Posner cueing task - Free online template and explainer guide

The Posner cueing task is designed to measure the time it takes to re-orient attention from one side of the visual field to the other, when a ... Skiptocontent Home»PosnerCueingTask–Freeonlinetemplateandexplainerguide Attheendofthisguideyouwillbeableto… RunaPosnercueingtaskinTestablestartingfromourready-madetemplateCustomisekeyparameterstoadaptthistasktoyourneedsCollectdataandinterprettheresults IfyouneverworkedwithTestablebefore,youcancheckoutour3-minuteintroductionhere UsethePosnercueingtasktemplate Trythedemo WhatisthePosnercueingtaskand howcanyouuseitinyourownresearch Wehavebecomeusedtotalkaboutattentionintermsoftheforcesthatactonit.WemaysaythatthesoundorsightofaTwitternotification‘pulled’ourattentionawayfromourwork.Orwemightbe‘glued’toacaptivatingstoryinabook. Almostasifsubjecttophysicalforces,ourattentionseemstohavea‘ballistic’quality,asMartinPosner(1980)himselfexpressedit.Eventhoughorientingourattentionoftencoincideswiththegazeofoureyes,itintuitivelyseemsthatwecanfocusitindependentlyandmoveitaroundourvisualfield,evenifoureyesremainstill.Thisiswhatwemeanwhenwesayweareglancing‘fromthecornerofoureyes’. TheaimofthePosnercueingtaskistodemonstrateandmeasurethemovementofattentionacrossthevisualfieldwithoutmovingtheeyes.ThisparticulardemoofthePosnercueingtasksisanexampleofanexogenouscueingparadigm.Itallowsyoutomeasurethepullofattentionduetoexternal,visualstimuli(aflashingcue).Inthisguide,youwillalsolearnhowtoadaptthetemplatetocreateanendogenousversiontomeasureattentionalmovementcausedbymental(endogenous)cues. ThePosnercueingtaskanditsvariationshavebecomeastapletoolinunderstandingthespatialattentionofhealthyindividuals.Italsohelpspinpointingspecificattentionaldeficitsinindividualswithneuraldamage. ThePosnercueingtaskmeasureshowattentioncanmoveacrossourvisualfieldevenwhenoureyesremainfixated. HowdoesthePosnercueingtaskwork? Inthistaskparticipantsneedtoindicatewhichsideatargetappearsonbypressingthecorrespondingarrowkeyasquicklyaspossible.Beforethetargetappears,oneorbothofthesquareslightup,thereby‘cueing’oneorbothlocations.Participantsaretoldtoignorethiscue.Thistaskmeasuresthedegreetowhichparticipantsgetdistractedbythecueanyway.Thiscanbebeneficialwhenthecueispredictive,andharmfulwhenitisnot. ScreenshotfromthePosnercueingtaskimplementedinTestable Atthebeginningofeachtrial,thetwoemptyboxeswithacentralfixationcrossareshownforatimevaryingbetween500-1000ms.Thenthecueflashesupfor100ms.Thetargetisthenimmediatelyshowninoneofthelocationsforatimebetween100and500ms.Thetimingvariationshelptoavoidanticipatedresponsesandforcesparticipantstopaymoreattentionthroughouttheexperiment. Inourdemotask,participantsgettopracticethetaskfirstbeforedoingthe120experimentaltrials.Inpracticetrialstheyreceivefeedbackaftertheircorrectandincorrectresponses. Duringtheexperiment,therearethreepossiblescenarios. Thetargetappearsinthesamesquarethatjustlitup(validcuecondition).Thetargetappearsintheoppositesquarefromtheonethatjustlitup(invalidcuecondition)Bothsquareslightup,andthetargetappearsinoneofthesquares(neutralcondition) ThecorepredictionwemakeforperformanceinthePosnercueingtaskisthatthecuewilldrawparticipants’attention,evenwheninstructedtoignoreit.Thatmeansthatweexpectfasterandmoreaccurateresponsesforvalidlycuedtrials.Herethebrainisgivenaheadstarttopreparearesponseforthatside.Conversely,responsesshouldbeslowerforinvalidlycuedtrials.Herethebrainneedstofirstsuppresstheincorrectlypreparedresponsebeforeinitiatingaresponsefortheoppositeside.Neutrallycuedtrialsshouldbeunbiased,soreactiontimesshouldfallinbetween. WhatkeybehavioursdoesthePosnercueingtaskmeasure ThePosnercueingtaskisdesignedtomeasurethetimeittakestore-orientattentionfromonesideofthevisualfieldtotheother,whenamisleadingcuewasgiven.Italsomeasureshowmuchtimeissavedifattentionwasalreadydrawntothesideofthescreenwherethetargetwillbeshown.Thisallowstoseparatelymeasurethefollowingmentalprocesses: Orientingattention(RTofvalidtrials–RTofneutraltrials).Howlongdoesittaketomovetheattentionalfocusfromaneutral,toatask-relevantpoint?Disengagingattention(RTofinvalidtrials–RTofneutraltrials)–Howlongdoesittaketodisengageattentionfromanirrelevantlocation,beforebeingabletomovetoarelevantone?Movingattentionacrossthevisualfield(RTofinvalidtrials–RTofvalidtrials)–Howlongdoesittakeforthefocusofattentiontomovetotherelevantsideofthevisualfield RunthisexperimentinTestablefromourreadymadetemplate WehavecreatedatemplateforthePosnercueingtaskinTestableforyouthatyoucanaccessfromourLibrary.Itisset-upandreadytogoandyoucanstartcollectingdatastraightawaybysendingtheexperimentlinktoyourparticipant.ExperimentsinTestablewillrunineverybrowser,whichmakesitveryeasytocollectdatabothinthelabaswellasonline. Howtocustomisekeyparametersandplayaroundwithdifferentoptions ExperimentsinTestablearefullycustomisableandyouwillnotneedtowriteasinglelineofcodetoeditthem.Theheartofeachexperimentiswhatwecallthetrialfile.ThetrialfilecontainsallinformationthatTestableneedstoruntheexperimentinasimplespreadsheet,thatyoucaneditwithanyspreadsheeteditoryoulike,suchasGoogleSheets,ExcelorTestable’sin-builtprevieweditor. Tochangeanypartofyourexperiment,youonlyneedtochangethevaluesinthetrialfile. HereareafewexamplesofchangesyoumightwanttomaketothePosnercueingtask: Createan‘endogenous’versionofthePosnercueingtask OurdemoexperimentistheexogenousversionofthePosnercueingtask.Thatmeansthatthecuedirectsattentionphysicallyto(orawayfrom)thespacewherethetargetwillappear.Anotherwayofusingthisparadigmisbyusinganarrowthatflashesjustabovethecentralfixationcross(seebelow).Thistypeofcuedoesn’tdirectlycapturevisualattention,butinsteadsuggestsapositiontotheviewer.Thatmeansthattheimpulsetoshiftonesvisualattentiontoeithersideistriggeredbyaninternal(endogenous)mechanism. ToaccomplishthisinTestableyouneedto: Generateanewsetofcueingstimuli,withanarrowthatpointseitherleftorrightabovethecentralcrossUploadthenewstimulitotheprojects’stimulilibraryChangethefilenamesinthestim2columninthetrialfile.Asthecueisshowninsecondplaceduringthetrial(aftertheneutralfixationimage,storedincolumnstim1),itisstoredincolumnstim2 Allremainingparameters,likerandomisation,timingsandresponsesremainthesame. Collectdatabysendingtheexperimentlinktoyourparticipants Afterimportingthistemplatetoyourlibrary,youcancollectdataforyourexperimentbysharingtheuniqueexperimentlink(i.e.tstbl.co/xxx-xxx)withyourparticipants.Onceparticipantscompletetheexperiment,theirresultswillappearinthe‘Results’sectionofyourexperiment. WorkingwithresultsfromthePosnercueingtask ResultfilesfromthePosnercueingtaskcontainallinformationfromyourtrialfileandadditionalcolumnswithparticipants’responses.ThecolumnfromtheresultsthatwillbemostusefulforyouranalysisistheRT(responsetime)columnandalsothecorrect(accuracy)column. Inthetrialfilewehavealsodefinedonecustomcolumnscalledcondition1.Wehaveusedittomarkthetrialseithertohaveavalidcue(cueonthesamesideastarget),invalidcue(cueontheoppositesideastarget)orneutral(cuesonbothsides).Thesecolumnsdonotaffecttheexperimentinanyway,buthelpuswithdataanalysisaswecannoweasilygroupourresultsbytheirexperimentalcondition. Therearedifferentwaystolookatthecombinationofaccuracyandresponsetimebetweenthetworelevantconditions.Thesimplestistoonlyincludethedatafromcorrecttrials: Usingthecorrectcolumn,filteroutallincorrecttrials(markedwith0)Usingthecondition1column,grouptheresultsfromthevalidcue,invalidcue(counterbalancedleftandright)andneutraltrialsComputetheaverageresponsetimeforeachconditionstoredintheRTcolumn Screenshotofanexampleresultfile Reactiontimesshouldbefastestforvalidlycuedtrials.Attentionhasalreadybeenorientedtothecorrecttargetlocationandthetargetcanbedetectedquickly.Intheneutralcondition,attentionfirstneedstobeorientedtothetargetlocation,afterwhichthetargetcanbedetectedandrespondedto.Finally,invalidlycuetrialsshouldhavetheslowestreactiontimes(andworstaccuracy)asattentionfirstneedstobedisengagedfromtheinappropriatelocation,thendeployedtowardsthecorrecttargetlocationbeforedetectionandresponsetothetargetcanoccur. Toallowparticipantstoseetheirresultsinstantly,youcouldalsotryTestable’svisualisationfeature.Youcanfinditinthe‘Visuals’tabofyourprojectsetup.Itallowsyoutoplotorcreateatableforakeyvariable(inthiscaseRT_correct,whichistheresponsetimeforcorrecttrials)thatwillbeautomaticallygroupedbythecondition1labels. Onceyouhavecollecteddatafrommultipleparticipants,youcanalsouseTestable’s‘wideformat’feature,thatallowsyoutoautomaticallycollateallindividualresultfilesintoasinglefile.Inwideformatresultseveryparticipant’sdataisrepresentedasonerowinthedata.ThismakesiteasilycompatiblewithstatisticalanalysispackageslikeRorSPSSwhereyoucanassessthestatisticalsignificanceofanydifferencesyoumayfind. UsethePosnercueingtasktemplate Trythedemo Referencelist: Posner,M.I.(1980).Orientingofattention.Quarterlyjournalofexperimentalpsychology,32(1),3-25. Posner,M.I.(2016).OrientingofAttention:ThenandNow.QuarterlyJournalofExperimentalPsychology,69(10),1864–1875.doi:10.1080/17470218.2014.937446 RecentExperiments ImplicitAssociationTask(IAT)–Adaptabletemplateandguide Old-newrecognitiontest–Freetemplateandguide Visuallexicaldecisiontask–Templateandin-depthguide PosnerCueingTask–Freeonlinetemplateandexplainerguide Visualsearchtask–Theory,implementation&analysis,readytogoforyourownproject