standard-stingray

Squared tasks of executive attention, including the short versions of Stroop, Flanker, and Simon tasks as described and tested in Burgoyne et al. (2023, OSF). This JavaScript implementation (using the jsPsych library) is a fork from Liceralde & Burgoyne (2023) under CC BY NC SA 4.0.

• Repo: https://github.com/digital-wellbeing/standard-stingray
• Live task: https://digital-wellbeing.github.io/standard-stingray
• Data output: https://osf.io/cvnm8/

The task runs in a browser, and saves data to the OSF using DataPipe. For live runs, please use the pid URL variable to indicate participants (e.g. https://digital-wellbeing.github.io/standard-stingray/index.html?pid=participant_id_from_survey_platform.)

Descriptions in Burgoyne et al. are slightly different from the implementation in the program available on the Engle Lab website, VL decided to stick to Burgoyne et al. description because it gave participants feedback at the end and provided reason for why the correct response was correct

For each task, a 30-second practice block is given, followed by a 90-second main block. For the Stroop squared: Participants have to determine the color of the prompt and click on the word whose meaning corresponds to the prompt's color. For the Flanker squared: Participants are given a choice of two arrow sets and they have to click the arrow set whose center arrow points in the same direction as the flanking arrows in the prompt. For the Simon squared: Participants are shown an arrow prompt at the left or right of the screen, and they have to click on the word that indicates the direction that the arrow prompt is pointing (not its location).

Output

After each task (Stroop, Flanker, Simon), a .csv file is saved to OSF

All .csv files contain the following variables:

Variable	Type	Description
rt	numeric	response time for each trial
stimulus	string	html-formatted stimulus that is drawn on participant's screen
response	numeric	indicator for which of the two buttons/choices the participant clicked on; 0: left-hand choice, 1: right-hand choice
trial_type	string	jsPsych plugin shown on the screen
trial_index	numeric	cumulative count of each plugin change shown to the participant
time_elapsed	numeric	system-recorded timestamp at the trial
internal_node_id	string	jsPsych-specific marker of the location of the current trial in the experiment sequence
pid	string	unique identifier for participant, collected at start-up
task	string	one of the three squared tasks; stroop, flanker, simon
block_trial_count	numeric	cumulative trial count within the practice and main blocks; refer to this variable for what counts as a "trial" in the task; 0: the task timed out at that trial
practice	numeric	indicator for whether the trial was seen in the practice block; 0: main block, 1: practice block
item	numeric	identifier for the type of trial shown to the participant
stim	string	the string prompt shown to the participant
resp1	string	the string choice presented in the left-hand button
resp2	string	the string choice presented in the right-hand button
correct_response	numeric	indicator of whether the left-hand or right-hand button is the correct-response for the trial; 0: left-hand choice, 1: right-hand choice
condition	numeric	indicator of the type/condition of the trial; 1: FullyCongruent, 2: StimCongruentRespIncongruent, 3: StimIncongruentRespCongruent, 4: FullyIncongruent (see Squared Attention Control Task Trial Types.xls from Burgoyne et al.)
accuracy	numeric	indicator for whether the participant made the correct response for the trial; 0: incorrect, 1: correct
timeout	numeric	indicator for whether the block timed out for that trial, if so, accuracy for that trial is not counted towards final score; 0: block is ongoing, 1: time for block ended during this trial
score_after_trial	numeric	cumulative score of participant. Following Burgoyne et al., participants get a point for each correct response and lose a point for each incorrect response. The participant's final score for the task is the score_after_trial value on the very last row

The following variables are included in the output of the Squared tasks from the Engle Lab website and are thus also included in all the .csv files:

Variable	Type	Description
score_final	numeric	final score of the participant at the end of the main block
meanrt_final	numeric	mean RT of all the trials in the main block
score_x	numeric	score of the participant for condition x calculated as correct $-$ incorrect for trials in condition x, where x is: one of the following: 1: FullyCongruent; 2: StimCongruentRespIncongruent; 3: StimIncongruent; 4: FullyIncongruent
meanrt_x	numeric	mean RT of all trials for condition x (regardless of accuracy)

Task-specific variables

Stroop

Variable	Type	Description
stimcolor	string	the color that the prompt string is shown in; blue, red
resp1color	string	the color that the string in the left-hand button is shown in; blue, red
resp2color	string	the color that the string in the right-hand button is shown in; blue, red

Flanker

Variable	Type	Description
stimsign	string	the symbol/text version of the arrow set image shown as the prompt; e.g., <<<<<
resp1sign	string	the symbol/text version of the arrow set image in the left-hand button; e.g., <<<<<
resp2sign	string	the symbol/text version of the arrow set image in the right-hand button; e.g., <<<<<

Simon

Variable	Type	Description
location	string	the location on the screen where the arrow is shown; left, right

FAQs

1. The task is still accepting responses even if the time has run out. Why is that happening? Is that a problem?

   This is due to the how the endCurrentTimeline() function in jsPsych works: when the current timeline is ended, the program also waits for the current trial to end before moving on to the next timeline. So hypothetically, a new trial can appear at 29.9 sec of the 30-sec practice block (i.e., just as the block is supposed to time out), and the program would wait for a response before moving on the next part of the program, making the practice block technically last for more than 30 sec. Apparently, in jsPsych v7.3.1, that's just how it is (or we haven't gotten a solution).

   To work around this glitch, we had implemented for the timeout variable to be updated from 0 to 1 when the time limit is hit, so that even when a response is technically accepted after the time limit, the associated timeout value for that "last" trial is 1 and these trials can filtered out before any analysis. Moreover, these timeout trials have been marked with a block_trial_count of 0 to further distinguish them from valid trials. Note that the final value of the score_after_trial variable is based on the final valid trial---it is not changed at the timeout trial, so you can take the final value as the participant's actual score for the task. All of the score_x and meanrt_x variables are also only based on the valid trials.

   Long story short, this shouldn't be a problem.

2. The output has blank rows every after response. What are those blank rows for?

   The online implementations of the task record every single event that happens to the screen or internally. Those blank rows represent when feedback is shown to the participant (correct or incorrect) and thus no response is collected, leaving many of the variables blank. Those blank rows can be easily filtered out.

Citation

Original article describing the short Stroop, Flanker, and Simon tasks:

@article{burgoyneNatureMeasurementAttention2023,
  title = {Nature and Measurement of Attention Control.},
  author = {Burgoyne, Alexander P. and Tsukahara, Jason S. and Mashburn, Cody A. and Pak, Richard and Engle, Randall W.},
  date = {2023-08},
  journaltitle = {Journal of Experimental Psychology: General},
  shortjournal = {Journal of Experimental Psychology: General},
  volume = {152},
  number = {8},
  pages = {2369--2402},
  issn = {1939-2222, 0096-3445},
  doi = {10.1037/xge0001408},
  url = {http://doi.apa.org/getdoi.cfm?doi=10.1037/xge0001408}
}

Original JavaScript implementation:

@misc{liceralde23squared,
  author = {Van Rynald T. Liceralde and Alexander P. Burgoyne},
  year = {2023},
  title = {Squared tasks of attention control for {jsPsych}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8313315}}
}

This fork:

Just link to the GitHub repo (https://github.com/digital-wellbeing/standard-stingray).