CAB Tasks
Tasks include:
ASQ,
ATQ,
BackMask,
BAI,
BDI,
Degraded Stimuli,
Depth of Processing,
Dot Probe Task,
Ever Present Degraded Stimuli Task,
Repgrid,
SelfTest,
Sperling Task,
Sternberg Task,
Stroop Task,
Tally,
Description:
The Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ) is a questionnaire
developed to assess how people perceive everyday situations. As
discussed by Segal and Swallow (1993) "It presents subjects with 12
hypothetical scenarios involving themes of achievement or
affliction. Six of the scenarios have positive outcomes while the
other 6 have negative outcomes. S's are asked to imagine themselves in
each situation and then identify the major cause of the event. Next
S's rate the extent to which they believe: a) the outcome was due
either to themselves or to other people... b) the same cause would be
operative in the future... c) the same cause may influence a variety
of life situations."
A prominent model of cognition in depression (Abramson, Metalsky &
Alloy, 1989) suggests that people who are depressed tend to attribute
negative outcomes as being the result of something they have done,
believe these situations will happen again, and affect many situations
in their life. People who are not depressed are hypothesized to not
show this pattern.
Task Operation:
Before beginning the task, show the subject the directions. When the
task is run the subject is asked the cause of a situation. Type
the cause for the subject. The subject is then asked four questions
regarding that cause which they may answer using the button box. This
process is repeated 12 times.
Data File Data
The data file suffix is .ASQ. For each question, the data file
contains a line with the question number and then four lines
representing their answers to questions about that cause. Each line
has the form: question-number choice
Literature Reference
Peterson, C., Semmel, A., von Baeyer, C., Abramson, L., Metalsky, G.,
& Seligman, M. (1982). The attributional style
questionnaire. Cognitive therapy and research, 6, 287-299.
Description
The Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ) measures the frequency with
which 60 negative ``automatic'' thoughts have entered a person's head
in the past week. Answers range from 1 (not at all) to 5 (all the
time). Typically people who are depressed experience more frequent
automatic thoughts than people who are not depressed. Various
theorists have proposed that these thoughts may help to maintain
depression, and even make it worse.
Task Operation:
First, show the subject the directions. When the task is run, the
subject uses the button box to answer 60 consecutive questions
presented on the screen one at a time. Press the backspace key when
the subject asks you to.
Data File Data
Data is stored in an ascii file with the suffix ``.ATQ''
Each line of the data file contains the following columns:
question-number choice
Literature Reference
Hollon, S. & Kendall,
P. (1980). Cognitive self statements in depression: Development of an
automatic thoughts questionnaire. Cognitive therapy and research,
4, 383-396.
Description:
Backmask implements the visual backwards masking paradigm. The
program reads a list of adjectives and then displays them one at a
time on the screen for a short period. After each stimulus is removed
from the screen there is a brief interstimulus interval where the
screen is blank. Then, a mask of XXXXXX's is placed in the space the
adjective occupied. The subjects' task is to name the word that has
been displayed. The mask has the effect (given the appropriate time
settings) of disrupting the iconic visual representation of the
stimulus in immediate memory. Thus, the task tests how fast a subject
can process information contained in their immediate memory store.
There are two versions of the backmask program on the main menu.
BACKMASKN uses all neutral words. BACKMASKD uses all negative words.
Our hypothesis is that depressed subjects will be better able to identify
the negative words compared with non-depressed controls.
Task Operation:
When the Backmask task is run, the subject will see a word
flash on the screen followed by the screen blanking and a beep.
The subject is instructed to name the word that was presented on
the screen. If the subject gets the word right, the
experimenter should press the "Y" button, else press the "N"
button. This will be followed by more beeps (one short if "Y"
is pressed and two short if "N" is pressed) to let the
experimenter know that their input has been received correctly.
When the subject misses identification of the word, the program
automatically 'steps' the interstimulus interval by 5 ms so that
on the next trial the time between the word offset and the mask
onset will be 5 ms longer. This is a very small amount of time
so don't be upset if you as the user can't see any difference.
The task terminates when the subject gets four words correct in
a row, or when the program runs out of words. The task may be
terminated during operation by pressing "Q" after each trial.
Data File Data
Data file suffixes are .BMB for negative words and .BMN for neutral
words. The first line of the data file is of the form
id stimulus-duration random-code
Each subsequent line of the data file contains the following columns:
trial-number ISI word whether-they-got-it-right
Literature Reference
The backward masking task is quite old and there are a history of
articles published on it beginning in around 1967, e.g.,
Liss, P. (1968) Does backward masking by visual noise stop stimulus
processing? Perception & Psychophysics, 4(6), 328-330.
Dennis Saccuzzo at SDSU and David Braff at UCSD are responsible for
much of its use with people with various disorders. Saccuzzo has
written many summaries of his work including:
Saccuzzo, D. (1993) Measuring individual differences in cognition in
schizophrenia and other disordered states: Backward masking paradigm.
In D. Detterman (Ed.), Individual differences and cognition.
Current topics in human intelligence, Vol. 3.Journal of Abnormal Psychology 102, 74-81.
Description
The Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) is a series of 21 items which
give a rough index to the severity of symptoms of anxiety which a person has
experienced over the past week. Each item consists of four ratings
which are progressively more severe. Items are numbered 0-3, where 0
is the least severe and 3 is the most severe.
Task Operation:
First, show the subject the directions. When the task is run, the
subject uses the button box to answer the 21 consecutive items
presented on the screen one at a time. Press the backspace key when
the subject asks you to.
Data File Data
Data is stored in an ascii file with the suffix ``.BAI'' Each line of
the data file contains the following columns:
question-number choice
Literature Reference
Steer, R. A., Ranieri, W. F., Beck, A. T., Clark, D, A. (1993)
Further evidence for the validity of the Beck Anxiety Inventory with
psychiatric outpatients. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 7,(3),
195-205.
Description
The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) is a series of 21 items which
give a rough index to the severity of negative mood which a person has
experienced over the past week. Each item consists of four statements
which are progressively more negative. Items are numbered 0-3, where 0
is the least negative and 3 is the most negative.
Task Operation:
First, show the subject the directions. When the task is run, the
subject uses the button box to answer the 21 consecutive items
presented on the screen one at a time. Press the backspace key when
the subject asks you to.
Data File Data
Data is stored in an ascii file with the suffix ``.BDI'' Each line of
the data file contains the following columns:
question-number choice
Literature Reference
Beck, A., Ward, C., Mendelson, M., Mock, J., & Earbaugh,
K., (1961) An inventory for measuring depression. Archives of
General Psychiatry, 4:561-571.
Description
Strings of letters are presented for a very short period covered up by
varying numbers of dots. It is then replaced by a mask. A lexical
decision task is performed in which subjects are asked to judge
whether the letter string is a word. The theory is that depressived
people will be able to recognize depressed words faster than
nondepressed people, and be more robust to degredation on those words
but not on other words.
Task Operation:
When the task is run a series of XXX's appear on the screen which are
momentarily replaced by the degraded word which is again replaced by
the XXX's. At this point the user is asked ``Is it a word'' to which
the response is one of two marked buttons on the button box.
Approximately 1 second later another word appears.
s
Data File Data
The Degraded Stimuli task writes data files using the
subject's ID as a first name and the Suffix ".DEG" as a last name.
Each line of the data file contains the following columns:
letter-string number-of-dots response(1-or-2) rt
Literature Reference
The degraded stimuli task has become increasingly popular in the
literature lately. Two references include:
Los, Sander A. (1994) Procedural differences in processing intact and
degraded stimuli. Memory & Cognition 22(2), 145-156.
Vokey, J., Baker, J., Hayman, G., Jacoby, L. (1986) Perceptual
identification of visually degraded stimuli. Behavior Research
Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 18, 1-9.
Description:
The DOP task implements the Depth of Processing task, wherein
a list of adjectives are presented to the subject one at a time.
Confronted with each adjective, the subject is asked to rate how like
or unlike him or herself the word is on a scale of 1 through 7. The
program allows the subject to choose a rating and then prompts them to
confirm its accuracy before going on to the next word. Later in the
battery, long after this task is done, the subject is asked to recall
the words from this task. The general idea is that subjects will
remember words more easily that they have rated as describing
themselves. People who are depressed are hypothesized to remember more
of the negative words.
Task Operation:
When the DOP task is run, the subject will see a word on the
screen which, after several seconds will be accompanied by a
rating scale and instructions to rate the word using the scale.
The subject make their selection, confirming it by pressing the
enter key on their keyboard (the enter key on the laptop will
work as well). The subject will be next asked to press enter to
begin the next trial. Pressing "Q" at this time will terminate
the task and return to the main menu. The task terminates
naturally when the subject rates all the words in the
initialization file.
After the program is done, perform the incidental recall task. This
involves saying to the subject ``Now write down all of the words from the
experiment you can remember.'' and ALLOWING THE SUBJECT TO WRITE down all the
words they remember on a blank piece of paper.
Data File Data
DOP writes data files using the subject's ID as a first name
and the Suffix ".DOP" as a last name.
Each line of the data file contains the following columns:
word rating reaction-time
Literature Reference
The original non-affective version of the task and its motivation are discussed in:
Craik, F. I. & Lockhart, R. S. (1972). Levels of
processing : A framework for memory research. Journal of Verbal
Learning and Verbal Behavior, 11, 671-684.
Craik, F. I. & Tulving, E. (1975). Depth of processing
and the retention of words in episodic memory. Journal of
Experimental Psychology: General, 104, 268-294.
Description:
The Dot Probe task is a test of engagement and disengagement
of attention. In the task, the subjects are presented with pairs of
words on the screen, one pair at a time. Both words of the pair are
centered on the screen, with one higher on the screen than the other.
The subjects are instructed to read the top word out loud. After
several seconds, the words will disappear. Most of the time this ends
the trial. However, sometimes one of the words (either top or bottom)
is replaced by a small "+" character which remains on the screen until
the subject presses a key. The idea is that the subjects attention is
directed towards the upper word by the instructions. We therefore
expect that the subjects should show short reaction times to press a
key when the "+" is where the upper word was and longer reaction times
to press a key when the "+" replaces the lower word. The Dot probe
task is thus testing to see if the choice of words (e.g., negative
v. positive) will affect subjects attention to the upper word, causing
them to take longer or shorter to press a key when the "+" is
presented.
Task Operation:
When the dot probe task is run, the subject will see the "\#"
character flash on the screen, indicating where subjects should
pay attention. Then, a pair of words appears on the screen, one
above the other with the upper word replacing the "\#" character.
The subject quickly names the upper word. If one of the words
is replaced by the "+", the subject presses a key as soon as
they can. Otherwise, they have been instructed to refrain from
key pressing. Once the task is underway, it continues until all
of 20 word pairs have been shown. The computer keeps track of
keypresses and keypress errors and saves this all to a file.
Data File Data
Dot probe writes data files using the subject's ID as a first
name and the Suffix ".DOT" as a last name.
Each line of the data file contains the following columns:
left-word right-word probe-position threat-position reaction-time error?
Literature Reference
The original dotprobe task with threat and non-threat words is discussed in:
MacLeod, C., Matthews, A., & Tata, P. (1986) Attentional
bias in emotional disorders, Journal of Abnormal Psychology,
95:15-20.
Description:
The Ever Present Degraded Stimuli Task is exactly the same as the
Degraded Stimuli task, except that words which are displayed stay on
screen until the user responds instead of being covered by a mask.
Task Operation:
When the task is run a series of XXX's appear on the screen which are
momentarily replaced by the degraded word.
At this point the user is asked ``Is it a word?'' to which
the response is one of two marked buttons on the button box.
Approximately 1 second later another word appears.
The degraded stimuli task follows the general command line options
without change.
Data File Data
The Ever Present Degraded Stimuli task writes data files using the
subject's ID as a first name and the Suffix ".DEE" as a last name.
Each line of the data file contains the following tab-delimited columns:
letter-string number-of-dots response(1-or-2) rt
Literature Reference
see Degraded Stimulus Task
Description
The reparatory grid task gives an indication of how the subject views
him or herself with respect to other people. First the subject is
asked to identify people fulfilling certain roles in the subject's
life (e.g., someone you like). Next, the people whom the subject has
named along with the subject and ``people in general'' are presented
in groups of three with the question ``which two of these people are
most alike?''. After naming these people, the subject is asked what
way they are most alike and what the opposite of this trait is. For
each trait they mention, the subject is then asked to rate how well it
applies to each of the people they named. The results of these last
questions are used to form a profile of what traits the subject has
with respect to his or her peers. The reparatory grid task allows us
to investigate whether the relationships of people who are depressed
are different from those of people who are not depressed. For example,
people who are depressed may provide more negative traits, and may
identify themselves more closely with the people sharing negative traits.
Task Operation:
When the task is run, the
questions are presented one at a time, as described above. The
experimenter should type in each of the subjects' answers requiring a
word or the name of a relative. If a question asks about a relative or
relation whom the subject does not have, ask for someoone who fills
that role for the subject, e.g. ``who is someone who is like a brother
to you?''
When the questions begin regarding how well each of the traits pertain
to each of the people the subject has named, the subject can answer
these using the button box. This task can take quite a while if the
subject's traits do not overlap.
NOTE: When entering traits, do not fill up the whole area! Leave one
character blank at the end, until further notice.
Data File Data
Data is stored in an ascii file with the suffix ``.REP''
The data file is divided into two segments. The first segment
consists of lines of the form:
trait opposite people-who-have-the-trait
The second segment consists of lines of the form
person trait how-much-trait-applies-to-person
Literature Reference
The reparatory grid was developed by a social psychologist named Kelly.
Papers on it may be found in the file cabinet in my office.
Description:
The selftest is a computerized version of Beck's Self -Concept
test. The subject responds to a series of adjectives that could
conceivably describe them by rating them on a scale of 1 to 5.
When subjects are finished doing this, they rate the same
adjectives again for how important the adjective are to them.
Task Operation:
The subject sees each adjective by itself along with a scale
from 1 to 5. The subject rates each adjective using the scale
by pressing the appropriate button on his or her keyboard. By
pressing enter, the subject indicates each rating. If the
subject wants to go back and see how they rated a previous item
the experimenter can press the "B" key which sends the item
backwards each time it is pressed. Pressing enter will advance
the items again to the last one that was filled in. Pressing
"Q" during the questionnaire returns you to the Main Menu.
Special Menus
Selftest follows the general CAB roadmap for the most part.
There is no option to practice the selftest because there
doesn't seem to be any need to practice a questionnaire.
Data File Data
Selftest writes data files using the subject's ID as a first
name and the Suffix ".SEL" as a last name.
Each line of the data file contains the following columns:
question-number response
Literature Reference
The Beck-Self-Concept test was first discussed in:
Beck, A. T., Steer, R. A., Epstein, N., & Brown, G.
(1990). Beck self-concept test. Psychological Assessment, 2,
191-197.
Description:
The Sperling task is a test of Iconic memory storage capacity.
The subject is repeatedly presented with a matrix of 12 words in
three rows of 4 each. These rows are centered on the screen,
one above another. In each trial, such a word matrix is
presented on the screen for a short time. After the image is
erased from the screen a variable amount of time goes by and
then two arrows appear on the sides of where one of the three
word rows had been. The subject's task is to tell the
experimenter words that had appeared in that row only, ignoring
words in other rows. The computer pauses after presenting the
arrow cues until a key is pressed and then goes on to the next
trial. By varying the content of the words in each row, this
program allows the experimenter to test how subjects' attention
is captured or repulsed. For instance, one word row contains
negative words, one positive and one neutral. In each trial,
the ordering of these rows changes randomly. Using the task the
experimenter will be able to see if depressives tend to look for
the depressive negative words and are therefore better able to
recall them when prompted.
Task Operation:
The Sperling task is simple to operate. After pressing the
(R)un task to start the program the computer displays it's
matrices automatically. the experimenters role is to record
what words the subject reports for each trial, and to advance
the trials by pressing a key on their keyboard. Pressing "Q" at
each trial will terminate the program with an option to save the
data present so far.
Data File Data
Sperling writes data files using the subject's ID as a first
name and the Suffix ".SPR" as a last name.
Each line of the data file contains information about the trial including
all the words (with columns nested inside rows) and their isi. The format
is thus:
r1c1 r1c2 r1c3 r1c4 r2c1 r2c2 r2c3 r2c4 r3c1 r3c2 r3c3 r3c4 whichrow isi
Literature Reference
See "Experimental psychology and Information processing" by
Dominic Massaro (1975) Chicago : Rand McNally
Description:
The Sternberg task is also a test of memory storage capacity.
The subject is instructed to focus on a point on the screen where a
list of words appear, one after another, each staying on the screen,
erasing themselves and then being replaced by the next word. This
list is variable in length across trials. After the list is finished
being presented, a new word, (the target) appears. this target word
may or may not have appeared in the word list. the subject is
instructed to press one button if the word did appear in the list and
a different button if the word is new. When the button is pressed,
feedback is given as to the correctness of the decision and then the
next trial word list is presented. The gist is that the longer the
word list, the longer it takes subjects to recall whether the target
word has appeared before. The program records the reaction time for
subjects to make their decision by button pressing. We want to see
whether people who are depressed remember negative words better than
positive words regardless of list length.
Task Operation:
The Sternberg task is simple to operate. After pressing the
(R)un task to start the program the computer displays word lists
automatically. The subject needs to press '1' on their keyboard
if the target matches a word presented in the list, and to press
'2' if the target is unique. Pressing "Q" at each trial will
terminate the program with an option to save the data present so
far. Pressing "P" will pause the program in mid task.
Data File Data
Sternberg writes data files using the subject's ID as a first
name and the Suffix ".STR" as a last name.
Each line of the data file contains the following columns:
word1 word2 word3 word4 word5 word6 word7 word8 word9 word10 test_word decision rt
Literature Reference
See "Experimental psychology and Information processing" by
Dominic Massaro (1975) Chicago : Rand McNally
Description:
The Stroop task is a measure of visual attention. The subject
is presented with a word printed on the screen. The word is printed
in a single solid color. The subject is told to name the color the
word is printed in out loud into a microphone, and as fast as she or
he can, while ignoring other aspects of the task (such as the meaning
of the word). This happens repeatedly so that many trials are
assessed. The premise is that some words create interference and end
up capturing subjects attention, making them take longer to name the
colors. The program records the reaction times between stimulus onset
and the subject's vocal response so that these relationships can be
studied. In general people who are depressed tend to respond slower to
negative words, and people who are anxious tend to respond slower to
threatening words, possibly suggesting they are attending more to the
content of these words.
Task Operation:
The experimenter begins the task calibrating the voice box to
the subjects voice. This is done by entering the practice mode (which
presents color-words but does not save data) and adjusting the
sensitivity knob on the voice box until the voice sets off the box but
normal ambient noise does not. Use the practice mode of the program
for repeated, non-saved chances to do this.
After pressing (R)un task to start, the subject sees colored words and
names the colors out loud while trying to ignore the words' meaning.
When the subject has spoken, the screen becomes black and the word
'received' appears. The experimenter then must enter on his or her
keyboard either "G" for a good trial, or "R" so that this trial is
recycled and will appear again at a random place in the future. The
experimenter may also press "Q" to quit the task and return to the
main menu. The task continues until good trials have been received
for all words in the initialization file.
Data File Data
Stroop writes data files using the subject's ID as a first name
and the Suffix ".STP" as a last name.
Each line of the data file contains the following columns:
word color whether_they_got_it_right reaction-time
Literature Reference
The emotional Stroop task is discussed throughout the literature.
The first big article is:
Gotlib, I. H., & McCann, C. D., (1984).
Construct accessibility and depression: An examination of cognitive
and affective factors. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology 47:427-439.
For a review, see
MacLeod, C., & Mathews, A. M. (1991).
Cognitive-experimental approaches to the emotional disorders. In Paul
R. Martin, (Ed.), Handbook of behavior therapy and psychological
science: An integrative approach. Vol. 164 (pp. 116-150). New York:
Pergamon Press.
Special Hardware:
Stroop is designed to work with both the Button Box and
Microphone Box. Stroop must also run on a color monitor (with VGA
capacity -- both the laptop color monitor and Beulah's will do).
Description:
The subject is given 2 counters to keep track of. Faces (happy, sad,
or neutral) appear alternately above and below two lines on the
screen. When a face appears above a line the subject is to add 1 to
that line's total. When a face appears below a line the subject is to
subtract 1 from that line's total. We predict depressed folks will be
worse than normals for all faces. Depressed folks will be worst with
sad faces.
Task Operation:
When you say Run, faces appear and the subject is given a list of
totals. They are to choose a total from the list using the Button box
as quickly as they can. The white key is their enter key.
Data File Data
Data is stored in an ascii file with the suffix ``.TAL''
Each line of the data file contains the following columns:
trial-number their-answer
Literature Reference
The Tally task is a simpler and affective version of Dennis Saccuzo's
working memory task, developed for naval aptitude testing, and as far
as we know, never published.