The matrix span task simply presents participants with grid locations to remember in sequence. The grid used is a 4x4 grid. After receiving all the grids that they must remember participants are notified it is the recall phase and they must click the grids in the order they recall seeing them.
Task Details
Screenshots
Presentation Phase
Recall Phase
The XML
You can download the default XML here. In this section I will point out the customisation options at your disposal by modifying values in the XML.
Under task settings there is a section of code where we tell the application where to find the executable that handles the digit span task. The property name/value keys here are where we can set task-specific properties.
Number of trials
You can select how many trials of each span size you want. The properties to edit here are:
- 'spanTwoTrials'
- 'spanThreeTrials'
- 'spanFourTrials'
- 'spanFiveTrials'
- 'spanSixTrials'
- 'spanSevenTrials'
- 'spanEightTrials'
- 'spanNineTrials'
Sequential/Randomised trial order
This property decides if the trials are administered in sequential order or not with regards to the list lengths. If sequential then all list length 2 trials are given, followed by all list length 3 trials, and so forth. However, it is often the case that a researcher may wish to administer these trials in a random order so that the participant is not aware on any given trial how many digits they will have to store/recall. The property to edit is:
- 'randomisedTrials'
It is possible to select how many grids you would like in the matrix. The property responsible is:
- gridDimension
In addition there is an option to control the actual size (on screen) of the matrix.
- ScalingFactor
Data Analysis
After running the matrix span processing script (download from here) you will get a data frame with the following variables. Information on running the script and obtaining the processed data is here
Variable Name | Description |
---|---|
fta.score | This is the score the participant achieved when the full-trial accuracy scoring method is used. |
prop.score | The score obtained by the participant when the proportion correct method of scoring is used. |
number.successes | The score obtained by the participant when the number of correctly recalled elements method of scoring is used. |
max.span | Maximum list length at which the participant successfully recalled all the elements in the trial. |
span.2.corr | Number of trials successfully answered (all grids recalled) at list length 2 - "NA" value if there were no trials at this list length administered |
span.3.corr | Number of trials successfully answered (all grids recalled) at list length 3 - "NA" value if there were no trials at this list length administered |
span.4.corr | Number of trials successfully answered (all grids recalled) at list length 4 - "NA" value if there were no trials at this list length administered |
span.5.corr | Number of trials successfully answered (all grids recalled) at list length 5 - "NA" value if there were no trials at this list length administered |
span.6.corr | Number of trials successfully answered (all grids recalled) at list length 6 - "NA" value if there were no trials at this list length administered |
span.7.corr | Number of trials successfully answered (all grids recalled) at list length 7 - "NA" value if there were no trials at this list length administered |
span.8. corr | Number of trials successfully answered (all grids recalled) at list length 8 - "NA" value if there were no trials at this list length administered |
span.9.corr | Number of trials successfully answered (all grids recalled) at list length 9 - "NA" value if there were no trials at this list length administered |
user | The value of the username of the account which produced the data |