The High level construal task presents text stimuli to frame the participant's thoughts in the present or the future, then presents a scenario around smoking. This task is used in the Rethink Smoking study.
- Conditions: present or future.
- Block structure: Introduction text (20s). Then cue text (1s) and action text that requires a rating response (5s), repeated 3 times. Followed by cue text (1s), then a scenario (30s) that is displayed in text and audio, followed by a rating response of future quitting intention. 74s per block.
- Duration: 4 blocks = 296s total.
Do NOT use the builder version. The up-to-date code is in construal_level_task.py. Run using task_runner, or in python:
from construal_level_task import clt
clt(subject, session, run, True)
OUT OF DATE: The task is run using PsychoPy. Fill in the participant identifier, the session number and the run number. Session 0 is a brief practice run, session 1 and 2 with runs 1, 2, 3 or 4 are in-scanner runs. The task will start automatically after that.
The task consists of 8 blocks of present actions and scenarios or future actions and scenarios, randomized.
First, introduction text is displayed for 20s. The introduction text is
Then in each block, a cue is presented for 1s. In the present condition, the cue is
Please imagine the next events occurring RIGHT NOW
In the future condition, the cue is
Please imagine the next events occurring FIVE YEARS FROM NOW
Then an action text phrase is displayed, with an attention check question for 5s.
In the present condition, the question is
How often do you currently engage in this action?
In the future condition, the question is
How likely would you engage in this action five years from now?
A rating scale is also displayed (5s), with five possible responses on the scale
not at all often - somewhat often - moderately often - very often - extremely often
The participant uses the 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 buttons on the keyboard to respond. The cue, action, attention check question and rating are repeated 3 times.
Then a cue is displayed (1s). Then a scenario text is displayed (30s) while a recording of a reading of the text of the scenario is played. Then a rating scale is displayed (5s), with five possible responses on the scale
encourage a great deal - encourage a little - neither encourage nor discourage - discourage a little - discourage a great deal
This task is configured using several comma-separated values (.csv) files.
The first is the choose_conditions.csv. There are 4 entries, 2 indicating the
present condition and 2 indicating the future condition.
The 8 entries correspond to the 4 blocks that will be run.
The conditions are randomly selected without replacement.
The selection of one condition then selects the next file that configures the task,
either the present_scenario_conditions.csv or the future_scenario_conditions.csv files.
Each of these files contains 6 fields, block1, block2, block3 which correspond
to the scenario text broken up into 3 different blocks for presentation, and block1_audio,
block2_audio, and block3_audio which are the names of the audio files of the recording
of each block of text.
The final configuration file is action_conditions.csv.
This file contains the 48 actions, from which 3 will be chosen in each trial,
to display to the participant to help frame their thinking in the present or future condition.
Created using PsychoPy v2020.2.5