
exact order of digits is wrong), the number of digits presented remains the
same for the next trial. The task ends after participants make errors for
two trials in a row for a given digit span. The dependent measure, digit
span, is the maximum number of digits correctly recalled.
Predicted data pattern: it is expected to be 7 +/- 2 digits. This is
however dependent on certain factors; digits with more syllables in
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