Digit span task - PsyToolkit

The digit span task is an absolute classic for anyone interested in short term memory. The basic idea of this task is this:. Digitspantask main|experimentlibrary|copyright Introduction Aboutthisimplementation Runthedemo Dataoutputfile Download Furtherreading Introduction Thedigitspantaskisanabsoluteclassicforanyoneinterestedin shorttermmemory.Thebasicideaofthistaskisthis: Apersonispresentedwithasequenceoftwodigits Thepersonneedstorepeatthesequence Ifthepersoncanrepeatthesequence,thealongersequenceispresented Thisgoesonuntilthepersoncannotlongerrepeatthesequence Thelongestrememberedsequenceistheperson’sdigitspan Itisoftensaidthattheaveragepersoncanrememberseven digits.ThisgoesbacktotheworkofGeorgeA.Miller, as youcanreadhereonWikipedia. Therearevariationsonthistask.Inthecurrentimplementation,the sequencelengthisonlyincreasedaftertheparticipanthasremembered thesamelengthatleasttwotimes.Thismakesthedigitspanmeasure morereliable. Muchhasbeenwrittenaboutthedigitspantask.Itisdiscussedwhat itexactlymeasures(Jones&Macken,2015). Aboutthisimplementation ThedigitspantaskshowssomereallynicePsyToolkitfeatures.It usesarrayfunctions,itworkswiththemouseonly,andso on.Comparedtomostotherexperiments,thecodelookssomewhatmore complex.Thisismostlybecauseofthewaytheparticipantsenterthe rememberedsequence.Evenso,itisfairlystraightward.Evenifyou donotunderstandthecodecompletely,itshouldbeeasytomodify. Thisdemocanmaximallymeasureof9digits.Thereareintotal tendigitsonscreen,butifapersonknowsninedigits,the10th digitwillalwaysbeknown(becauseitistheonlyremainingdigitto choosefrom). Theteststopswhenpeoplemaketwomistakesinaroworiftheyhave reachedthemaximumofninedigits. Runthedemo Clickheretorunademo Dataoutputfile InPsyToolkit,thedataoutputfileissimplyatextfile.The savelineofthePsyToolkitexperimentscriptdetermineswhatis beingsavedinthedataoutputfile.Typically,foreachexperimental trial,youwouldhaveexactlyonelineinyourtextfile,andeach number/wordonthatlinegivesyoutheinformationyouneedforyour dataanalysis,suchasthecondition,responsespeed,andwhetheran errorwasmade. Thedataoutputisotherthaninmostexperiments.Inthisexperiment, therearemultiplelinespertrial.Thereactiontime,exactlydigit sequencespresentedandenteredaresaved.Ifyouareonlyinterested intheultimatedigitspan,youcanjustlookatthesecondnumberof thelastline. Ifyouembedthisexperimentyourself,makesuretosetonlythe followingtwoparametersintheanalysissectionofyourexperimentas follows: Whichcolumnhasdependentvariable?settovalue2 Onlyincludelastnlinessettovalue1 Makesurenottofillinanyoftheotherparameterboxes.Thisway, thedataanalysiswillonlylookatthelastlineofeachexperiment datafile,whichcontainstheparticipants'bestscore.Thereismuch otherinterestinginformationinthedatafiles.Ifyoureallyone, youcandownloadallthosefilestoyourowncomputerandanalyze furtherwithyourownscript.Butthatisnotnecessarytotakeout thedigitspanresult. Download ThePsyToolkitcodezipfile IfyouhaveaPsyToolkitaccount,youcanuploadthezipfile directlytoyourPsyToolkit account.Watchavideoonhowtodo that.IfyouwanttouploadthezipfileintoyourPsyToolkitaccount, makesurethefileisnotautomaticallyuncompressed(somebrowsers, especiallyMacSafari,bydefaultuncompresszip files).Readherehowtoeasilydealwiththis. Furtherreading Jones,G.andMacken,B.(2015).Questioningshort-termmemoryanditsmeasurement:Whydigitspanmeasureslong-termassociativelearning.Link:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010027715300354 Lastupdated2022-05-0511:38:03+0200